Hunter (1984) - General Discussion

[WendyCR72]

Shout! TV buys the rights to Stephen J. Cannell's library; plans for streaming of those properties. Hunter is on the list.

[Thomas Crown]

On 3/12/2020 at 10:31 PM, WendyCR72 said:

Shout! TV buys the rights to Stephen J. Cannell's library; plans for streaming of those properties. Hunter is on the list.

I was hoping that would include a physical release too as Shout did a fantastic job when they got the rights to WKRP.  But if it's only streaming maybe they can fix Hunter along with Wiseguy and Greatest American Hero to include original broadcast music.  

I did finally get my region free blu-ray player (LG as you suggested/recommended) so I'm good to order the European version of Hunter.  Finding the time to watch is always the challenge, but nice to have the region free player available. 

 

[WendyCR72]

4 minutes ago, Thomas Crown said:

I was hoping that would include a physical release too as Shout did a fantastic job when they got the rights to WKRP.  But if it's only streaming maybe they can fix Hunter along with Wiseguy and Greatest American Hero to include original broadcast music.  

I did finally get my region free blu-ray player (LG as you suggested/recommended) so I'm good to order the European version of Hunter.  Finding the time to watch is always the challenge, but nice to have the region free player available. 

 

I have a feeling it will be the same US copies with the replacement music. But I'm glad you got the player! If you need help with the DVD choices, let me know!

[Thomas Crown]

3 minutes ago, WendyCR72 said:

I have a feeling it will be the same US copies with the replacement music. But I'm glad you got the player! If you need help with the DVD choices, let me know!

Thanks I probably will.  I have to admit one of the reasons for getting the region free player was that I wanted to pick up the remaining seasons of Picket Fences along with Hunter. I have the U.S. release for Hunter but after you posted one of the YouTube clips with the original music, I lost interest in revisiting that version of Hunter from the U.S. release.  

PS: On the "Rookie", I'm thinking Bradford needs a catchphrase .... how about "works for me!" It would suit his character 🙂 

[WendyCR72]

Because I am so bored, here is the opening to "Fire Man" from S1 [from my YT account, just uploaded], featuring Talking Heads' "Burning Down The House". Again, this is from the Region 2 German set, with the original music. Enjoy!

 

[Jaded]

Thanks @WendyCR72!

Those scenes hand a lot more impact with the original music.

[WendyCR72]

13 hours ago, Jaded said:

Thanks @WendyCR72!

Those scenes hand a lot more impact with the original music.

It does. The other songs in this episode used were "The Unforgettable Fire" by a then little-known group called U2 and "Playing With Fire" by The Rolling Stones. I'm sensing a theme. 

This show loved its Rolling Stones songs. Songs were used in a lot of S1 episodes besides the one above including "The Shooter" ("Sympathy For The Devil"), "The Garbage Man" ("Little Red Rooster"), and "The Beach Boy" ("Gimme Shelter").

[WendyCR72]

Another video from "Fire Man" as my boredom continues. Here is the just-uploaded scene where Hunter and McCall and Matt the nosy reporter follows the firebug. Set to "Unforgettable Fire" by U2 (as it was on NBC ages ago):

 

[Jaded]

@WendyCR72 I've had that Talking Heads song stuck in my head since I first watched the clip you posted above.

[WendyCR72]

15 hours ago, Jaded said:

@WendyCR72 I've had that Talking Heads song stuck in my head since I first watched the clip you posted above.

I do what I can!  😉 (I just hope - since it is stuck - it's a song you like! (Nothing worse than having a song you hate looping in your head!)

[WendyCR72]

And I give you the scene as the perp prepares for another fire in "Fire Man", a montage set to "Playing With Fire" by The Rolling Stones. Enjoy!

 

[Thomas Crown]

On 4/4/2020 at 12:47 AM, WendyCR72 said:

And I give you the scene as the perp prepares for another fire in "Fire Man", a montage set to "Playing With Fire" by The Rolling Stones. Enjoy!

