The Checklist: Hunter (S2 Ep5) “Killer in a Halloween Mask”
While I could not get enough of 80s action/adventure series like The A-Team and Knight Rider back in the day, Hunter was a show that I only watched sparingly during its initial 7 season run on NBC.
Now thanks to a world filled with streaming apps and free ad supported television, I have found myself watching more Hunter than ever before, so it only made sense that I should put an episode of Hunter to The Checklist test…
#1. Does the show have a quality open?
Nothing says quality like a theme song composed by the dynamic duo of Mike Post and Pete Carpenter. Post and Carpenter are the me responsible for the theme songs for The A-Team, Quantum Leap, The Rockford Files, Magnum P.I. and more. The Hunter theme isn’t just in good company, it’s a damn good theme. The high octane music is accompanied by action highlights from the stars of the show Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer who played Rick Hunter and Dee Dee McCall respectively and plenty of vehicular mayhem to really get the adrenaline pumping. Hunter’s catchphrase “Works for me” capping it off was a nice touch too. 1/1
#2. Did Hunter wreck his car or another car during a police chase?
A running gag of sorts on the series is Hunter’s knack for wrecking his car and/or other cars during police chases, a staple of cop shows for decades, and the source material for the vehicular mayhem featured in the show’s open. As a result of this, Hunter is always given a beater car for his police work since the odds are good he’s going to trash it anyway. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see a car chase in this episode, but we certainly hear about one… 1/2
#3. Did Hunter get into it with his superiors?
Mere minutes into the episode and Hunter and McCall are called into Captain Wyler’s office… who reminds Hunter of the proper procedure for police pursuits and then lists off a bunch of the property that Hunter’s latest high speed chase caused. Hunter felt justified, since he was chasing a killer, but Captain Wyler felt otherwise. Wyler then gives Hunter and McCall an assignment as technical advisors on the hit television series “Street Heat” which will keep Hunter and McCall busy and off the streets until the heat for this latest incident blows over. It was a good plan in theory… Wyler is so confident in his decision he even assigns the nicest car available to Hunter (who opts to go for the worst car and defy Wyler… Classic Hunter). But the car assignment isn’t the only thing that backfires on Wyler, when a m the star of the show is murdered on the set of “Street Heat” and Hunter and McCall are in the thick of it like usual. Nice try Wyler! 2/3
#4. Were there any notable guest stars?
The killer that Hunter and McCall are trying to catch was the original star of “Street Heat”, David Talon. Talon lost his spot on the show after his demons got the better of him. Talon had a freebasing accident, which left one side of his face terribly scarred and he believed that members of the cast/crew messed with his equipment and caused the “accident”. Talon snuck on to the set, wearing a Halloween mask and carrying a squirt gun filled with acid with the intention of disfiguring his replacement on the show, but things escalated and Talon became a full blown murderer. Talon was played by Gary Graham, who I will always remember as the star of Robot Jox.
The other notable guest star on this episode was seen at the very beginning as Hunter and McCall bring in a guy with a nasty toothache who had a violent altercation with his dentist… that guy was named Jesse and he was played by none other than Jesse “The Body” Ventura of Predator and The Running Man fame. Also, I’d like to point out that if you ever wanted to see Rick Hunter practice some “amateur dentistry” then “Killer in a Halloween Mask” is the Hunter episode for you. 3/4
#5. Did the episode get into the Halloween spirit?
With a title like “Killer in a Halloween Mask” and the episode originally airing on October 26, 1985, a scant few days before Halloween, one could assume that the episode would have some Halloween themes.
As I have already mentioned (and the title spells out) David Talon does wear a Halloween mask when he does his attacks… he also wears a mask at his new job at the wax museum, where he goes outside in costume to drum up interest for people to take the tour… a tour that includes a hall of horrors!!
We get to see Dee Dee McCall dress up as a cleaning lady and as the former love interest of Talon… plus, Talon dresses up as a plumber at one point too! 4/5
- Final Score = 4/5 (80%) The lack of a car chase did not work for me and it also prevented “Killer in a Halloween Mask” from achieving a perfect score. However, I have to admit I am a sucker for a good holiday themed television show so it helped soften the blow of no car jumps or flips.
