[profh0011]

McCLOUD:  The Solid Gold Swingers
The Escort Service Murders     (6 of 10)

Sam & Joe are corraling a robbery suspect when Sam sees a dead woman on a balcony. He barges into a party and begins questioning the guests when Chief Clifford arrives, because it turns out the apartment belongs to a Senator who doesn't take kindly to police harrassment. And then the body DISAPPEARS. Which absolutely infuriates Clifford... until the next day, when he's all smiles. It seems the Senator has pulled some strings to "help" Sam get back to Taos within a week. To keep Sam out of trouble, Clifford assigns him as a school crossing guard... but we all know by now Sam won't put up with that for long!

Before you know it, we have an entire string of high-priced call-girls all being murdered by what appears to be a maniac serial-killer. But since their former boss is under investigation, and a nasty detective in charge of the case takes such a instant dislike for McCloud, Sam begins to suspect there's more going on than is obvious.

My favorite scene is probably when Clifford, In a reversal of his earlier decision, tells Sam, "In spite of every instinct I've picked up in 22 years on the force, I'm officially assigning you to the case. But if you so much as begin to cause me your usual amount of embarrassment..." "Appreciate your CONFIDENCE, Chief."

I love the fact that, for the remainder of the story, McCloud & Clifford get along fabulously-- especially the moment when they BOTH kick in a door together.

Producer Michael Gleason turns in his 2nd of 4 scripts for the show, and it's more complicated (and confusing) than usual. I'm not even going to try to explain the rest of the plot, since the individual details of this story are more memorable than the whole mystery put together. Among the highlights are Ross Martin (EXPERIMENT IN TERROR, THE WILD WILD WEST, THE RETURN OF CHARLIE CHAN) as a professional hit man with a drug habit who hides what he does from his wife and kids; Neville Brand (THE UNTOUCHABLES) in his 2nd of 3 appearances on the show, this time as a cop on the take; Steve Allen (creator of THE TONIGHT SHOW) as a singer; Joanna Pettet (1967's CASINO ROYALE) as a call girl who Sam struggles to protect; Denny Miller (the remake of TARZAN THE APE MAN) as a football player who's being blackmailed; and Teri Garr, making her 2nd appearance as a harried police sergeant. Although the name's changed from the previous year, she might as well be playing the same character, since both stories she's been in so far have her repeatedly writing up reports that Sam is too busy to do on his own.

Suffice to say, Sam wraps it up neatly by the end, climaxing in his commandeering a BUS to pursue a taxi-cab.
   (3-11-2018)


Addendum / 5-4-2025: I find it interesting that just 3 weeks earlier, McMILLAN & WIFE had a story where a body went out a window but took 3 hours to hit the ground, while here, a dead woman on a balcony vanished only to turn up 3 days later.

I'm really annoyed that despite being Region 1, the 2021 VEI DVD of this episode was another taken from a PAL copy. It's running fast, and clocks in 1:33:29, compared to the 1:37:09 (a 3-1/2 MINUTE difference) from my early-1980s CBS Late Movie rerun tape, back when CBS was still re-running the shows UNCUT. So far, every episode from seasons 3-4 has been running too fast, while seasons 1-2 were at the CORRECT speed. How does a video company SCREW UP an expensive ($85.00) product that badly?

[profh0011]

McCLOUD:   A Cowboy In Paradise
Things Are Slowwwwww In The Islands     (5 of 10)

Chief Clifford is delighted to be going to a police convention in Hawaii, because it will get him away from McCloud... until, at the very last minute, McCloud finds out his office back in Taos is sending him to the same convention. Clifford tells McCloud it'll work out, as long as they avoid each other.

But then... a phone message, presumably from Clifford's EX-fiancee, who he hasn't seen in 20 years, lures him to a hotel, and the next morning, he wakes up on a beach next to a dead dancer. It's obvious to him and Sam that he's being FRAMED-- but by who, and why?

This episode is INTERMINABLE. Things move so slowly, are dragged out so long, so painfully, I'm not sure if this had been done as a 90-minute story if it would have worked. At 2 hours, it's excessively excessive, and my LEAST-favorite story among seasons 2, 3 & 4.

Sam spends nearly half the story just trying to talk to Clifford's ex, whose extremely-jealous business husband with political ambitions repeatedly has his paid thugs threaten, hassle, beat up and get beaten up by McCloud, and in the end, she STILL refuses to help the man who still thinks highly of her. Her husband, meanwhile, says he has a grudge against Clifford-- but under the circumstances, this is NEVER explained. The only thing I can figure, after watching this several times over the years, is that he was NEVER the man she left him for-- and in the long run, it led to her cheating on her husband with someone else.

That someone else, it turns out, has MOB connections... and set things up for the murder and framing... all to keep Clifford away from testifying against a NYC mob boss. It takes more than 3/4ths of the story before Sam & Clifford, together, figure this all out... but the path to get there, while filled with beautiful landscapes and lovely women, is a seemingly-endless dredge to sit through. Oh, well, things do get better next time.

The guest-cast this time includes Louise Lasser (BANANAS, MARY HARTMAN) as a NYC cop on vacation. My memory played tricks on me for many years. I thought it was Teri Garr-- it seems like it should have been her-- instead of this woman with the most annoying voice and personality in the history of Hollywood. There's also Richard Denning (THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, MICHAEL SHAYNE, HAWAII FIVE-O) as the jealous husband; James Gregory (an endless resume including AL CAPONE, STAR TREK, BARNEY MILLER and BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES) as a fellow cop who's not what he seems; and singer Don Ho, essentially playing a fictional version of himself, who by the end of this story made me start to hate Hawaiian music.

