The BEST episodes written by Stephen J. Cannell
#1 - Three Weeks Of the Condor
Silk Stalkings - Season 6 - Episode 19
A cadaver found in a film producer's bed leads Tom and Cassy to investigate a string of suspicious deaths.
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#2 - Runway Strip
Silk Stalkings - Season 6 - Episode 1
Palm Beach homicide detectives Tom Ryan and Cassy St. John suspect that a Navy test pilot death in a plane crash was no accident.
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#3 - Mind Games
The A-Team - Season 4 - Episode 9
Face quits the A-Team after receiving a full government pardon and quickly becomes a celebrity, the rest of the A-Team keeps an eye on him suspecting the pardon's not 100% legit.
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#4 - The House on Willis Avenue (2)
The Rockford Files - Season 4 - Episode 22
Jim and Ritchie continue to investigate their mentor's death and follow leads to a massive computer data storage company who have a plot in a desert canyon.
#5 - Badge Heavy
Adam-12 - Season 5 - Episode 6
Officer Charlie Burnside pulls a prank on Officer Albert Porter, a friend of Reed's, who does not take the joke, and Porter lets Reed know that he feels Burnside is being a little "badge heavy" (rough) on his suspects. After dealing with an inept would-be robber whose car won't start, Malloy and Reed are handling backup on a call when Reed observes Burnside choke a suspect. Reed reports it but nothing is done by the Captain because the victim wouldn't admit Burnside was the aggressor. Burnside turns cocky on Reed saying he has "an ace in the hole" and that Reed was mad about the prank he pulled on Porter. During a foot pursuit of two robbers, Burnside got to one of them and this results in charges brought against the officer, who confronts Reed but this time the other officers back Reed.
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#6 - The Search
Adam-12 - Season 4 - Episode 5
1-Adam-12 is back after routine maintenance, but the radio is having problems communicating with Central. During a robbery involving two suspects, Reed captures one while Malloy takes off in pursuit of the other one through a park, but Malloy loses control of the car and it rolls into an embankment, hidden from the road, and the officer suffers internal injuries and a broken leg. All available units are called in to search for Malloy, who has to watch helplessly while a murder suspect comes out and take his shotgun (which Malloy was using for a splint) and sidearm, and rips out the radio mike only leaving the wires. Malloy uses the wires to send signal for help, which Reed picks up and rescues his partner.
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#7 - The House on Willis Avenue (1)
The Rockford Files - Season 4 - Episode 21
When his mentor is found dead in a road accident, Jim teams up with young P.I. Ritchie Brockleman following up leads on a murder and find a lot more than they bargained for.
#8 - Just Another Three-Ring Circus
The Greatest American Hero - Season 2 - Episode 12
Ralph takes a job at the circus as a human cannonball while trying to help Bill bust a crime ring that involves a phony dating service.
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#9 - The Shock Will Kill You
The Greatest American Hero - Season 2 - Episode 13
A space shuttle is about to crash, and only Ralph can save it. He does so, but ends up supermagnetized, perhaps permanently. Worst of all, a strange creature aboard the shuttle heads towards Los Angeles, electricuting all who get in its way.
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#10 - Dreams
The Greatest American Hero - Season 2 - Episode 17
An act of kindness backfires when Ralph uses the suit to help a coworker with a personal project. This leads his other co-workers to take daring chances for their own shots at success. Soon, he must don the super suit not only to prevent them from ruining their lives, but also to save Bill from a vengeful, recently paroled killer.
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#11 - The Loose Cannon
Wiseguy - Season 1 - Episode 4
While trying to regain control over the men running his ghetto drug operation, Sonny gets a call from Italy asking him to take in his nephew and teach him the business. After getting into a fight with Lorenzo, Vinnie has Frank do a check and it turns out the guy is really an insane mass murderer who killed the real Lorenzo before coming to the States. Frank and Pete both warn Vinnie to break off his budding romance with Gina, the widow of a crooked cop who killed himself. Vinnie and Lorenzo have a showdown after Lorenzo rapes Gina, ending with Vinnie killing him.
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#13 - The Long Ago Girl
Hardcastle and McCormick - Season 2 - Episode 16
Hardcastle cuts his fishing trip short when he receives word of the death of his old girlfriend's current husband. After deciding to check up on her, he is shot as he interrupts a burglar at her house, who looks like the deceased husband.
#14 - White on White and Nearly Perfect
The Rockford Files - Season 5 - Episode 4
Jim works with Lance White, a fellow who is so perfect it seems unreal, when investigating the kidnapping of the daughter of a prominant weapons industrialist...
