The BEST episodes written by Edward J. Lakso
#1 - Shell Game
The Mod Squad - Season 1 - Episode 16
Investigating a policeman's death, Pete and Linc infiltrate a gang of thieves, only to find it has kidnapped Julie.
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#2 - The Party
Combat! - Season 2 - Episode 15
This episode is strictly for laughs. The squad is left in a French village to wait for a ride to meet up with Saunders and Kirby is placed in charge. Three good looking gals smile at our guys as they pass by. Kirby, Caje, and Billy immediately want to delay their ride so they can woo the gals. Three Explosive Ordinance Disposal sergeants already have dates with the gals, and our guys connive to beat the sergeants out of their dates.
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#3 - Thunder from the Hill
Combat! - Season 2 - Episode 14
Lt. Hanley and the squad are en route to meet a commander of the Free French Army, but require a guide. Massine (Peter Whitney) is a strong-willed, determined man who has a small band of underground fighters. Before Massine will lead Lt. Hanley to Capt. Boulange, he has an agenda of his own to accomplish, and bends Hanley to his will.
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#4 - Rescue
Combat! - Season 2 - Episode 29
This episode is all Lt. Hanley in a tightly constructed plot. Concussed during an artillery barrage and separated from his platoon, Hanley starts to come out of his daze to find he is being taken prisoner by an SS soldier. The surprising plot twists start immediately and keep on coming, so one needs to pay attention.
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#5 - Ambush
Combat! - Season 2 - Episode 12
When the Americans liberate a town, the French shoot a man for collaborating. His daughter, Marie Marchand (Marisa Pavan), is angry at everyone and leaves town. The Americans soon learn her father was actually an undercover allied agent, and Saunders' squad is sent to find her. Saunders needs her help more than he thought, and must overcome her bitterness.
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#6 - No Trumpets, No Drums
Combat! - Season 1 - Episode 32
Caje must deal with killing a Frenchman. He does this by turning his attention to the dead man's daughter, shirking his duty and worrying the squad. Sgt. Saunders must find a way to bring Caje back to reality before losing him. Saunders finds what he needs when the town is attacked by the Germans.
#7 - Barrage
Combat! - Season 2 - Episode 13
Lt. Hanley orders Sgt. Saunders up a hill to locate German artillery that has eluded all attempts to find and destroy it. But the hill is crowned by a dense ring of machine gun nests, and casualties have mounted. They separate and Saunders is wounded in the leg. He crawls until he falls into an abandoned mine, where he has an unusual encounter with Hans Oberst (Alf Kjellin).
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#8 - The Long Way Home (2)
Combat! - Season 2 - Episode 5
Interred in a German P.O.W. camp, Sgt. Saunders and his squad must find a way to escape before they all die in the hands of SS Capt. Steiner. Billy, who escaped, reaches Lt. Hanley, but no help is coming. Saunders plots a scheme to escape. He convinces Sgt. Akers and his men to work with them.
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#9 - Imitation
Mission: Impossible - Season 7 - Episode 22
The Marnsburg Crown Jewels were brought to the U.S. and stolen from the UN Building - Jena Cole, a thief, is believed responsible but have no leads on the location of the jewels. The IMF must recover the jewels before the hostile Marnsburg government makes a case out of it. Jena is to turn the jewels over to the Syndicate, which financed the theft. Barney manage to get close to Jena and she finds he has plans to the Marnsburg Consulate. Meanwhile, the IMF return the "real" jewels, claiming the first ones were fake and confirming it throuigh her diamond fence (a IMF replacement). Jena and Barney team up to get into the consulate and steal the "real" jewels and turns them over to Jim the creditor, so Jena tries to fake him out for substituting her supposedly fake gems for the "real" ones, then sneak out. The Syndicate shows up and figures out which gems are which, and the police take everyone, including Jena, into custody.
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#11 - The Traitor
Mission: Impossible - Season 1 - Episode 27
An American intelligence officer, Hughes, has defected to the enemy with the only copy of an encoded top-secret message. The IMF must get to him, get him out, discredit him, and recover the message before the enemy can get a cryptographer, Belson, to work on the message. Rollin takes Belson's place, and sets it up so that Ambassador Brazneck, in charge of Hughes, believes that Dan is going to buy the papers from someone in the embassy. Rollin-as-Belson works with Hughes to decode the message, then drugs him. Willy gets special agent Tina Mera, a contortionist and acrobat, into the embassy through a fake air duct. She uses a fake bed covering to make Hughes "disappear", then break into the vault and get the real message. With Hughes out, Briggs picks up the fake message from someone pretending to be Hughes, who has "disappeared" from the embassy. Tina returns, plants money on Hughes, and removes the fake disappearing bed cover. Brazneck believes Hughes has betrayed him and Hughes flees
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#12 - The Loose Connection
Barnaby Jones - Season 1 - Episode 6
Barnaby travels to Baja California with Eleanor to find her father. Way back his car is damaged in an accident. Unwittingly he has been used as heroin courier. He calls Eleanor to account and they let themselves in for a dangerous gamble with the dope pushers.
