List of Spenser: For Hire episodes
For the made for TV movies starring Joe Mantegna, see Spenser (TV movies).
Spenser: For Hire lasted for three seasons (1985–1988) and was followed by four made-for-TV movies (1993–1995), all starring Robert Urich,and Avery Brooks.
Season 1
The two-hour pilot movie was an adaptation of the fourth novel in the book series, Promised Land.
| Ep | Airdate | Title | Plot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | 20 September 1985 | Promised Land | Spenser is hired to find the runaway wife of a wealthy businessman. |
| 1.2 | 27 September 1985 | No Room at the Inn | Spenser is hired by the police department to protect a witness who may not be who she claims. |
| 1.3 | 4 October 1985 | The Choice | A pair of young thrill-killers target Spenser, accidentally shooting a bystander. |
| 1.4 | 11 October 1985 | Children of a Tempest Storm | Spenser kills a would-be thief in the course of thwarting a robbery. |
| 1.5 | 18 October 1985 | Original Sin | Spenser investigates the apparent suicide of a young nun, and stumbles onto a corrupt landlord. |
| 1.6 | 25 October 1985 | Discord in a Minor | Spenser is fired from a bodyguard job after his young charge is kidnapped. |
| 1.7 | 12 November 1985 | The Killer Within | Spenser is hired to protect a woman's identical twin sister from assassins. |
| 1.8 | 19 November 1985 | Autumn Thieves | Spenser stumbles onto a ring of thieves while investigating a relic stolen from a museum. |
| 1.9 | 26 November 1985 | Blood Money | The wife of a kidnapped oil tycoon hires Spenser to deliver $1 million in ransom money. |
| 1.10 | 3 December 1985 | Resurrection | Spenser investigates a crooked vice cop involved in the mugging of one of Susan's friends. |
| 1.11 | 17 December 1985 | Internal Affairs | Marital infidelity and suspected involvement in a gambling ring lead to Lt. Quirk's suspension. |
| 1.12 | 7 January 1986 | Death by Design | Spenser walks into a death trap when a beautiful university scientist hires him to track down her gigolo boyfriend. |
| 1.13 | 14 January 1986 | A Day's Wages | Spenser and Hawk blame themselves for failing to protect their respective clients from the clutches of the underworld. |
| 1.14 | 21 January 1986 | A Madness Most Discreet | Spenser is dazzled by the beauty and grace of a former Bolshoi ballerina who appeals for his help and tempts him with her love. |
| 1.15 | 4 February 1986 | Brother to Dragons | Spenser goes undercover at a private high school to investigate heroin use on campus, but discovers something far more serious. |
| 1.16 | 11 February 1986 | When Silence Speaks | Spenser is retained to locate a missing scientist by a deaf newspaper columnist with whom the scientist had been corresponding. |
| 1.17 | 14 February 1986 | In a Safe Place | Spenser and Susan look for a Mexican labor organizer who has suspiciously disappeared. |
| 1.18 | 4 March 1986 | Angel of Desolation | While working for a wealthy woman, Spenser is caught up in a deadly murder mystery complete with an illicit love story. |
| 1.19 | 11 March 1986 | She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not | Sgt. Frank falls in love with a white supremacist. |
| 1.20 | 25 March 1986 | At the River's Edge | Spenser is hired by a 12-year-old to investigate the murder of her older sister. |
| 1.21 | 1 April 1986 | Rage | A teenage girl's agitated condition following a rape gets her into deeper trouble when she's kidnapped by an ex-con bent on shooting Spenser. |
| 1.22 | 8 April 1986 | Hell Hath No Fury | The father of a boy killed in the collapse of an apartment takes a politician hostage to protest lax inspection charges. |
Season 2
| Ep | Airdate | Title | Plot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | 27 September 1986 | An Eye for an Eye | New D.A. Rita Fiori tries to prosecute Spenser for blackmail. |
