Francais | English | Espanõl

Hunter (TV series)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Hunter
240px

Hunter

</small>

Genre Drama
Running time 1 hour
Creator(s) Frank Lupo
Starring Fred Dryer
Stepfanie Kramer
Charles Hallahan
John Amos
Bruce Davison
Darlanne Fluegel
Lauren Lane
Arthur Rosenburg
John Shearin
Garrett Morris
James Whitmore Jr.
Ruby Ramos
Perry Cook
Richard Beauchamp
Courtney Barilla
Country of origin Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States
Original channel NBC
Original run September 18, 1984–April 26, 1991
No. of episodes 153
IMDb profile

Hunter was a police drama television series starring Fred Dryer which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1991. The titular character, Rick Hunter, was a wily, physically imposing, and oftentimes rule-breaking homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. Stepfanie Kramer co-starred in the first six of the series' seven seasons as Hunter's female partner Dee Dee McCall.

Created by Frank Lupo, the show in its early episodes played as television's answer to Dirty Harry. Even after the show's violence was toned down, Hunter and McCall still managed to resolve many cases the old-fashioned way, by shooting the perpetrators dead.

The show's co-executive producer was noted producer Stephen J. Cannell, whose company produced the series. It was co-produced by Lorimar Productions.

Contents

[edit] Show history

[edit] Season 1 (1984-1985)

Initially placed in a Friday-night slot against the then-popular Dallas, the show struggled to find an audience and drew criticism for its often graphic depiction of violence. In the first season, the producers sought to create a hook by giving the main character a catchphrase, "Works for me", which was sometimes used two or three times an episode and was even tacked on to the end of Mike Post and Pete Carpenter's opening theme music. Several early episodes featured montages set to popular songs from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Image:Hunter Cast.jpg
Mid-way through the first season, with ratings showing no sign of improvement, Cannell gave network chief Brandon Tartikoff a private screening of a two-part episode ("The Snow Queen") that had yet to air and asked him to give the show time to find its feet. Tartikoff liked what he saw and put the show on hiatus until a better time slot could be found. Two months later, Hunter returned to the screens on Saturday nights and viewership slowly started to rise. The first season ended in joint 79th place in the Nielsen Ratings.

[edit] Season 2 (1985-1986)

For its second season, Cannell brought in his mentor, Roy Huggins, best known for his work on Maverick and The Rockford Files, to refine the show. As the new executive producer, Huggins toned down the violence, softened the main character's fractious relationship with his superiors, dropped a backstory concerning Hunter's family ties to the mob, and played up the chemistry between Hunter and McCall. Huggins also moved the show's setting out of the back streets and into the more desirable areas of Los Angeles. Emboldened, Dryer and Kramer frequently toyed with the scripts by ad-libbing, and the Hunter character broke the fourth wall for the first time with an aside to viewers at the end of the two-parter "The Beautiful And The Dead". Viewers responded to the changes, and the show's second season ended in 38th place in the Nielsen Ratings. Hunter continued this progress to become a mainstay of NBC's Saturday night schedule.

[edit] Season 3 (1986-1987)

Just before work on the third season began, Dryer threatened to walk out unless his salary, reportedly US$21,000 per episode, was raised and creative changes were made. Cannell hit back with a US$20 million breach-of-contract suit. A compromise was reached, with Dryer reportedly landing a new deal worth US$50,000 per episode. The third season, again helmed by Huggins, saw the arrival of Charles Hallahan as Captain Charlie Devane.

[edit] Season 4 (1987-1988)

Huggins retired at the end of the fourth season, which placed 18th in the Nielsen Ratings.

[edit] Season 5 (1988-1989)

For the fifth season, George Geiger took on the role of executive producer, having worked in the same capacity on Scarecrow and Mrs. King and as co-executive producer on Miami Vice. In the first four seasons, Hunter and McCall typically worked on cases together, allowing the producers to showcase the chemistry between the actors. But the fifth season increasingly had them working apart, ostensibly to lessen the workload of Dryer and Kramer and to allow richer, more complex stories.

[edit] Season 6 (1989-1990)

By the sixth season, Dryer's growing influence had won him the role of executive producer. The sixth season featured one episode ("Unfinished Business") in which it was revealed that Hunter and McCall had once slept together. At the end of the sixth season, which placed in the top 25 of the Nielsen Ratings, Kramer left to pursue a career in music. In the season's final episode, McCall was shown marrying an old flame.

[edit] Season 7 (1990-1991)

For the seventh and final season, the producers moved the lead character from homicide to metro division, and NBC shifted the show to 10 p.m. on Wednesdays. A new female co-star, Darlanne Fluegel, was brought in, only to leave halfway through the season. Her replacement was Lauren Lane.

[edit] Revivals

A revival TV movie, The Return of Hunter: Everybody Walks in L.A., saw Dryer and Hallahan reprise their roles. Airing on NBC in April 1995, the movie took the O.J. Simpson case as its inspiration. Kramer, pregnant at the time, did not appear.

In November 2002, eleven years after the original series ended, the TV movie Hunter: Return to Justice made its premiere to strong ratings. Kramer returned to her role of McCall, but the show's setting switched from Los Angeles to San Diego.

Given the success of the revival, Cannell, Dryer and NBC attempted to bring back Hunter as a regular series. In the weeks following the airing in April 2003 of another TV movie, Hunter: Back in Force, the network broadcast three new one-hour episodes of Hunter. Another two episodes were filmed but never shown in the U.S, likely because the ratings demographics for the one-hour episodes skewed toward older viewers. Dryer subsequently cited creative difficulties and budget constraints.

[edit] Firearms

In the pilot episode, Rick Hunter used a Desert Eagle in .44 Magnum and Dee Dee McCall used a Walther PPK in .32 ACP.

In the first season and for several subsequent seasons, the pistol that Hunter carries is a Heckler and Koch P9S with a muzzle compensator attached. It is also the pistol in the title introduction. It is unclear what caliber it is, but the sound effects indicate (as well as testosterone) that it is in .45ACP. This pistol was more commonly encountered in 9mm, however. It is also interesting to note the variations in McCall's firearms. She even used a stainless Beretta Model 90 in the first season. The Walther PPK that McCall uses is most likely a PPK/S, because the PPK was not available in stainless in the US until 1986. The Desert Eagle that he uses in the occasional episode was a gift from his Mafia father for graduating.

During the first two seasons, he used a Desert Eagle in .44 Magnum and she used a Walther PPK in .32 ACP.

During seasons 3 and 4, both Rick and Dee Dee used Smith & Wesson Model 629 in .44 Magnum.

During seasons 5 through 7, Rick used a Beretta 92F/FS in 9mm Luger, while during seasons 5 through 6 Dee Dee used a Smith & Wesson Model 629 in .44 Magnum, this time in Stainless Steel.

[edit] International airings

[edit] DVD releases

Season # DVD release date Notes
1 January 11, 2005
2 July 12, 2005
3 January 3, 2006
4 TBA

[edit] External links

it:Hunter sv:Hunter (TV-serie)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/Hunter_%28TV_series%29"
Personal tools