The funniest moment in the story is when the local cop warns Sam that if he steps out of line, he'll make things VERY hot for him, and Sam replies, "Hey, I'm startin' ta feel right at home!"
   (3-18-2018)

[profh0011]

McCLOUD:  The Colorado Cattle Caper
I’d Rather Be In Colorado     (10 of 10)

Contaminated stolen beef kills 5 people in New York, and a FDA inspector is murdered when Sam tries to arrest the shipper. When the killer is arrested near Twin Falls, Colorado, McCloud tells Clifford, "I WANT HIM!" Clifford says he's NOT going to lecture him on being on his best behavior, and avoiding the "embarrassments that seem to dog your trail"-- but it comes out as a lecture anyway. And so, in a reverse-tribute to COOGAN'S BLUFF, Sam's sent to extradite a prisoner.

Sheriff Floyd Bevins has a problem. He's up for re-election, and he'll lose his job if he doesn't come through on his promise to bring in the cattle rustlers within a week. So the LAST thing he needs is some "know it all" cop from NYC taking away the only lead he's had in months. I realize that if Sam had sat down with the Sheriff and offered to HELP, events might have unfolded exactly as they did... but without all the confusion-- and humor. But before this can even cross his mind, the gang breaks the killer out of jail, Sam finds the deputy on the floor, and HE's arrested for helping the jailbreak!

And so, the phone call... "McCloud, WHY are you calling collect? And WHY aren't you already on your way back here?" "Well, to answer your first question, they only let you make a local call for free." Before you know it, Clifford assigns Joe to take over. "Joe, I want you to consider this a SUICIDE mission. If you have to choose between coming back without your prisoner-- or going down in flames-- TAKE THE FLAMES!"

But in the meantime, Sam has convinced Deputy Dewy Cobb (who's much smarter than his boss) to let him out of jail so they can both follow a different line of investigation than the Sheriff. This involves impersonating cattle rustlers, and staging a HANGING for a real one to shake out info.

When Joe arrives, HE's suckered into one of Sam's schemes... and winds up in jail for it. Which leads to a 2nd phone call. "Broadhurst-- WHY are YOU calling collect?" "They only let you make a local call for free. It's not as bad as it looks... " "CLICK!" "Yeah, I guess it is..." And so, CLIFFORD hops a plane... and on tracking down his errant lawman, gets punched in the FACE for it.

This may be the FUNNIEST episode of McCLOUD ever made. And definitely one of my favorites.  Producer Michael Gleason should have won an Emmy for his screenplay.

Among the cast are Claude Akins (RIO BRAVO, SHERIFF LOBO, INCIDENT AT VICTORIA FALLS) as the dumb sheriff; Patrick Wayne (THE GREEN BERETS, SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER) as one of the deputies; John Denver (well on his way to becoming one of the best-selling recording artists in the history of the business at this point) as the mild-mannered but smarter deputy); Ed Ames (one of The Ames Brothers singing group, and actor in 72 episodes of DANIEL BOONE) as the head cattle rustler; Vic Tayback (STAR TREK and countless other TV appearances) as a NYC beef salesman; Robert Sampson (BRIDGET LOVES BERNIE, POLICE STORY, FALCON CREST, and countless other TV roles) as the crooked beef distributor; and Farrah Fawcett (CHARLIE'S ANGELS, THE CANNONBALL RUN) as one of the girls hired by the crooks to keep and eye on McCloud & Cobb.

Of the mere 5 episodes they did this season, this was the only one that was 90 minutes (including commercials) instead of 2 hours, and the storytelling and pacing benefitted greatly for it.
   (4-1-2018)

[profh0011]

McCLOUD:  This Must Be The Alamo
“What ELSE can go wrong?”     (10 of 10)

The worst heat wave in decades sees crime go through the roof, a riot, 2 jewelry store robberies, power shortages, an abandoned baby, a hit-and-run killing, a foul-mouthed pickpocket, patrol units reassigned to other areas, and while Chief Clifford is pulled to run the central dispatch office (and takes Grover with him), Joe Broadhurst is given command of the Precinct, with a warning that when you're in charge, you have no friends. Try telling that to Sam McCloud!

But the BIG storyline, which ties all this together, and covers about 2/3rds of the episode, involves a double-shooting over a book that can tie big-time gamblers to football players. As this slowly unfolds, it eventually leads to a pair of murders-- one inside a hospital, another right inside the holding cells of the police station! As one Officer Rizzo put it, "That guy must have had ice water in his veins, to walk in and kill somebody right here in the police station-- I never even heard of such a thing!"

And it gets even worse after this!

This most complex of all McCLOUD episodes, which could easily be seen as a prototype for your average episode of HILL STREET BLUES, has so many things going on at once, it never slows down. Now this is how you do a 2-hour episode! If I hadn't picked up on it before, THIS story is the one that REALLY made me a fan of Glen Larson's writing!!!

The cast is epic. There's singer & actress Della Reese, almost stealing the show in her first of 2 appearances as Sgt. Gladys Harris; Gregory Sierra (SANFORD AND SON) as the wise-talking Patrolman Rico Cross; Ken Scott, returning for the first time since the 1st season as Detective Polk; Michael Pataki (STAR TREK, WKRP, HALLOWEEN 4) in his first of 2 appearances as Officer Rizzo; Teri Garr (STAR TREK, HEAD, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, TOOTSIE) in her 2nd of 4 appearances as Sgt. Phyllis Norton (and I've never seen her more adorable than she was right here); in addition to Sidney Clute, Ken Lynch, Terry Carter and the ever-irritable J.D. Cannon. And that's just on the side of the cops!