#15 - What Are the Bugles Blowin' For? (1)
Combat! - Season 2 - Episode 25
In the first of a two-episode story, amid an Allied retreat, Saunders and his men must get the retreat order to a British infantry unit behind enemy lines. After they fight through German lines to bring the message, British Captain Johns orders Saunders and his men to help him defend the rail depot. Does Capt. Johns value his reputation over the lives of his men?
#16 - A Run for the Money
The Mod Squad - Season 1 - Episode 21
Pete falls for Ginny, who believes her jailed father is innocent of robbery.
#17 - Let Our Angel Live
Charlie's Angels - Season 5 - Episode 17
While tracking an embezzler, Kelly is badly wounded and taken to the hospital. Bosley and the other Angels keep a vigil for Kelly, and reminisce about her adventures with the group.
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#18 - Counterplay
Combat! - Season 4 - Episode 20
Saunders' squad, with radar expert Sgt. Rawlings, is sent behind enemy lines to find, study, and destroy a German radar installation. A French resistance fighter, Marchand, is along to guide them. But the Germans are controlling the operation every step of the way.
#20 - Bridgehead
Combat! - Season 2 - Episode 2
Hanley orders Saunders and his squad to take a bridge which is guarded by a heavily fortified house. Pvt. Mick Hellar (Nick Adams) is a self-centered, wise-cracking private who only cares about saving his own skin. He reveals that he is a jazz drummer and is soon to be leaving the front to play in an army band entertaining troops and wants to be sure he keeps himself in one piece. The mission demands heavy sacrifices from the squad.
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#21 - The Duel
Combat! - Season 3 - Episode 4
The Germans, caught in an allied pincer movement, launch an all-out assault. Sgt. Saunders, alone, encounters an American supply truck and hitches a ride. While a flat tire proves very difficult to change, Saunders plays cat and mouse with an approaching Panzer and its commander.
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#22 - Run for the Money
Mission: Impossible - Season 6 - Episode 13
Syndicate members Trask and Mason control the Syndicate's illegal racing operations, while Trask ruthlessly dispatches the competition - the IMF must take them out. Trask is jealous of thoroughbred owner Mason so Jim offers him a mysterious but promising racehorse - Trask finds out the horse is a kidnapped fast-racer. The IMF arrange for him to get the horse and then place a number of bets on the horse in Trask's name. After keeping Mason from having the horse killed, Trask's horse wins and the IMF get the $4 million from the Syndicate funds, leaving Trask to hold the bag.
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My Three Sons - Season 2 - Episode 8
Robbie is heading for an “F” in world literature until the teacher assigns a beautiful blonde newcomer as his study partner. He is attracted to her right away but soon discovers that her looks don’t even compensate for her loss of mind.
#24 - A Sudden Terror
Combat! - Season 4 - Episode 29
A failed night mission leaves Hanley wounded in the shoulder, and the rest of his squad dead . . . except for Private Wilder, a nervous young replacement, who is now trapped in quicksand and ready to signal their German pursuers for help. It's up to the lieutenant to free him before Wilder drowns, or panics.
#25 - Cry in the Ruins
Combat! - Season 3 - Episode 27
In a village devastated by both sides' artillery, a desperate woman searches for her missing baby as American and German soldiers watch helplessly from opposite ends of the street.
#27 - The Hunter
Combat! - Season 2 - Episode 24
Saunders and Kirby search an abandoned French winery when they are spotted by two Germans who are using the tower for an observation post. Kirby is badly wounded and captured by Hauptmann Heismann while Saunders is busy dealing with the other German. Heismann, a professional hunter, uses and abuses Kirby, while tracking Saunders with his hunting rifle.
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#28 - Mountain Man
Combat! - Season 3 - Episode 1
Saunders, Caje, and Kirby must scout a route through the Alps for a large troop movement. They hire an embittered French trapper and loner as a guide. They are captured by Germans and left to freeze but manage a daring escape. Caje (Pierre Jalbert, the top Canadian skier of his time), takes the German alpine troops to skiing school in a spectacular downhill run.
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Rawhide - Season 5 - Episode 27
Favor and Hey Soos rescue Domingo, Lt. Carter and the Butlers from a runaway stage. The make to a stage station and fight off indians.
#30 - A Silent Cry
Combat! - Season 2 - Episode 23
Sgt. Saunders must deliver radios to the French underground with the radio expert, Sgt. Perkins. Perkins is arrogant, self-centered, and has never been in combat. With an endearing French family in jeopardy, Saunders and Perkins clash over duty and service to the greater good.
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#31 - The Long Wait
Combat! - Season 3 - Episode 25
A German machine gun pins down Saunders and company along with four badly wounded GIs, a load of munitions, and a truck driver. Saunders must weigh getting the wounded men to medical aid against getting the munitions to the more than 100 men who need them at the front, while being unable to go anywhere until the machine gun emplacement is destroyed.