| 2.2 | 4 October 1986 | Widow's Walk | A small fishing family hires Spenser to investigate the death of their father. |
| 2.3 | 18 October 1986 | White Knight | While Spenser and Hawk are in a small town to view a boxing match, Hawk is arrested. |
| 2.4 | 25 October 1986 | Rockabye Baby | A mobster's pregnant teenage girlfriend tries to keep her unborn son from his father. |
| 2.5 | 1 November 1986 | And Give Up Show Biz? | Spenser protects a man suffering from amnesia. |
| 2.6 | 8 November 1986 | The Long Hunt | A young criminal's father attacks a bus transporting convicts to the state prison. |
| 2.7 | 22 November 1986 | Home Is the Hero | Rita hires Spenser to investigate a troubled teenager, yet another 'Spenser helps a misguided youth' episode. |
| 2.8 | 29 November 1986 | One If by Land, Two If by Sea | A friend of Spenser's is shot and killed while portraying Paul Revere during a Revolutionary War re-enactment. |
| 2.9 | 13 December 1986 | Shadowsight | A girl who apparently has the unique ability to 'see' through both space and time, enlists Spenser's help to solve a rash of arsons. |
| 2.10 | 20 December 1986 | The Hopes and Fears | With the help of Hawk, a disgusted Spenser is determined to get rid of thugs who are terrorizing his Boston neighborhood. |
| 2.11 | 10 January 1987 | Among Friends | Hawk is the main suspect when Lt. Quirk is shot, due to a recent fracas between the two. |
| 2.12 | 17 January 1987 | I Confess | A wealthy man is murdererd and, surprise, an innocent man is arrested. |
| 2.13 | 24 January 1987 | Murder and Acquisitions | Spenser investigates the apparent suicide of a philandering financier about to turn state's evidence to bring down insider trading. |
| 2.14 | 7 February 1987 | Personal Demons | Spenser and Rita go after a corrupt ruler. |
| 2.15 | 14 February 1987 | Mary Hamilton | A girl comes to Boston looking for her estranged father. Spenser decides to help her. |
| 2.16 | 21 February 1987 | Trial and Error | A pimp is wrongfully arrested for the murder of one of his girls. Spenser agonizes between pursuing the real murderer or letting the pimp take the rap. |
| 2.17 | 7 March 1987 | One for My Daughter | Spenser and Hawk protect a man who owes money to men of dubious ethics. |
| 2.18 | 14 March 1987 | My Brother's Keeper | Spenser becomes embroiled in the seamy Vietnamese organized crime racket after a Vietnamese crime boss uses Spenser to track down a former soldier. |
| 2.19 | 21 March 1987 | The Road Back | Spenser loses all feeling in his right arm after he's shot while guarding a politician. |
| 2.20 | 4 April 1987 | If You Knew Sammy | NRA poster-boy Sammy Backlin breezes into town for a book signing, unwittingly involving Spenser in a shoot out. |
| 2.21 | 2 May 1987 | The Man Who Wasn't There | Rita and her old college friends are reunited when a fictional person they created 20 years ago is found dead in his apartment. |
| 2.22 | 9 May 1987 | The Song of Orpheus | A prison inmate with a grudge against Hawk hires outside muscle to rub him out. |
Season 3
| Ep | Airdate | Title | Plot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 27 September 1987 | Homecoming | Spenser tries to settle a feud between a mobster and a judge. Susan returns from California. |
| 3.2 | 4 October 1987 | My Enemy, My Friend | A streetwise young kid gets involved over his head in the underworld. |
| 3.3 | 11 October 1987 | Heart of the Matter | Lt. Quirk faces his mortality when he suffers a heart attack. |
| 3.4 | 1 November 1987 | On the Night He Was Betrayed | Spenser helps an old friend, an alcoholic priest who tries to help homeless teenagers, when he gets involved over his head. |
| 3.5 | 8 November 1987 | Sleepless Dream | Spenser becomes obsessed with an apparently suicidal woman after a chance encounter on the street. |
| 3.6 | 15 November 1987 | Consilum Abditum | Spenser is arrested when he intervenes in a fight. |