On the side of the baddies are Van Johnson (the DR. GILLESPIE movies, WHERE ANGELS GO TROUBLE FOLLOWS, BATMAN) as the high-rolling football gambler; Larraine Stevens (BRACKEN'S WORLD) as the loose woman whose diary can sink the whole operation; actor & director Ray Danton (THE ALASKANS, THE NEW MIKE HAMMER) in his 2nd appearance on the show; Robert Weaver (STONE, THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO) in his 2nd of 5 appearances, this time posing as a newspaper reporter; and Eugene Roche (THE CORNER BAR, ALL IN THE FAMILY, GOOD TIME HARRY, SOAP, WEBSTER, MAGNUM P.I., PERFECT STRANGERS, LENNY, and still other TV series, but who I mostly remember as Christine Sullivan’s father on NIGHT COURT) as a hired professional contract murderer.

Over the next 3 seasons, they tried to replicate the format of this story, once per season, but they never quite topped the chaos of this one.
   (4-1-2018)


Addendum  /  10-5-2025:  Having now compared my 1980s tape recorded from The CBS Late Movie against the 2021 VEI Region 1 DVD, once again, the DVD has MUCH-sharper, cleaner picture and sound, BUT, is running too fast (by a difference of some 4 minutes).  How on Earth does a Canadian video company manage to combine NTSC (seasons 1-2) and PAL (seasons 3-7) in the SAME package, so that it’s isn’t right on either side of the Atlantic?  I’ve also found defects in VEI’s box sets of THE PROTECTORS and THE SNOOP SISTERS.  I’ve written them, suggesting they need to reissue this on Blu-Ray, since they play at the correct speed in all countries, but I’m not holding my breath.  Maybe when they deservedly go OUT of business and someone else picks up the torch, it might happen.

One nice surprise: about 16 minutes in, an instrumental version of the song “Downtown” can be heard on the soundtrack, and it’s intact on both my old videotape AND the recent DVD.  Sometimes, due to idiotic “music license” problems, songs that were on the soundtrack originally wind up replaced with something generic on the home video version.

[profh0011]

McCLOUD:  The Barefoot Girls of Bleeker Street
The Stolen Credit Cards Caper   (6 of 10)

While on Harbor Patrol, McCloud stumbles on a baffling situation involving tv sets that were not stolen, paid for by out-of-town credits cards not reported as stolen, moved with a truck that was not stolen.  “So what was all the shooting for?”  Later, while trying to help a young runaway girl with a very sick baby, he stumbles on underage girls stealing credit cards from out-of-town businessmen.  Chief Clifford, who’s very annoyed at having to write and give a speech for the Deputy Mayor, is annoyed that McCloud has stumbled across undercover stake-outs that have been going on for weeks.  But, when both Joe Broadhurst AND Grover admit McCloud came up with an excellent tie-in, Clifford assigns McCloud to bunco squad, which makes both him AND McCloud happy!

Shelly Winters (BLOODY MAMA) is “Thelma”, nightclub owner who hires underage girls to lure businessmen to hotel rooms so they can steal credit cards, which the victims will not report if they don’t want trouble because of the girls’ ages.  Despite her criminal activities, she proves to not be as bad as many.

Kay Lenz (BREEZY) is “Eve Randall”, a runaway with a very sick baby who McCloud tries to help.

Joshua Shelley (THE FRONT) is the “Desk Clerk” at the sleazy Grove Hotel, who refuses to let McCloud find Eve or her baby until he threatens to pull the fire alarm.

Bill Fletcher (many guest parts on TV) is “Harry Walters”, the real owner of Thelma’s, who’s pushing her to get as many stolen credit cards as possible.

Whit Bissell (THE TIME TUNNEL) is “Dr. Hansen”, who tells McCloud that Eve’s baby is very lucky he brought her to the hospital when he did.  His level of warmth and caring is what we really need more of in the medical profession.

Victoria Huxtable (who only had a short IMDB resume) is “Shirley”, apparently filling in for Sgt. Norton (Teri Garr), but is nowhere near as likable.

Gordon MacRae (OKLAHOMA!) is “Sheriff John Rodney”, who responds to McCloud’s search, claims to be the best friend of Eve’s father, but is really a crooked cop who murdered Eve’s boyfriend, and is bent on finding her and finishing the job.  This is one element of the story that I don’t believe would have been allowed on TV in earlier years.

David Summerville, Keith Barbour and Gail Jensen appear as a cover band performing at Thelma’s, doing such songs as “City of New Orleans”, “Don’t Sleep In The Subway”, and others.  They’re also undercover Federal officers, who have been trying to nail “Harry Walters”, who intends to use the money from Thelma’s credit card scam to make the biggest cocaine buy in New York history.  Due to sloppy writing, we don’t even see him being arrested at the end.

David Summerville, also known as David Troy, had been a member of the singing groups The Diamonds, and later, The Four Preps.  THIS explains his presence in this episode, and the EXCESSIVE amount of screen-time and music used to pad out this episode, as executive producer Glen A. Larson started his career as a member of The Four Preps!