 

Those clips are amazing!  Thanks for uploading.  Now you are just rubbing it in for those of us who have the inferior North American DVDs with the music edits. 😀 😜  

 

[WendyCR72]

1 minute ago, Thomas Crown said:

Those clips are amazing!  Thanks for uploading.  Now you are just rubbing it in for those of us who have the inferior North American DVDs with the music edits. 😀 😜  

 

Not at all. Sharing the wealth.  🙂 Hopefully, you can get the German set soon. I see Amazon.de has suspended overseas shipping due to the virus. I'll keep an eye out for you.

[Thomas Crown]

9 minutes ago, WendyCR72 said:

Not at all. Sharing the wealth.  🙂 Hopefully, you can get the German set soon. I see Amazon.de has suspended overseas shipping due to the virus. I'll keep an eye out for you.

We are grateful that you are sharing these clips. 😀 Honestly, while I loved Hunter when it played I never remembered how much music they used on the show or how integral it was to the episodes unlike say other shows from the 80's like Miami Vice.  Even when I watched most of season 1 a few years ago I barely noticed the music substitutions or edits. Those clips that you've posted makes a huge difference.  

[WendyCR72]

Another opening episode clip (this time it is for "The Garbage Man") with a pre-Married With Children/Modern Family actor Ed O' Neill with his name misspelled as O'Niell in the credits. You will also see the name of Fran McDormand in the credits. As in future Oscar winner, Frances McDormand! Guessing this was when she was just starting out.

And, naturally, it begins with a tune by - who else? - The Rolling Stones and "Little Red Rooster":

 

[WendyCR72]

Actor Brian Dennehy, who played the homicidal police shrink all the way back in the pilot, died at 81. (Not COVID related.) His daughter, who was an actress on Guiding Light in the '80s, posted this:

 

[WendyCR72]

If anyone has any clips they would like (and remember to know! LOL!), I'd be glad to do so. There are clips with popular music from "The Sniper", "The Beach Boy", and "The Shooter", to name but a few.

[Jaded]

I just watched "The Girl Next Door" from season three. Hunter calling McCall love muffin and the vibrating bed in that tacky honeymoon suite were really funny. I don't remember having seen that episode before. I wasn't able to watch the show when it originally ran on NBC and have never watched the series straight through. So there are episodes here and there that I've never seen. 

[WendyCR72]

4 hours ago, Jaded said:

I wasn't able to watch the show when it originally ran on NBC

To think this show (as well as The Golden Girls, airing an hour before Hunter) aired on Saturday nights! Ah, the days when networks didn't give up on original Saturday programming!

[WendyCR72]

I see the show no longer streams on Hulu. I wonder if it has to do with the new streaming deal with Shout! TV as I had previously noted above? I do know, however, that all seasons CAN be streamed (with crappy replacement music) on Amazon Prime video if you subscribe to their IMDB channel.

(For that matter, Silk Stalkings, which was also on Hulu for years with all seasons to stream, was also pulled. That is also part of the new Shout! deal, too, if I recall. Same deal for that show as far as Prime video/an IMDB subscription goes. Except, unlike Hunter, only the first 4 seasons (out of eight) are available.)

Makes me wonder when Shout! plans to stream and where...

[WendyCR72]

The new streaming home of all seven seasons of Hunter can now be found on Peacock, the newest NBC-owned streaming service that just launched yesterday. There are paid and free tiers. Assuming this will be included in the free tier.

Enjoy!

[WendyCR72]

I know, I know, different era. But I was watching "Silver Bullet" on Peacock, and I must have watched too much Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent on there, too, because Hunter and Charlie touching and passing the bullet around without gloves was driving me batty!  😛

But then, Hunter was just meant to be escapist fun, not close to real (even if the 2003 series did try to stick closer to the L&O formula by then!), but still, it made me squirm.  😉 Oh, well! And I had forgotten the episode was based upon a real novel, "Deadly Justice" by Dallas Barnes. (As was the entire "City of Passion" arc with a novel of the same name, also by Dallas Barnes!)