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The Mod Squad - Season 1 - Episode 26
The trio splits up onto three tour buses to find the killer of a man found at a bus station.
#33 - A Hint of Darkness, A Hint of Light
The Mod Squad - Season 1 - Episode 18
The Squad moves into a blind woman's home, posing as houseguests, to offer protection against a mysterious assailant.
#34 - The Sunday Drivers
The Mod Squad - Season 1 - Episode 13
Linc joins an automobile thrill circus in Las Vegas to investigate the death of a stunt-driver friend.
#36 - The Italian Bird Fiasco
The Rockford Files - Season 2 - Episode 19
Posing as an art dealer, Rockford purchases a rare sculpture of a bird for a client. When he is attacked leaving the auction, he realizes that he's just flown into a flock of trouble.
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#37 - Retribution
Combat! - Season 4 - Episode 19
Kirby embarks on a personal vendetta against an SS Colonel who killed his sister's fiancé.
#38 - The Flying Machine
Combat! - Season 4 - Episode 24
Lt. Hanley flies in a rickety observation plane with a wisecracking pilot. He acquires intelligence which could save hundreds of lives. Returning from their mission, they see a German convoy and fly in for a closer look, but the plane is shot down. The old plane will be tough to repair, but there are no good options.
#40 - Long Walk Down a Short Dirt Road
Starsky & Hutch - Season 2 - Episode 23
The dashing detectives try to catch the deranged stalker who is hounding a successful country singer, and will only stop if she pays him $10,000. At first, the anonymous madman just issues threats via phone, but when he turns to murder, Starsky and Hutch must piece together just who the extortionist is and capture him before anyone else is killed...
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#41 - The Connection
Mission: Impossible - Season 6 - Episode 14
Reese Dolan is the new Syndicate heroin distributor on the East Coast. Dolan uses an island base off the coast of northwest Africa and is going to use it as a distribution point for heroin into the U.S - the IMF must identify his overseas opium source and get the evidence to convict him. Dolan is being financed by an underworld figure, Madame Renada, whom he has never met, so Jim and Barney fly him and his men not to the island but to a lookalike off the coast of Georgia, where Casey assumes the role of Renada. Reese calls his distributor in Istanbul and the IMF has the delivery plane taken into custody. An IMF flyer makes the delivery which Dolan apparently converts to heroin and sends on its way, while Reese's supplier, Hajii, suspects a double-cross when his pilot doesn't return and calls Dolan's distributor, Cleff. Willy tries to sell heroin to Clegg and then is "forced" to tell that Dolan still has it, then lead Clegg to the fake island. Dolan finds out he still has the opium, and
#42 - Eagles
Airwolf - Season 3 - Episode 7
At a National Air Race show, Hawke and Dominic befriend an attractive pilot racer, unaware that she's being pursued by her boss and his henchmen after stealing some tapes that can prove that a new combat jet is too unstable to be flown – something that her boss is determined to cover up at any cost...
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#44 - What Are the Bugles Blowin' For? (2)
Combat! - Season 2 - Episode 26
In the conclusion to a two-episode story, Capt. Johns, a Sandhurst graduate and son of a general, insists on holding the depot against a much larger and better equipped enemy force. Whether his motivation is his reputation or strategy is unclear, but Saunders fears it is suicide. A series of withering attacks and bloody battles test Johns' will.
#46 - The Sniper
Combat! - Season 1 - Episode 28
A never-say-die German stays behind after the German withdrawal to wage his own private war, aided by a beautiful but bitter Frenchwoman who has her own reasons to hate the town that her German lover terrorizes.
#47 - The Long Way Home (1)
Combat! - Season 2 - Episode 4
While returning from patrol, Saunders and his men are captured by a German platoon. They are taken to be interrogated by SS Captain Steiner (Richard Basehart). Sgt. Akers (Simon Oakland) and his men have been prisoners there some time and are broken and resigned to their fate. Against Akers' wishes, Saunders plans to let Billy escape to get information back to Headquarters.
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#48 - The Omaha Tiger
Starsky & Hutch - Season 1 - Episode 18
The dare-devil Detectives become involved in the wild world of professional wrestling when they visit Mac Johnson, a retired colleague, now a promoter in the sport, who has some information for them about a recent suspicious accident in which a man was killed. But when Johnson too turns up dead, again in highly suspicious circumstances, the pair investigate the growing spate of deaths...
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#49 - Claire
The Rockford Files - Season 1 - Episode 18
Jim has some trouble with gangsters and an ill-tempered police captain when he helps his old girlfriend Claire....
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#50 - The Case of the Ill-Fated Faker
Perry Mason - Season 4 - Episode 3
Jim Ferris is having an affair with his uncle's bored young wife. They concoct a scheme to finagle $80,000.00 from the uncle by faking a kidnapping. Things go horribly wrong when secretary Betty Wilkins, acting as a go-between, is charged with the murder of Jim Ferris.