Spenser: For Hire (1985)
Mystery and suspense series based on Robert Parker's "Spenser" novels. Spenser, a private investigator living in Boston, gets involved in a new murder mystery each episode.
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Episode 1 - Homecoming
Release Date: 1987-09-27A cop who helped send a gangster's son to prison years ago has been hiding, cause the gangster wants to get him. But now he wants to come home, so he and his father, asks Spenser to act as intermediary. While the gangster is unwilling to settle for nothing less than seeing him dead. Spenser tries to see what he can do. At the same time Spenser has to deal with Susan, who came back to town, and would like to see if they have a future, but this case is taking up all of his time.
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Episode 2 - My Enemy, My Friend
Release Date: 1987-10-04A streetwise young kid gets involved over his head in the underworld. Spenser and Hawk try to protect him from would-be killers.
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Episode 3 - The Heart of the Matter
Release Date: 1987-10-11Lt. Quirk faces his mortality when he suffers a heart attack. Spenser and Hawk protect him from revenge-minded villains as he recovers.
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Episode 4 - On the Night he Was Betrayed
Release Date: 1987-11-01Spenser helps an old friend, an alcoholic priest who tries to help homeless teenagers, when he gets involved over his head.
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Episode 5 - Sleepless Dreams
Release Date: 1987-11-08Spenser becomes obsessed with an apparently suicidal woman after a chance encounter on the street.
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Episode 6 - Consilum Abditum
Release Date: 1987-11-15Susan is in trouble when her claims of sexual harassment lead her college counselor to retaliate by hiring a hit man to keep her quiet. Spenser gets arrested for getting involved in a fight.
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Episode 7 - Thanksgiving
Release Date: 1987-11-29Spenser runs into an old friend while visiting a recreation of a Puritan village. Spenser does everything in his power to exonerate said friend when he's accused of a brutal slaying. As he uncovers more and more, Spenser begins to think it might be hard to clear the name of a guilty man.
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Episode 8 - Gone Fishin'
Release Date: 1987-12-06Spenser's fishing trip is interrupted when he has to protect a young man who's not allowed to marry the girl he loves.
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Episode 9 - Child's Play
Release Date: 1987-12-20A sniper takes some shots at Spenser and Susan, and a young boy ends up dead in the crossfire. Spenser sets out to determine why such a tragedy happened and track down the shooter.
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Episode 10 - Skeletons in the Closet
Release Date: 1988-01-03Spenser and Hawk find themselves on opposite sides of the same case. Spenser is hired to retrieve a stolen journal containing information damaging to a judge's career. Hawk is hired by the thief to extort money from the judge.
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Episode 11 - The Siege
Release Date: 1988-01-10Hawk and Susan along with other people are held captive in a post office. Richard Brooks later seen on Law and Order during Season's 1 & 2 plays one of the hostage takers.
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Episode 12 - Arthur's Wake
Release Date: 1988-01-16Spenser protects an old friend, Arthur, after he's assaulted and robbed. In the course of his investigation, Spenser comes across disturbing information connecting Arthur with racketeering.
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Episode 13 - To the End of the Line
Release Date: 1988-01-23When Frank's niece dies of a drug overdose, Spenser and Frank go after the men responsible.
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Episode 14 - Play it Again, Sammy
Release Date: 1988-01-30Sammy Backlin calls Spenser for protection when he's being hunted by a 'vicious horde of bloodthirsty assassins'.
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Episode 15 - The Big Fight
Release Date: 1988-02-06One 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. Spenser survives, then turns around and protects his trainer from the goons now after him.
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Episode 16 - Substantial Justice
Release Date: 1988-03-05Spenser protects a theater owner from gangsters, but begins to suspect she's not as innocent as she appears.
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Episode 17 - Company Man
Release Date: 1988-03-12Spenser suspects insurance fraud when a building blows up. Susan has a possibly cancerous mass removed.
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Episode 18 - Watercolors
Release Date: 1988-03-19Spenser protects a child artist after the child witnesses a mob execution while painting in the forest.
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Episode 19 - Hawk's Eyes
Release Date: 1988-03-26Spenser investigates the death of a friend apparently involved with white supremicists. Hawk is rendered blind by an explosion.
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Episode 20 - McAllister
Release Date: 1988-04-30Spenser assists a lawyer in proving the innocence of his client, a Navy seaman accused of murdering the captain's daughter. The only witness is a missing Polish sailor.
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Episode 21 - Haunting
Release Date: 1988-05-07Spenser investigates an old child kidnapping case when he tries to track down a teenage girl's biological parents.