[WendyCR72]

So here is a bit of irony I forgot! Of course, Dee Dee is shot and paralyzed in Season 3 by, I believe, by Louise Hemings, who was played by Jeanna Michaels. Fast forward to Season 5, and in the episode, "Code 3", Dee Dee remarks to the male ER doc how a bed a juvenile shooting victim was her bed back in '87. (Of course, said male doc was not there originally, but the show made it sound like he was involved with Dee Dee's care at some point.

Anyway, as he jokes with Dee Dee about his medical skills, she tells him not to take all the credit, as she names a fellow doctor, Jan Bennett, a friend of hers we see this episode (and whom we discover said male ER doc knew quite well...) and the victim of the episode.

Jan Bennett was played by...Jeanna Michaels!

So a JM character shot Dee Dee and the female victim that helped her recover was also played by a JM character. Talk about full circle!

Thanks to Peacock for making spying this stuff so easy!

[WendyCR72]

Here's something kind of nasty I thought of as I was watching "Night On Bald Mountain" on Peacock. Okay, so we recall that more family murders took place at the family home that Hunter/McCall went to to try and get answers. Hunter lied to McCall, telling her they could not get a plow out. Okay.

So when all the family members were being picked off one by one, were they just lying there rotting, stinking up the house? As it was over a night, probably, but wow. Ick.

(Yes, I do think far too much about crap like this. LOL!)

[eel21788]

1 hour ago, WendyCR72 said:

Here's something kind of nasty I thought of as I was watching "Night On Bald Mountain" on Peacock. Okay, so we recall that more family murders took place at the family home that Hunter/McCall went to to try and get answers. Hunter lied to McCall, telling her they could not get a plow out. Okay.

So when all the family members were being picked off one by one, were they just lying there rotting, stinking up the house? As it was over a night, probably, but wow. Ick.

(Yes, I do think far too much about crap like this. LOL!)

I think they move them outside into the cold. "Ice rules as a preservative," --Abby Scuito

[eel21788]

On 8/3/2020 at 1:23 AM, WendyCR72 said:

 😉 Oh, well! And I had forgotten the episode was based upon a real novel, "Deadly Justice" by Dallas Barnes. (As was the entire "City of Passion" arc with a novel of the same name, also by Dallas Barnes!)

I read City of Passion, and the adaption for television actually improved the story greatly. I don't know if Dallas Barnes did the adaption himself, or if that was turned over to Hunter's regular writers. Either way, it made for awesome TV. 

[WendyCR72]

For those that may have Peacock to stream Hunter (or anything else!) and a Roku, a deal has been reached. You can now add Peacock via the Roku Channel Store to your Home screen.

[WendyCR72]

Besides Peacock, if you have Sling, Hunter can be found on the ZLiving network. Believe it does 4 episodes a day. Two in the early afternoon, two in prime time. you can also stream the ZLiving channel on Roku, too.

[WendyCR72]

ZLiving has currently been airing Season 7 of Hunter (but will circle back to the beginning by the end of the week as the channel shows four episodes a day, two in the afternoon and two more in prime time). I swear Season 7 seems like a whole different series than the prior six seasons and not just because Stepfanie Kramer had left.

The sort of lighter aspect was totally absent in that last season. And, IMO, the only chemistry left was between Hunter and Charlie Devane, probably due to their history. But between moving the setting by Season 6 and losing McCall/SK, the show seemed to shift drastically in tone.

[WendyCR72]

Besides ZLiving, you can watch the show on Pluto TV on its Crime Drama channel using a Roku device. Not sure if the Amazon devices have the channel or not.

[Jaded]

7 minutes ago, WendyCR72 said:

Besides ZLiving, you can watch the show on Pluto TV on its Crime Drama channel using a Roku device. Not sure if the Amazon devices have the channel or not.

I'm pretty sure Pluto carries the same channels no matter what device it's used on. Do the commercials Pluto airs increase in volume a lot when watching with a Roku? They do with Amazon devices and it drives me crazy. I can have the volume level on 2 or 3 and all of a sudden I hear this loud commercial when I shouldn't be hearing much of anything with the volume that low.

