Police Story (1973)
Police Story is an anthology television crime drama. The show was the brainchild of author and former policeman Joseph Wambaugh and represented a major step forward in the realistic depiction of police work and violence on network TV. Although it was an anthology, there were certain things that all episodes had in common; for instance, the main character in each episode was a police officer. The setting was always Los Angeles and the characters always worked for some branch of the LAPD. Notwithstanding the anthology format, there were recurring characters. Scott Brady appeared in more than a dozen episodes as "Vinnie," a former cop who, upon retirement, had opened a bar catering to police officers, and who acted as a sort of Greek chorus during the run of the series, commenting on the characters and plots.
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Episode 1 - Payment Deferred
Release Date: 1976-09-21Detective Joe Barley enlists Holly, his "retired" snitch and recovering addict, to help him find the man who shot his partner.
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Episode 2 - Bought and Paid For
Release Date: 1976-10-05Detectives Belmont and Melino want the three men involved when a patrolman, the son of a Lieutenant, is killed when he interrupts a bank robbery. The one they need is the psychopath who recruits amateurs in his capers.
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Episode 3 - Two Frogs on a Mongoose
Release Date: 1976-10-12Manny and Deke are on the narcotics squad, investigating a double shooting at a dry cleaning shop, when they get a tip that the shop owner is in business dealing drugs with a man called Mongoose.
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Episode 4 - The Other Side of the Badge
Release Date: 1976-10-26Jack Mitchell is in control and keeps his cool when patrolling with his rookie partner, but his home life with his wife and her teenage daughter is not so tidy.
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Episode 5 - Three Days to Thirty
Release Date: 1976-11-09While working out his last three days before retirement, Frank Moran is assigned a hot case.
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Episode 6 - Trash Detail, Front and Center
Release Date: 1976-11-16Lew Randle, head of the Special Investigations Team, comes back after vacation and is immediately engulfed in the investigations of several armed robberies. He has to buck department politics to take down the violent trio responsible.
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Episode 7 - Thanksgiving
Release Date: 1976-11-23K-Joe and Bunny investigate the sniper shooting of a young girl riding in a car on the freeway.
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Episode 8 - Monster Manor
Release Date: 1976-11-30Gene (Santos) has a falling out with his wife and moves into a temporary bachelor's apartment, which becomes a party hangout for his buddies and attracts a lot of unwanted attention from others.
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Episode 9 - Oxford Gray
Release Date: 1976-12-07Sgt. Kyles and Inv. McLiam try to break up the criminal activities of a local entrepreneur and philanthropist by bringing back his past as a violent revolutionary in Detroit and playing on his paranoia.
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Episode 10 - The Jar (1)
Release Date: 1976-12-14Two detectives are called before the grand jury after a man is shot and killed when they attempt to arrest him.
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Episode 11 - The Jar (2)
Release Date: 1976-12-21Hagen and Triplett are reassigned to an out-of-the-way detail to keep them out of the public eye pending their manslaughter trial.
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Episode 12 - Trial Board
Release Date: 1977-01-04An undercover Vice detective is accused by one of his fellow Vice detectives of stealing cash during a drug bust.
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Episode 13 - Spitfire
Release Date: 1977-01-11Detectives try to track down the two remaining robbers who participated in a tire store holdup that resulted in the deaths of an employee and one of the robbers. Their investigation leads them to a large illegal weapons operation.
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Episode 14 - Nightmare on a Sunday Morning
Release Date: 1977-01-18Holly Green, a 19-year-old waitress is brutally beaten and raped by a pair of creeps, she then reluctantly helps bring her assailants to trial.
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Episode 15 - The Malflores
Release Date: 1977-01-25Officers Webber and Cheruco discover a violent new gang on the streets, the Malflores, comprised entirely of Latinas.
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Episode 16 - The Blue Fog
Release Date: 1977-02-01Veteran Detective Jack McGraw is given the unsavory task of investigating Vice detectives suspected of taking bribes from the Chinese crime family running an illegal gambling operation.
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Episode 17 - Hard Rock Brown
Release Date: 1977-02-15LAPD Narcotics detectives work with a Mexican counterpart to try to break up the operation run by the Alvarez brothers, which is flooding the market with Mexican heroin known as "hard rock brown."
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Episode 18 - End of the Line
Release Date: 1977-02-22Detectives Gerard and Panelli try to catch a pair of armed robbers who hit a supermarket, and are joined by a one-armed former detective, who is now an investigator for the store's insurance company.
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Episode 19 - One of Our Cops Is Crazy
Release Date: 1977-03-01Sgt. Paul Cazenovia uses highly unconventional, albeit successful, methods in his undercover narcotics unit, but his lieutenant thinks he is crazy. It doesn't help that Paul refuses to stay behind his desk while he's under suspension.
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Episode 20 - Ice Time
Release Date: 1977-03-08Vice Detective Dave Tackleberry takes on a second job (to pay for his teenage daughter's figure skating development) at the same time he and his partner Det. Wurster try to bust a pimp specializing in underage girls.
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Episode 21 - The Six Foot Stretch
Release Date: 1977-03-22Detectives DeHart and Ward go up against another team of officers Riggs and Salter in tracking down a criminal. A psychotic man is targeting elderly women and time is of the essence.
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Episode 22 - Prime Rib
Release Date: 1977-04-05Marty Lacayo and Glenn Talbot are street narcs, meaning they are given the task of busting nickel-and-dime users and hustlers. Shep, one of their users, gives them a tasty lead on a big distributor, but they are forbidden by Lt. Hagedorn from pursuing him.