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.
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.
