Season 1 (1984-1985)
Initially placed in a Friday-night slot against the then-popular Dallas (also a Lorimar production), 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.
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.
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.
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 arrivals of Charles Hallahan as Captain Charlie Devane and Garrett Morris as police informant and street hustler Arnold “Sporty” James. When Hunter went missing, Dee Dee teamed with Columbo-like Detective Kitty O’Hearn (Shelley Taylor Morgan) (Shades episode #22). This was the show’s first season in the top 30, coming in at 25th.
Season 4 (1987-1988)
Huggins retired at the end of the fourth season, which placed 18th in the Nielsen Ratings. A three-part storyline, “City of Passion,” teamed Hunter and Dee Dee with Detective Kitty O’Hearn (Shelley Taylor Morgan) and her new partner, Sgt. Brad Navarro, played by Erik Estrada. Together they solved the rape case of “Stinky”.
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. The fifth season placed 17th in the Nielsen ratings.
Season 6 (1989-1990)
By the sixth season, Dryer’s growing influence had won him the role of executive producer. The sixth season featured an episode (”Unfinished Business”) in which it was revealed that Hunter and McCall had once slept together, which suddenly cropped up to cause a rift in their working relationship. At the end of the sixth season, which placed in the top 25 of the Nielsen Ratings, Kramer left the series to pursue a career in music. In the season’s final episode, McCall was shown marrying an old flame and moving out of Los Angeles.
Season 7 (1990-1991)
For the seventh and final season, the producers moved the lead character (and Capt. Devane) from divisional homicide to the elite “Metro” unit based at Parker Center, and NBC shifted the show to 10 p.m. on Wednesdays. A new female co-star, Darlanne Fluegel as Officer Joanne Molenski, was brought in, only to leave halfway through the season when her character was murdered by a female serial killer. Her replacement for the second half of the season was Lauren Lane as Sgt. Chris Novak. Hunter’s signature unmarked vehicle, a moss green ‘76-’78 era Dodge Monaco/Plymouth Fury, was also finally replaced (after an accident with Molenski’s cruiser in the season’s first episode) by a silver ‘90 Ford LTD. For the first time (barring the sixth season finale) Hunter also made sporadic appearances in uniform.