To keep this post on topic I've been watching Buzzr through the Stirr app to avoid those intentionally loud commercials Pluto has. One of the channels on that app is Charge! which is also a regular TV channel too. While watching Buzzr I keep seeing commercials that Charge! has started to air Hunter too. It looks like it's on in the mornings. Charge! also has a live-stream on their website. 

[WendyCR72]

1 minute ago, Jaded said:

I'm pretty sure Pluto carries the same channels no matter what device it's used on. Do the commercials Pluto airs increase in volume a lot when watching with a Roku? They do with Amazon devices and it drives me crazy. I can have the volume level on 2 or 3 and all of a sudden I hear this loud commercial when I shouldn't be hearing much of anything with the volume that low.

To keep this post on topic I've been watching Buzzr through the Stirr app to avoid those intentionally loud commercials Pluto has. One of the channels on that app is Charge! which is also a regular TV channel too. While watching Buzzr I keep seeing commercials that Charge! has started to air Hunter too. It looks like it's on in the mornings. Charge! also has a live-stream on their website. 

I've heard of Charge. Not sure my cable provider carries it, though. And I agree, the ads on Pluto get crazy loud!

On ZLiving, it airs Silk Stalkings and Hunter back to back. Two very different male/female cop shows, but I like both.

[Jaded]

I was watching Hunter on ZLiving last night watched the episode where Ambrose's wife dies and he's dead by the end of it too. That episode never fails to peeve me off because of the way his character was written off the show. I guess viewers were supposed to attribute his behavior to the wife's health situation and the aftermath.

[WendyCR72]

13 hours ago, Jaded said:

I was watching Hunter on ZLiving last night watched the episode where Ambrose's wife dies and he's dead by the end of it too. That episode never fails to peeve me off because of the way his character was written off the show. I guess viewers were supposed to attribute his behavior to the wife's health situation and the aftermath.

Yeah, it was explicitly said that when Ambrose saw his wife start to deteriorate/die, he lost it. On some level, I got what the show was aiming for: That the criminals got to go on and elude justice and good people suffered.

But Ambrose Finn, up until then, was a great cop. So the 180 was jarring. (But maybe John Shearin enjoyed getting such a grand send off for his character!)

[WendyCR72]

The show is now airing on the sub-channel Charge!, weekdays from 10:00 a.m. until noon. It's in S1 as of now.

[CeeBeeGee]

Rediscovering this series on cable--I remember liking the first season when I was in high school but then went off to college and forgot about it. As formulaic as it was (the Dirty Harry cop was a hugely popular trope in the '80s, plus that standard staccato Mike Post underscoring), it's still very entertaining, mainly due to the chemistry of the two leads. Dryer wasn't exactly Laurence Olivier and his range is pretty small but he does have this laconic chill charm, especially with Kramer. They are adorable together--I haven't watched the whole season so go ahead and spoil it for me--did they ever sleep together? I hope not, because their relationship--living, respectful friends and partners (I like it that she calls him her best friend)--is fantastic.

Another thing I'm noticing watching Dryer--he sure is lean for a former NFL player! I know NFL players were smaller then (William Perry was nicknamed the Refrigerator because he was an anomaly) but for someone so tall, you'd think he would have a few more pounds on him.

[Raja]

1 hour ago, CeeBeeGee said:

Rediscovering this series on cable--I remember liking the first season when I was in high school but then went off to college and forgot about it. As formulaic as it was (the Dirty Harry cop was a hugely popular trope in the '80s, plus that standard staccato Mike Post underscoring), it's still very entertaining, mainly due to the chemistry of the two leads. Dryer wasn't exactly Laurence Olivier and his range is pretty small but he does have this laconic chill charm, especially with Kramer. They are adorable together--I haven't watched the whole season so go ahead and spoil it for me--did they ever sleep together? I hope not, because their relationship--living, respectful friends and partners (I like it that she calls him her best friend)--is fantastic.