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The Commish - Season 1 - Episode 2
The commissioner sets out to trap a serial rapist in a Santa Claus mask who's been terrorizing the city.
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The Commish - Season 1 - Episode 6
Two missing cops have been found under water, there a jail hunger strike going on and Tony's up for the NYPD commissioner job. (Conclusion of the pilot episode.)
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#17 - Chicken Little is a Little Chicken
The Rockford Files - Season 2 - Episode 9
The situation is anything but heavenly when Rockford's old cellmate leads him to an underworld of gangsters and gambling. When the two become the target of a mob boss, they hope a fake funeral will be the answer to their prayers.
#18 - The Hand-Painted Thai
The Greatest American Hero - Season 2 - Episode 11
Years ago, prisoners of war were brainwashed to respond to a code phrase. Now, someone is using them to commit acts of sabotage. Bill and Ralph investigate, but Bill inadvertently falls under a hypnotic trance, leaving the heroics up to Ralph.
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#19 - Back-Up One L-20
Adam-12 - Season 4 - Episode 21
Malloy tries to prove Sgt. MacDonald's innocence when he accidentally hits and kills a jaywalker while driving his police cruiser. Every witness on the sidewalk claims she was in the crosswalk, and the burglary suspect MacDonald is transporting is unmotivated to testify on his behalf. The truth proves to be far more complicated than the officers realized.
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#20 - The Late Baby
Adam-12 - Season 5 - Episode 2
Malloy goes on a date with Officer Wells' niece, and Malloy learns just how over-protective her uncle is. Patrol calls include a prowler in a heavily wooded neighborhood, a flower vendor with a stack of unpaid tickets, check on a suspicious gardener, and a high-speed pursuit with a green Corvette leads to an unexpected ending.
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The Commish - Season 1 - Episode 5
Tony initiates a sweep to find a pair of missing cops; devises an ingenious way of keeping an habitually drunk driver off the road; and deftly handles an "extraterrestrial," all the while being scrutinized by a committee searching for a new police commissioner for New York City. (Although shown as Episode 5, this is the actual pilot episode of the series.)
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#23 - Desperado
The Greatest American Hero - Season 3 - Episode 12
A weekend in the country leads Ralph, Pam and Bill into a race to save a wild stallion from a cruel rancher. The man blames the horse for a crippling injury. His men are also selling horses for use as dog food.
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#24 - One of the Girls from Accounting
Hardcastle and McCormick - Season 2 - Episode 8
While attending business downtown, Mark rushes to the aid of a woman being attacked by men in a mail truck. While he thinks he can find safety from the police officer reponding to their call, the woman informs him the officer is actually a member of an unofficial "underground" police and they are far from being safe.
#25 - Cowboy George
The A-Team - Season 4 - Episode 16
Face believes he's booked country singer Cowboy George into one of the roughest dance halls in the Southwest, but his agent friend delivers Boy George instead.
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#26 - Where Is the Monster When You Need Him?
The A-Team - Season 4 - Episode 3
The A-Team must make do with movie prop guns against the real things when they are attacked while helping Hannibal and a friend film a low-budget movie in Mexico.
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#27 - The Big Squeeze
The A-Team - Season 3 - Episode 15
The A-Team opens its own restaurant to lure a ruthless loan shark who has other restaurant owners terrified.
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#28 - Devil in the Slot
Black Sheep Squadron - Season 1 - Episode 16
Gutterman suffers battle shock after he is shot down by a Japanese ace pilot. Sgt. Micklin becomes the Black Sheep's new mechanic, making Pappy's life as difficult on the ground as the Japanese ace is making it in the sky.
#29 - Orange Blossom
Stingray (1985) - Season 1 - Episode 6
In order to substantiate claims that a Soviet helicopter is taking patients away from a mental hospital, Ray has himself committed there.
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#30 - Pilot (2)
Wiseguy - Season 1 - Episode 2
Vinnie and Sonny's right hand man, Tony Grecco, have a run-in with the cops for which Vinnie is arrested. The Steelgraves find that guns are being exported illegally using their pier and decide to take possession of the guns and sell them back to the owner. The meeting goes down bad and ends with Dave Steelgrave's death. Vinnie gets rid of Tony by setting him up and having him arrested. To prove his loyalty, Vinnie shoots a federal agent for Sonny (but the agent was warned, wore a bullet proof vest, and was then moved out of state).
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#31 - The Birthday Present
Hardcastle and McCormick - Season 2 - Episode 18
With the judge's birthday coming up, Mark decides to unofficially help him close a cold case related to a soon-to-be-paroled crimial that Hardcastle put in jail for another crime. Unfortunately, the new trial winds up with Hardcastle being shot and the criminal escaping.