Chief Clifford (J.D. Cannon) keeps flip-flopping between “reasonable” and “apoplectic” in this story.  At the climax, he seems very happy that everything went perfect with the long-anticipated warhouse bust… UNTIL McCloud made off with his private police helicopter, using it to race to the hospital to save Eve’s life when he learns the truth about Sheriff Rodney.  It’s like a reverse on the helicopter sequence from “The Park Avenue Rustlers” from 2 seasons earlier.

In retrospect, I wish NBC hadn’t insisted on making every NBC Mystery Movie fill a 2-hour slot this year and the next one.  Too many stories became painfully padded-out—or just over-complicated--and, frankly, that includes episodes of McCLOUD, which for 7 seasons was my favorite show on the air.

[profh0011]

McCLOUD:  The Gang That Stole Manhattan
The Kimberly’s Jewelry Store Robbery   (7 of 10)

A mid-level gangster convinces his boss that a high-end jewelry store considered impossible to rob can be robbed, by financing a movie to be shot on its premises.  What could go wrong?  Well, first McCloud is assigned to ‘crowd control’; a horse runs wild and somehow Sam is blamed for it; and then the former security man who once worked there—who had the idea for the robbery in the first place—tries to shake down the gangster and is accidentally killed for it.  And it just keeps escalating from there.

Fernando Lamas (100 RIFLES) is “Max Cortez”, who uses his boss’s money to become the producer of a low-budget movie that will serve as the cover for a real robbery.  But as things continue to go wrong, and his boss gets increasingly annoyed—to put it lightly.

Marc Lawrence (THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN) is “Vito Gilardi”, who is obsessed with military tactics, and thinks the robbery is a good idea, especially when Cortez promises him 80% of the take.

Salem Ludwig (I LOVE YOU, ALICE B. TOKLAS) is “Ben Segrist”, the security guard who originally hatched the whole robbery scheme, planning out every detail.  When he tries to get Cortez to pay him a “mere” $100,000 for his effort, Cortez, who was sure to net $2 million, could have saved himself a lot of trouble if he’s simply replied, “Oh, is THAT all?” and shaken on the deal.

Edward Binns (12 ANGRY MEN) is “Wild Bill Hickok”, the director who’s trying to get the film made on time and on budget, but finds himself having to deal with increasing chaos the longer it goes on.

Larry Hagman (I DREAM OF JEANNIE) is “Larry Harris”, who plays a detective on a TV show whose ratings are slipping, is desperate to keep his career going, and suddenly thinks pretending to be a real detective will help his popularity and that of the movie.  That is, until the gangsters show up at his apartment and beat him up for talking to the press too much.

Leslie Parrish (BATMAN) is “Lynne O’Connell”.  After Sam saves her from a runaway horse, she winds up spending a lot of time with him.  I thought she was a real sweetie in this, though she was just beginning to show her age.

Coleen Gray (THE PHANTOM PLANET) is “Muriel Clifford”.  While the Chief’s wife had appeared in the previous episode, we never saw her face, so this story was actually her 1st of 4 appearances on the show.  She & her husband are delighted and amused watching the “entertainment” news, until McCloud’s name is mentioned.  From then on, the Chief’s blood pressure just keeps going up and up.  When she asks if he’d like an aspirin, he replies, “Get me the big bottle—the one marked McCLOUD!”

Also in the cast are Toni Holt Kramer as the gossip columnist, Ruth McDevitt as the dead man’s landlady, Jerry Lacy as another actor, and Sidney Klute as recurring character Detective Simms.  Ken Lynch’s Detective Grover, though mentioned several times, does not appear in this one!

Although McCloud, as usual, never gives up once he get an idea in his head, he really did wind up disobeying Clifford’s orders to just stay put on crowd control, and he got poor Joe Broadhurst into trouble as well, so much so that midway thru the story, Joe tells Sam, “Just stay away from me!”  It takes until the very end of the story before Clifford changes his tune, actually congratulating Sam for what he wound up accomplishing… but he does it in such a way as to make both Sam & Joe feel like they’re being shafted anyway.

This was the point where Michael Gleason was replaced by Ron Satlof as Producer, and Winrich Kolbe took over as Associate Producer.  The quality of the show remained high, though NBC’s insistence that nearly every story this year be padded to fit a 2-hour slot was beginning to wear, EVEN on my favorite series.

[profh0011]

Addendum / 11-30-2025: To my surprise, after more than 4 decades, I discovered that the early-1980s CBS Late Movie broadcast was MISSING 2 entire scenes.  The first was when Sam takes Lynne to the morgue and then drives her back to the movie set.  The second was when Clifford chews out Sam & Joe the 2nd time, Joe begs Sam to stay away from him, and Simms hands Sam the info about the produce company (which explains how Sam wound up going there).  On the PAL DVD, these scenes totalled 4:53. Which means, if the episode was playing at the correct speed, it would be AT LEAST 5 minutes missing from the original broadcast.

I'm really hoping that at some point, VEI-- or, better, SOME OTHER outfit-- reissues this entire series on BLU-RAY, so this ongoing problem with every episode from Season 3-on up can be eliminated.

[profh0011]

McCLOUD:  Shivaree On Delancy Street
The Tailor And The Numbers Racket   (8 of 10)

A black gang decides to move in on a white gang running numbers.  A pick-up man is killed, but Joe Broadhurst, who was trailing him undercover, is also shot, and money is planted on him to make him look like he was on the take.  Sam has increasing trouble with an Internal Affairs man who is DETERMINED to prove Joe was crooked.  Meanwhile, a Jewish tailor who bet $20 and wins $12,000, has trouble because all records of who bet what were destroyed, and, he just happens to be leaving the building when his old friend, who runs the racket, is murdered, and he’s seen by the killers.