Another thing I'm noticing watching Dryer--he sure is lean for a former NFL player! I know NFL players were smaller then (William Perry was nicknamed the Refrigerator because he was an anomaly) but for someone so tall, you'd think he would have a few more pounds on him.

As a player he was considered small/thin as he was a defensive lineman. In a way a prototype of the freaks that could also play linebacker which came around just as he retired 

[WendyCR72]

On 3/20/2021 at 8:48 PM, CeeBeeGee said:

I haven't watched the whole season so go ahead and spoil it for me--did they ever sleep together?

Well...yes. [The show is long off the air; spoiler tags are unnecessary!] But the viewers were not privy to it until the episode "Unfinished Business" in Season 6, which involved another female cop, Megan Malone, who irritated McCall (long story, but Dee Dee was sort of jealous of the rapport she and Hunter had when it was revealed she went to Quantico (around the S4 time line)).

Fast forward to Malone, now a lieutenant, reemerging on a new case with them and Hunter/McCall accidentally holding guns on each other and almost shooting, they had begun to bicker/argue. So they went - separately at first - to see the police shrink, played by Allan Arbus, who famously played another shrink, Major Sidney Freedman, on MASH, to sort things out. Once McCall discovered Hunter was also seeing the doc, they went together, and that little bombshell dropped, complete with retconned/fake flashbacks as to when and how it came about.

(And the end, once Hunter/McCall were back on good footing, had Hunter driving McCall home from...somewhere [I think, been a while!] and McCall asking Hunter if he wanted to come in for coffee, which is sort of how that all started. We never hear his answer as enter freeze frame and end credits...)

[CeeBeeGee]

11 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Well...yes. [The show is long off the air; spoiler tags are unnecessary!] But the viewers were not privy to it until the episode "Unfinished Business" in Season 6, which involved another female cop, Megan Malone, who irritated McCall (long story, but Dee Dee was sort of jealous of the rapport she and Hunter had when it was revealed she went to Quantico (around the S4 time line).

Fast forward to Malone, now a lieutenant, reemerging on a new case with them and Hunter/McCall accidentally holding guns on each other and almost shooting, they had begun to bicker/argue. So they went - separately at first - to see the police shrink, played by Allan Arbus, who famously played another shrink, Major Sidney Freedman, on MASH, to sort things out. Once McCall discovered Hunter was also seeing the doc, they went together, and that little bombshell dropped, complete with retconned/fake flashbacks as to when and how it came about.

(And the end, once Hunter/McCall were back on good footing, had Hunter driving McCall home from...somewhere [I think, been a while!] and McCall asking Hunter if he wanted to come in for coffee, which is sort of how that all started. We never hear his answer as enter freeze frame and end credits...

Okay, that sounds plausible and even fun. Just glad they didn't ruin that awesome chemistry by trying to put them together.

[WendyCR72]

On 3/21/2021 at 4:54 PM, CeeBeeGee said:

Okay, that sounds plausible and even fun. Just glad they didn't ruin that awesome chemistry by trying to put them together.

For anyone that wants to revisit this or missed it and wants to see the whole "sleeping together" revelation from "Unfinished Business" in Season 6, I posted it to Dropbox.

For some reason, YouTube has blocked this clip in the US. (No idea why.)

[Alan Reeser]

The entire series is on YouTube now

[CeeBeeGee]

Just saw the episode where Hunter gets made up as a punk--holy crap! I could not stop laughing. His resigned, over-it mien was effing hilarious.

[WendyCR72]

"Code 3" from S5 just ended on Charge!. It has one of the most abrupt endings I've seen [the episode where a pregnant doctor is murdered which involved a land developer]. Hunter shoots the developer out of a chopper, he falls out to the ground. Hunter goes over to check the body. Cue end credits!

[Jaded]

On 7/13/2021 at 1:00 AM, WendyCR72 said:

"Code 3" from S5 just ended on Charge!. It has one of the most abrupt endings I've seen [the episode where a pregnant doctor is murdered which involved a land developer]. Hunter shoots the developer out of a chopper, he falls out to the ground. Hunter goes over to check the body. Cue end credits!

