Midnight Caller (1988)
Midnight Caller is a dramatic NBC television series created by Richard DiLello, which ran from 1988 to 1991. It was one of the first television series to address the dramatic possibilities of the then-growing phenomenon of talk radio. Except for a brief stint on Lifetime in the 1990s, the series has not been rerun or issued on DVD.
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Episode 1 - Tarnished Shield
Release Date: 1989-09-19Jack's mentor on the police force is reunited with him under horrific circumstances. His policeman son-in-law commits suicide after calling Jack's show. Jack finds himself involved in a convoluted plot of understanding why, which has him questioning the ethics of some fellow officers.
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Episode 2 - Evil is Live Spelled Backward (1)
Release Date: 1989-09-26Jack's show is plagued by a series of on-air murders and locations of dead bodies. Jack's intuition tells him it's a serial killer but he has a hard time convincing Lieutenant Zymak.
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Episode 3 - Evil is Live Spelled Backward (2)
Release Date: 1989-10-03When Devon becomes a kidnap victim of the call-in killer, Zymak and Jack work together to discover that the crimes are a twisted vendetta against Jack and KJCM.
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Episode 4 - Mercy Me
Release Date: 1989-10-24In an effort to help his friend whose son is being kept alive by life support, Jack showcases the issue of euthanasia on his show.
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Episode 5 - Watching Me, Watching You
Release Date: 1989-10-31Devon is stalked by a man who targets her during a traffic jam. She and Jack are forced into a situation that causes them to contemplate moving their relationship from platonic to something more.
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Episode 6 - Take Back the Streets
Release Date: 1989-11-07The drug trade hits too close to home for a San Francisco neighborhood. Their personal war on crime becomes the focus of Jack's show.
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Episode 7 - Someone to Love
Release Date: 1989-11-14Jack receives a call from a hospice. Tina Cassidy's battle with AIDS is near the end. As Jack goes to her, he reflects on their time together.
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Episode 8 - End of Innocence
Release Date: 1989-11-28A woman chooses imprisonment versus revealing the location of her daughter to her ex-husband. The young child is supposedly a victim of sexual abuse while her legal eagle parents sort through their own personality flaws. Jack becomes a link in the chain of lies and law-bending for the sake of the child.
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Episode 9 - Blood Red
Release Date: 1989-12-05Deacon's girlfriend, Susan, seeks Jack's assistance in dealing with her gambling debts. As Jack investigates outside of the official channels, he uncovers an art forgery ring that has Susan in the middle of it.
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Episode 10 - Blame It on Midnight
Release Date: 1989-12-19An abused wife calls Jack's show fearing for her life. Their paths cross and they become romantically involved. The reappearance of the abusive husband throws Jack into the middle of a murder investigation - as the prime suspect.
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Episode 11 - Do You Believe in Miracles?
Release Date: 1990-01-16A blessed statue of the baby Jesus is stolen from St. Michael's Cathedral. Jack uses his show to find out clues to its whereabouts and to prevent the mob family who donated the statue from exacting their own form of penance on the perpetrator.
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Episode 12 - Based on a True Story
Release Date: 1990-01-16The devastating San Francisco earthquake is re-enacted as Jack and Billy help citizens connect with loved ones via the radio waves, Devon has a close encounter, and Zymak and his family re-unite under tense circumstances.
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Episode 13 - Planes
Release Date: 1990-02-06An abandoned young boy seeks refuge within a modern day band of street thieves with similarities to the Charles Dickens classic, Oliver Twist.
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Episode 14 - Kid Salinas
Release Date: 1990-02-20The exploitation of illegal immigrants in the work force and the sporting world is the premise for this episode. Jack introduces Devon to the world of boxing. Unfortunately, this leads to the more unpleasant side of things...
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Episode 15 - A Snitch in Time (1)
Release Date: 1990-02-27Jack borrows Devon's car, unfortunately a young woman is killed by a hit and run driver matching Devon's car and Jack's description. The victim turns out to be the daughter of an influential retired lawyer, who wants retribution. Jack is hauled in for questioning, and becomes the pawn in a jewelry thief's deal for release.
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Episode 16 - A Snitch in Time (2)
Release Date: 1990-02-27Things are looking tense for Jack, when he and Deacon sit down to figure out the tangled web of lies and deceit to which he has fallen victim.
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Episode 17 - The Reverend Soundbite
Release Date: 1990-03-06Gang violence and police retaliation are the focal point for this episode. Zymak, accused of police brutality, is unable to come clean with his whereabouts as his marriage is disintegrating.
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Episode 18 - Wrong Side of the Wall
Release Date: 1990-04-03A long time prisoner of the correctional system is paroled, and he finds the real world too difficult to manage. Jack tries to dissuade him from breaking his parole just to get back into the system he knows so well.
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Episode 19 - Three for the Money
Release Date: 1990-04-03We don't see much of Jack in the episode, as his brother and his father hook up for the first time in years to help a damsel in distress retrieve a valuable artifact. (This was the premise for a spinoff show that didn't make it off the ground.)
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Episode 20 - Protection
Release Date: 1990-05-08One of Jack's informants from his police force days seeks his assistance when his witness protection status is jeopardized. Jack is drawn into a government conspiracy that reaches to high office and global proportion.
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Episode 21 - The Hostage Game
Release Date: 1990-05-15Jack's friend from childhood is too close to the hostage situations around the world; his brother is one of many on a hijacked plane. In retaliation, he kidnaps an official from the country claiming responsibility. He keeps regular contact with Jack via the radio show, alluding to his location.
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Episode 22 - Nighthawk's Got the Blues
Release Date: 1990-05-22As the second season ends, Killian's behavior is definitely out of the ordinary... he can't seem to care about anything. A heart-to-heart intervention with Deacon and Zymak reveals that Jack is mourning Tina as her birthday approaches, but Devon needs him back to normal, for other reasons.