Louis Gossett Jr. (ROOTS) is Dewey Justin, determined to take over the numbers racket.  When ABC revived the “Mystery Movie” format in 1989, he starred in the short-lived series, GIDEON OLIVER.

Stack Pierce (GOOD GUYS WEAR BLACK and a 2nd season NIGHT COURT) is “Harry Peoples”, Justin’s henchman.

John Quade (HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER) is “Merle Koska”, who manages the numbers, but doesn’t know how to handle the problem he’s facing.

Cesere Danova (ANIMAL HOUSE) is “John Amado”, the man at the top.  He knows it’s war, and has Koska find out who, on the other side, needs killing.

Vincent Baggetta (THE EDDIE CAPRA MYSTERIES) is “Lt. Bryant”, who unhappily lets Sam know what’s going on, thinks Joe is crooked, and doesn’t want to become suspected as well.

Michael DeLano (COMMANDO) is “Sgt. Rizzo”, Sam’s temporary partner, who tries to help him track down info about what Joe was working on before he was shot.  (Michael Pataki played a “Sgt. Rizzo” in 2 other episodes—is this guy supposed to be related, or was it that it was written for Pataki, but he wasn’t available?)

John Devlin (ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN) is “Sgt. Ashby” from Internal Affairs.  He is so convinced that Joe is dirty, that he begins to suspect Sam is also—which was a BIG mistake on his part!

Dennis McCarthy (THE VIRGINIAN) is the “Police Commissioner”.  While this character has been mentioned in many episodes of the show from the beginning, and we learn here he “came up together” with Chief Clifford, this is in fact his ONLY appearance on the show.  (Sam’s on-again-off-again lady friend Chris Caughlin is his cousin!)  He makes the mistake of listening to Ashby, and accuses Clifford of trying to interfere with IA’s investigation.  (That may be one longtime friendship out the window.)  I can’t believe that in a story this well-written, they couldn’t be bothered to give this guy A NAME.

Tracy Reed (25 episodes of LOVE AMERICAN STYLE) is “Carol Broadhurst”, Joe’s wife.  This is her 2nd of 5 appearances on the show, and it’s bad enough to have her husband accused of being on the take, it’s worse when she comes home to find IA searching their apartment for “evidence”.

JD Cannon’s “Chief Clifford”, who starting in Season 4 was becoming increasingly explosive regarding McCloud’s work habits, was unusually calm and caring in this one.  It makes sense, as he’s known Joe longer than Sam has, and having Sam wrongly accused must have really gotten on his bad side more than anything Sam might do in the situation.  When, after loudly telling Sam “There’s nothing you can do!”, and then saying, “Get out of here.”, I’d SWEAR he was SMILING—at the thought that Sam would clear Joe, in spite of being told not to.

Jack Kruschen (WAR OF THE WORLDS) is “Selditz”, the butcher who sells numbers bets, and finds himself in conflict with his best friend when the guy wins but is unable to collect.

Danny Thomas (MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY) is “Marcus Rubin”, who wins, has trouble collecting, and plans to take a vacation to Miami with his girlfriend, unaware that a pair of killers are after him for having been at the wrong place at the wrong time.  He’s really at the heart of this entire story.

Jesse Wells (19 episodes of OH MADELINE) is “Judy Rubin”, Marcus’ daughter, who at one point suspects her father is involved with some woman half his age.  He advises her to find a man of her own to boss around.

Sally Kemp (16 episodes of DYNASTY) is “Gloria Allison”, a widow whose late husband left her well-provided for, who’s fallen in love with Marcus.

This has been one of my favorite McCLOUDs since it was first-run.  Way back in the late 70s, I actually paid tribute to this in one of my own stories.  It’s a shame that right now, not only is the 2021 VEI Region 1 DVD running fast (and is 3-1/2 minutes short as a result), but the early-1980s CBS Late Movie broadcast (which was running at the correct speed), had 2 scenes adding up to more than 6 MINUTES missing!  Somebody (preferably other than VEI) needs to reissue this entire series on BLU-RAY so it can be both uncut AND running at the right speed.

By the way, I find it absurd that the name of this episode is MIS-SPELLED.  The title reads “Delancy Street”, while all the street signs in the story read “Delancey Street”.  How’d they do something that dumb?

[profh0011]

McCLOUD:  The 42nd Street Cavalry
Back In The Saddle Again  (7 of 10)

Not for the first time, Sam is frustrated by being assigned to “Records”.  So, Clifford amuses himself by having him transferred to NYC's mounted division.  While trying to figure out the obvious mix-up, his new supervisor asks him, “What did you DO to Clifford?” and then passing on, “He said “Now it’s your turn.”  While being asked to make the best of it by helping train officers how to ride on horseback, he also finds himself super attracted to a nervous female officer who, as it turns out, is also frustrated always being assigned to “Records”, and is determnied to prove herself, and not just be looked at as a woman.

Meanwhile, when a National Guard Armory is robbed of weapons and explosives, and a fellow officer in the mounted division is killed in a high-speed car chase, McCloud is determined to be involved in tracking down his killer, no matter what Chief Clifford says!