#32 - Flying Misfits - Pilot
Black Sheep Squadron - Season 1 - Episode 1
Major Greg Boyington, upset with his new desk job, goes against regulations and forms a fighter squadron using pilots thrown out of other squadrons for disciplinary reasons.
#33 - Drought at Indianhead River
The Rockford Files - Season 3 - Episode 5
Rockford's former cellmate strikes it rich in real estate, but when his underworld connections take offense, it's up to Rockford to get them both to safer ground.
#34 - The No-Cut Contract
The Rockford Files - Season 2 - Episode 15
Rockford finds himself in a fixed game when a small-time pro quarterback implicates him in a blackmail ploy. Wanted by both the feds and the mob, Rockford struggles to clear his name.
#35 - Beamer's Last Case
The Rockford Files - Season 4 - Episode 1
Even if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Rockford's not feeling the love when he returns from a vacation and finds that someone has taken on his identity and antagonized his clients.
#36 - Independent Operator
Wiseguy - Season 1 - Episode 12
Frank wants to get Vinnie back on the job, so he assigns him to a routine case investigating hit man Roger Lococco, unknowingly dropping Vinnie into the middle of a case that has international repercussions. After winning Roger's confidence, Vinnie is asked to work for Mel and Susan Profitt, a brother and sister team who run a worldwide drugs and munitions organization.
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#37 - The Real Easy Red Dog
The Rockford Files - Season 2 - Episode 7
Nothing is as it seems when Rockford is duped by a beautiful private eye who uses him as a decoy to deceive the police. What starts off as a suicide investigation leads to stolen jewels, missing babies and murder.
#38 - The Reincarnation of Angie
The Rockford Files - Season 2 - Episode 12
Believing that her stockbroker brother has been abducted by the mob, a bookkeeper hires Rockford. But once he's on the case, Rockford finds himself the object of another investigation, the feds'.
#39 - Waiting for Insane Wayne
The A-Team - Season 4 - Episode 17
When Murdock gets mistaken for an insane mercenary the A-Team is drawn into a fight over property rights and an oil well.
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#40 - The Meatball Circus
Black Sheep Squadron - Season 1 - Episode 7
Pappy leads the Black Sheep on a mission to destroy a Japanese aircraft carrier in a squadron composed of captured Japanese planes.
#41 - The Empty Frame
The Rockford Files - Season 5 - Episode 6
After the police and most prominant members of the community are literaly caught with thier trousers down by a group of Art theives, Jim is hired by the owners to locate the missing pictures. Meanwhile Angel is exherting new influences after his borther in law is named a Police Chief...
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#42 - A Portrait of Elizabeth
The Rockford Files - Season 2 - Episode 16
Beth's latest beau hires Rockford to investigate the disappearance of cashier's checks. What begins as a routine job leads Rockford and his friend into a world of music, art...and murder.
#43 - Trouble at Fort Apache
Black Sheep Squadron - Season 1 - Episode 19
Gen. Moore orders the Black Sheep to escort a squadron of experimental bombers, something the bomber squadron's commander refuses to let them do.
#45 - Dwarf in a Helium Hat
The Rockford Files - Season 4 - Episode 17
A wrong-number phone call has Rockford rushing to find and protect its intended recipient, Jay Rockfelt, from imminent kidnapping and death.
#46 - Foul on the First Play
The Rockford Files - Season 2 - Episode 21
After learning that the parole officer who hired him is actually a private detective, Rockford works to even the score in this case about a basketball franchise and the would-be owner who refuses to play by the rules.
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#47 - Nice Guys Finish Dead
The Rockford Files - Season 6 - Episode 7
Jim and Lance White help Fred Beamer when he is charged with murder of a Senator while attending an awards banquet...
#48 - Profit and Loss (1)
The Rockford Files - Season 1 - Episode 13
PART 1 - PROFIT Jim is mystified after he is charged for filing a false police report when he witnesses the kidnapping of a computer programmer from his trailer...
#49 - My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
The Greatest American Hero - Season 1 - Episode 6
Ralph reconsiders his suit of powers after a flying mistake almost takes out a bus full of tourists. Bill also reconsiders his job path when one of his heroes is suspected of plotting out the theft of a precious diamond.
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#50 - Captain Bellybuster and the Speed Factory
The Greatest American Hero - Season 2 - Episode 20
Bill recieves hot tips on a speed factory working out of a fast food chain, and a newspaper reporter publishes pictures of Ralph flying.
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