| 3.7 | 29 November 1987 | Thanksgiving | Spenser runs into an old friend while visiting a recreation of a Puritan village. |
| 3.8 | 6 December 1987 | Gone Fishin' | Spenser's fishing trip is interrupted when he has to protect a young man who's not allowed to marry the girl he loves. |
| 3.9 | 20 December 1987 | Child's Play | A sniper takes some shots at Spenser and Susan, and a young boy ends up dead in the crossfire. |
| 3.10 | 3 January 1988 | Skeletons in the Closet | Spenser and Hawk find themselves on opposite sides of the same case. |
| 3.11 | 10 January 1988 | The Siege | Susan and an injured Hawk are trapped inside a post office when a disgruntled postal worker takes hostages. |
| 3.12 | 16 January 1988 | Arthur's Wake | Spenser protects an old friend, Arthur, after he's assaulted and robbed. |
| 3.13 | 23 January 1988 | To the End of the Line | When Frank's niece dies of a drug overdose, Spenser and Frank go after the men responsible. |
| 3.14 | 30 January 1988 | Play It Again, Sammy | Sammy Backlin calls Spenser for protection when he's being hunted by a 'vicious horde of bloodthirsty assassins'. |
| 3.15 | 6 February 1988 | The Big Fight | One of Spenser's old trainers lures Spenser to a deserted warehouse where Spenser is supposed to be killed, to get out from under a gambling debt. |
| 3.16 | 5 March 1988 | Substantial Justice | Spenser protects a theater owner from gangsters, but begins to suspect she's not as innocent as she appears. |
| 3.17 | 12 March 1988 | Company Man | Spenser suspects insurance fraud when a building blows up. Susan has a possibly cancerous mass removed. |
| 3.18 | 19 March 1988 | Watercolors | Spenser protects a child artist after the child witnesses a mob execution while painting in the forest. |
| 3.19 | 26 March 1988 | Hawk's Eyes | Spenser investigates the death of a friend apparently involved with white supremacists. Hawk is rendered blind by an explosion. |
| 3.20 | 30 April 1988 | McAllister | Spenser assists a lawyer in proving the innocence of his client, a Navy seaman accused of murdering the captain's daughter. |
| 3.21 | 7 May 1988 | Haunting | Spenser investigates an old child kidnapping case when he tries to track down a teenage girl's biological parents. |
Made-for-TV movies
During the early 1990s, Urich and Brooks reunited for four made-for-TV films, produced by the Lifetime cable network. The movies were based on four of Parker's novels. Parker and his wife Joan co-wrote the first two screenplays and the two movies kept to the spirit of the series. To keep production costs down Barbara Stock was replaced as Susan Silverman in the first two movies by Barbara Williams and in the other two by veteran actress Wendy Crewson (Air Force One) and Frank Belson was played by a actor of no name. Parker's son Daniel appears in all four movies as a waiter in Spenser's favorite restaurant. Unlike the series which was filmed in Boston, the new movies were filmed in Toronto to take advantage of the lower production costs. The first two movies were still set in Boston (parts of Toronto easily passed for Boston), with the second two rewritten to be set in Toronto, and drifted away from the tone of the show entirely.
| Film | Airdate | Title | Plot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 July 1993 | Spenser: Ceremony | Spenser is hired to locate April Kyle, the missing daughter of Harry Kyle, millionaire and candidate for Governor. |
| 2 | 2 January 1994 | Spenser: Pale Kings and Princes | One of Susan's former patients, a news reporter, is killed, Spenser investigates. |
| 3 | 1 December 1994 | Spenser: The Judas Goat | Spenser is hired out by Hugh Dixon to track down the killers of his wife and daughters. |
| 4 | ?? ????? 1995 | Spenser: A Savage Place | Candy Sloane, a news reporter that Spenser used to date, hires him out as backup while she investigates a credit card fraud ring. |
References
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