Julie Sommars (MATLOCK) is “Sgt. Mildred Cross”, who finds herself angrily fighting off all of Sam’s friendly advances, but over time, comes to see he’s sincere and really on her side.  This was Sommars’ 2nd appearance on the show (the previous one being in “Somebody’s Out To Get Jennie”), and I just find her adorable—especially her voice.

Mark Richman (THE OUTER LIMITS: The Borderland) is “Captain Dettmer”, in charge of the mounted division, who finds himself brushed aside by Clifford.  I didn’t realize it the first time I saw this, but this was rather a hilarious in-joke, as Richman had played Chief Clifford in the 1970 pilot movie!  J.D. Cannon was such a huge improvement on every level, I think Richman actually worked better in this story, and it’s amusing to see him and Cannon side-by-side in several scenes.

George Murdock (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) is “Sgt. Rosovitch”, who befriends Sam on his arrival, but then is roped into chasing after the armory thieves, and is killed in the process.

Bert Freed (HANG ‘EM HIGH) is “Packy Keefe”, who hires a pack of losers (in his view) to stage a robbery of the Armory, then almost immediately regrets he didn’t get more capable people.

Michael Parks (THE BIBLE  IN THE BEGINNING…), Victor Campos (THE MASTER GUNFIGHTER), Rafael Campos (ASTRO ZOMBIES), and Steve Bond (TARZAN AND THE JUNGLE BOY) are the robbers.

For a 2-hour episode, this one actually has enough character interest to not feel terribly padded out.  It’s long been one of my favorite episodes from this period of the show's long run.

[profh0011]

McCLOUD: The Concrete Jungle Caper
The McCloud Connection   (6 of 10)

To take down an international drug pipeline, Sam goes undercover with Chief Clifford’s full approval. At least, until he starts seeing the expense reports. First Sam poses as a drug importer, then he impersonates a drug supplier who was arrested.  But during the buy, a million dollars in cash apparently was burnt to ashes in a helicopter explosion, and the French police are holding the New York police as liable for it.  What neither realizes is that the supplier’s girlfriend made off with the money just before the copter went up, and nobody knows where she is.  That is, until McCloud is undercover—in prison—and she approaches him, just before setting him up to be murdered behind bars.

John Russell (RIO BRAVO, THE OUTLAW JOSIE WALES, PALE RIDER) is “Harry Hague”, the eyepatch-wearing cowboy Sam impersonates; he somehow escapes the Paris police and makes things even more complicated than they already are.

Joseph Campanella, John Marley, James Carol Jordan and Victory Jory are the members of the drug-smuggling family. Brock Peters (DEEP SPACE NINE) is “DDT”, a rival who’d like to cut them out of the business.  Maurice Marsac makes his 2nd appearance as French police official.  Series regulars Ken Lynch and Sidney Klute are back again, getting more to do than usual in this story.  And Teri Garr has one of her biggest appearances as “Sgt. Phyllis Norton”, go-go dancing undercover at a bar, flirting with Chief Clifford, and seriously backing up Sam when things hit the fan!  I believe this was the only story where Norton got to carry and use a gun.  I wish she’d been in more episodes than she was.

This has never been one of my favorites, but the fact that it’s the first story this season to be scaled back to fit a 90-minute time slot definitely helped.

[profh0011]

McCLOUD:  The Man With The Golden Hat
The $7 Million Mystery   (5 of 10)

While eating his first bowl of chili since arriving in New York (what is this, a Columbo episode?) Sam chases after someone who stole his hat, and accidentally fell to his death.  WHY?  When further attempts are made to steal his hat, it appears the dead man hid something in it, but, there’s nothing there.  Sam eventually figures out there was a slip of paper hidden in the diner next to his hat, and grabbing the hat was just a dodge.  Along the way, 3 other people who all want the slip of paper are killed.  The paper is a ticket to pick up a suitcase, which contains, not money, but a collection of children’s books, and one coloring book.  After the high expenses in “The Concrete Jungle Caper”, Sam winds up having the Department pay a Federal lab $5,000 to check and confirm that there are no microdots with secret info, and no code whatsoever in any of the texts.  At one point, a further man Sam suspects turns out to be an old friend of Chief Clifford… but before long, it turns out HE’s the murderer of 3 out of the 4 dead men.  At the very end, in an absurdly-overly-talky scene, Sam finally figures out, with the help of the dead man’s girlfriend, that as a pool player, he borrowed one of her kid’s coloring books, and used color as a number code to indicate a Swiss bank account, into which $7 million was electronically stolen and hidden.  The purpose of this theft was to finance a failing Opera company.  At no point do we see what the code was, that the man in charge of the Opera company learns that he CAN’T get the money since it was stolen, or WHY the thief’s girlfriend was so talkative and friendly with Sam.

I’d say, “WHO WRITES THIS STUFF?”, but I already know who the culprits were.  A better question might be, “WHO okayed this script?”, but, I know the answer to that one too.  After the really-bad 1970 pilot episode, this gets my vote as the 2nd-worst McCLOUD ever done.

Among the cast of this atrocity are Don Ameche (who mis-appropriated Opera company money in the first place), Roger C. Carmel (the Opera company’s accountant), Philip Carey (the cop-turned P.I. turned thief and murderer), Liam Dunn (director of the Opera), Mills Watson (the computer thief), Robert Webber (the owner of the Opera company who keeps insisting “Whatever’s in that suitcase, it belongs to the Opera company!”), Jaclyn Smith (the dancer who annoyingly runs hot and cold with Sam), Erica Hagen (the thief’s girlfriend who proves so helpful after her boyfriend is killed), Rick Weaver (the security guard at the computer firm), and Arthur Mallet (the Government Code expert).