I remember seeing that ending when I was watching the Hunter on H&I a few years ago after having not seen the show in quite awhile. I thought something happened on the network end then realized the ending didn't make the episode any shorter.  

[Thomas Crown]

Revisiting this show is such a great time capsule to all those 80's cop shows that I grew up with and Hunter holds up really well IMO.  Obviously it doesn't have the visual appeal/style that a show like Miami Vice had in the 80s with it use of vibrant colors but it's still fun to watch for the 80's throwback. 

Despite watching the show religiously back in the 80s, I have little recollection of any of the episodes so it's like watching the show for the first time. I've been sampling episodes from the early seasons based on the episode titles only.  I don't see myself having the time to rewatch all 7 seasons so I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations they would like to share of their favorite episodes that they would recommend from any season? I unfortunately procrastinated and did not order the German DVD sets with original music. Looks like that set is now OOO.  Instead I have the Region 1 DVDs with music substitutions.   

Edited September 6, 2021 by Thomas Crown

[WendyCR72]

The German set IS still available. Newer packaging. It is temporarily out of stock, but Amazon is still taking orders. So, if you want it, grab it while you still can, @Thomas Crown! The US price is $42.72. (The German Amazon site allows you to pay in your own currency.)

[eel21788]

19 hours ago, Thomas Crown said:

  I don't see myself having the time to rewatch all 7 seasons so I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations they would like to share of their favorite episodes that they would recommend from any season? 

Season 2: Rape and Revenge (parts 1 and 2)

Season 4: City of Passion (parts 1, 2 and 3)

[Thomas Crown]

On 9/7/2021 at 2:07 PM, eel21788 said:

Season 2: Rape and Revenge (parts 1 and 2)

Season 4: City of Passion (parts 1, 2 and 3)

I watched recently "City of Passion" *** and really enjoyed it. It actually references those two season 2 episodes that you recommended. I was surprised to see Erik Estrada in these 3 episodes and he was actually pretty good as the Cop who's marriage is falling apart. 

I've been sampling episodes from the first 4 seasons and I have to say that even though it last many seasons on NBC, I think that Hunter was a very underrated show during that period.  I don't think it got enough recognition for being a very good cop show. It's gritty and not afraid to take chances with the storylines.  

*** WendyCR72 ... hopefully in the original broadcast there wasn't that much original music since I watched these episodes on my flawed Region 1 set  😀

[WendyCR72]

2 hours ago, Thomas Crown said:

I watched recently "City of Passion" *** and really enjoyed it. It actually references those two season 2 episodes that you recommended. I was surprised to see Erik Estrada in these 3 episodes and he was actually pretty good as the Cop who's marriage is falling apart. 

I've been sampling episodes from the first 4 seasons and I have to say that even though it last many seasons on NBC, I think that Hunter was a very underrated show during that period.  I don't think it got enough recognition for being a very good cop show. It's gritty and not afraid to take chances with the storylines.  

*** WendyCR72 ... hopefully in the original broadcast there wasn't that much original music since I watched these episodes on my flawed Region 1 set  😀

LOL! Actually, I think by S4, not a lot of popular music was used. The only time I remember any in the later seasons was when Dee Dee was dancing with Alex to Ambrosia's "Biggest Part of Me".

[WendyCR72]

Obviously, based on the last name alone, I knew the late Charles Hallahan was of Irish ancestry. But, even though he was American, his grave is featured in the latest installment of a great and popular YouTube channel, Hollywood Graveyard.

This one is part of a viewers' special, where watchers from around the globe highlight graves of famous people in their part of the world. (The narrator, Arthur Dark, has gone to many places but, based on the channel's name, is primarily in California!)  One of them, in the video below, is of Hallahan's grave, with a likeness of his face on the stone. He was laid to rest in Ireland! Pretty neat. His portion begins at the 7:57 mark. (Also in this video singer Dolores O' Riordan of The Cranberries, among others, is also highlighted at the very beginning of this same video!):