I think what happened this year was, instead of 4 rotating series, the new series, AMY PRENTISS, fell thru after only 3 episodes, and suddenly, the other shows had to make up for it by doing some extra episodes at the last minute.  I can’t think of any other reason there were 9 McCLOUDs in this 1 season.  The other seasons had 6, 7, 5, 5, 7, and 6.  I’ve always said the NBC Mystery Movies benefitted from doing fewer stories per year, and it usually helped them weed out BAD scripts.  Not this time!

The ONLY good thing I see as possibly coming out of this awful thing, was the way Sam’s shoot-out with Philip Carey ended, as, without my realizing it all these decades, it apparently inspired the ending of a shoot-out I wrote in one of my own stories, in early 1977!  In both stories, 2 men fire at the same time, and after a moment of silence, the bad guy falls dead.  All these years, I had no idea this was where I got that from.  Frankly, I like MY version better.  In addition, having the hero & villain face each other on a darkened stage while a woman watches, was later used in THE NEW AVENGERS episode “To Catch A Rat”, just under 2 years later.

In addition to the other technical problems with the 2021 VEI DVD box set, this specific episode LOCKED UP about 16 minutes in, and I had to unplug the machine to start over and skip past the problem.  All told, it clocked in at about 1 hour 33 minutes, meaning, like so many others, it was ALSO made from a PAL copy and running too fast, by about 4 MINUTES.  (Sheesh.)  Sometime tells me I won’t bother watching this one on DVD ever again.

[profh0011]

McCLOUD:  Lady On The Run
McCloud In Mexico   (6 of 10)

A woman whose sister was murdered sees the accused killer acquitted in court.  When she stops by his hotel suite, where’s he’s holding a party to celebrate, intent on killing him, she see him shot dead by the assassin he paid to kill her sister!  When she then picks up the murder weapon with her bare hands and is seen by every single person there, she proves to be one of the stupidest characters in the history of murder mysteries.  But she’s not the only one.  By the time this overlong episode is done, just about every single character in it acts in ways that no sensible person with a working brain would ever act.  It’s sad when a story just gets worse and worse on repeat viewings.

Mariette Hartley (STAR TREK: All Our Yesterdays) is “Ann Lassiter”.  She manages to elude the cops and flies to Mexico City under an alias, where the Police there completely fail to arrest and hold her for extradition.  She then searches for the man who she now knows really killed her sister, but her reasoning, attitude and behavior are all so hair-brained, she seems to deserve getting life in prison for a murder she didn’t commit.

Clu Gulager (THE UNTOUCHABLES: Vincent ‘Mad Dog’ Coll, A FORCE OF ONE) is “Johnny Monahan”, a professional hit man who tries to blackmail a client, then shoots him dead when he refuses to go along, then goes down to Mexico, and finds the daughter of one of his victims is after HIM.  Instead of just killing her, he assigns his ‘protégé’ to do it, and the guy bungles the job.

Pancho Córdova (TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA) is “Lopez”, the very friendly and enterprising cab driver, who at first thinks Ann and Sam are looking for each other for romantic reasons. Eventually, he helps both of them once he knows the full truth of what’s going on.

Jorge Martinez de Hoyos (THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN) is “Inspector De Palma”, an incredibly-stupid and narrow-minded local Police chief, who from the start is more concerned that McCloud NOT do any investigating on his own, but stay in his hotel room until the Police find Ann themselves, which, of course, they never do!  Sam is not helping his own case, either.  Not only does he repeately go out on his own, until the climax of the story, he NEVER once tells the Inspector what he’s up to.

Clifford is angrier and more irate that even usual for him.  When he has to send Joe Broadhurst to “bring back McCloud”, he warns him in the strongest terms to not be distracted by anything Sam may say or do, and come back with him, or don’t come back at all.  Joe DOES wind up distracted, and more than once, also fails to tell De Palma where he is and what he’s doing.  And with each new complication, De Palma makes it look like whatever happened, it’s all Clifford’s fault.  It’s no wonder Clifford winds up going to Mexico as well.  Yes, it’s not only another variation on COOGAN’S BLUFF, it’s “The Colorado Cattle Caper” ALL OVER again, only not nearly as good, because this time, everyone’s actions are idiotic, and, the story goes on for a half-hour too long.

Perhaps the single most annoying part of this story involves the New York Police not being able to find a photo of Ann, who was in the courtroom for weeks, and, as it turns out, looks exactly like her dead twin sister.  How is it possible nobody realized this?  BAD WRITING, that’s how.

The climax at the Mexican pyramids is visually stunning, but slow, boring, and not really that satisfying.  At least Clifford gets the last line in the story, and it’s genuinely funny when HE says to Sam, “THERE YOU GO!”

[profh0011]

McCLOUD:  Sharks
The Murderous Loan Sharks  (7 of 10)

While Sam is assigned to Pawn Shop duty, he makes a connection between a piece of stolen jewelry and a murdered Navajo girl, who had found herself into dept to loan sharks.  This infuriates an extremely-volatile Detective due to retire soon, who is absolutely determined to go out with ONE solid murder conviction, and doesn’t care in the slightest that the young man suspected of the crime may be innocent!  Sam winds up pulling yet another undercover scam, without bothering to inform his superior.  After Clifford actually has Sam arrested, it’s quite surprising that for the rest of the story, he suddenly becomes very calm and reasonable, allowing Sam to continue with his scam, providing he stays away from the Detective who wouldn’t mind seeing Sam come to a bad end.

Woodrow Parfrey (THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES) is “Arden”, the pawn-shop owner who complains to Sam about his not having anything better to do than brow-beat hard-working businessmen.

Christopher George (THE RAT PATROL, THE IMMORTAL) is “Vincent Burns”, a loan shark who charges insane interest fees as a way of getting his hooks into people and businesses.  He goes one step too far when he accidentally kills one of his “customers” in an alley.  And he can’t afford to let HIS boss find this out!

Dick Haymes (STATE FAIR) is “Bruce Carpenter”, who tells Burns he’s given him endless opportunities, but he keeps thinking small.

Sandra Ego (THE TRIAL OF BILLY JACK) is “Susan”, who came to New York to become an actress, got involved with a married man, but fell into financial troubles when he dumped her.  She winds up getting killed while trying to avoid being forced into prostitution to pay back the loan sharks.  It’s only Sam’s recognizing that she was a Navajo from his part of the country that puts him on the trail of her killer.

A Martinez (many guest appearances on TV shows) is “Larry Moreno”, accused of murder, whose only hope is that Sam believes someone else did it.

Martin E. Brooks (6 episodes of McMILLAN & WIFE) is “Mr. Bentley”, the rich married man Susan had an affair with, who refused to help her because he was in the middle of a card game.

Pat Hingle (HANG ‘EM HIGH) is “Lieutenant Easton”, who’s practically murderous toward Sam, warning him to stay out of his way, especially after Sam punches his lights out to prevent his unofficial undercover operation being blown.

Lynda Day George (45 episodes of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE) is “Stacy Decker”, who steers likely candidates into the hands of Burns, winds up falling for Sam, and only when it’s too late comes to regret what she’s been involved in.

Herbert Jefferson Jr. (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) is “Father Livingston”, who’s NOT really a Priest, but cons people into raising bail money for Moreno, and convinces Moreno to take a plea bargain, so they can get him out of prison and MURDER him.

For a 2-hour episode, this one didn’t feel padded out at all… until the last act, when it seemed to slow to a crawl during what should have been a high-tension climax!  OH WELL.  It was interesting, seeing Sam use the exact same “background cover” (a friend in Taos) that he’d previously used in “The Park Avenue Rustlers” (a nice bit of continuity).  It was also VERY nice to see Chief Clifford being reasonable, once Sam explained exactly what he was doing and why.  Seeing Clifford apoplectic can be funny, but I agree with whoever it was that once said, the longer Clifford & McCloud worked together, the more ridiculous it was to see Clifford act like McCloud DIDN’T know what he was doing!

[profh0011]

McCLOUD:  Return To The Alamo
Norton In Charge  (8 of 10)

A bomber is blowing up public buildings.  A copycat is theatening to blow up Police HQ.  A third of the night shift has called in sick due to a flu bug.  A mother addicted to drugs has stolen her drug-addicted baby from the hospital, and it will die painfully if not found within 5 hours.  And as if that’s not enough, Sam’s longtime on-again off-again journalist girlfriend Chris Caughlin—the Commissioner’s cousin—comes by to sit in on a “strategy meeting”, and pass on the suggestion that women should have “broader opportunities of participation”.  Which is the LAST thing Chief Clifford needs when his idea of a “strategy meeting” is less a discussion and more of a speech where HE talks, and nobody else interrupts.  At least, it WAS the last thing he needed—until HE catches the flu himself, and has to run out.

On Sam’s suggestion, Joe Broadhurst is given a 2nd chance to be in charge.  Which pisses Chris off, to say the least.  But Sgt. Phyllis Norton—that delightful, enthusiastic, if somewhat ditzy blonde—is assigned as 2nd in command.  What could go wrong?  Well, when the brother of a drug addict who decided to pull a liquor store holdup suddenly holds Joe at gunpoint, intent on breaking his brother out of jail, then kidnaps Joe right out of Police HQ—suddenly, Phyllis Norton is in charge.

Amazingly, once she finds out what’s going on, Norton manages to deal with things far better than one might have imagined!  But things continue to escalate.  When Sam has every known high-level drug dealer hauled in to help find the missing baby, there’s real irony when we find of them works for the father of the kid who pulled the liquor store hold-up.  And when he sends one of his henchman to sort things out, and he decides to take Joe back into Police HQ at gunpoint, they find the entire building deserted because of the bomb threat.

WHO but Glen Larson would write something like this in the 1970s?  It’s no wonder he became one of my favorite writers, and inspired some of my own writing over the years.

Among the guest-cast are Diana Muldaur (ST:TNG), Teri Garr (YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN), Larry Storch (F TROOP), Jeanne Cooper (THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS), Brad Dexter (THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN), John Finnegan (13 episodes of COLUMBO), Coleen Gray, Robert Weaver, Regis Cordic, Roger E. Mosley, Lawrence Montaigne (I finally recognized him as the guy who was in STAR TREK: Amok Time), and a cameo by Don Seigel (who directed COOGAN’S BLUFF, which got this whole mess started—heh).

This was definitely Teri Garr’s shining moment on the series, which she’d been on from time to time since its 1st season.  Sadly for me, her movie career really picked up big-time right after this, making this her final appearance on the show.  Given a choice between “Chris Caughlin” and “Phyllis Norton”, I know which one I’D have preferred asking out!