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  • 1975-1978
  • 3 seasons
  • CBS
  • Action & Adventure, Suspense, Drama

Former bunco Detective Frank MacBride (Eddie Albert) joins forces with a con artist he once sent to jail, Pete Ryan (Robert Wagner), to operate their own private detective agency. Most of their cases involve running cons on the bad guys in order to trick them into surrendering or revealing the whereabouts of the stolen loot, jewels, et cetera. Maggie Philbin (Sharon Gless) was their cute receptionist, and wacky restaurateur Malcolm Argos (Charlie Callas), whose mastery of disguise often came in handy in helping MacBride and Ryan on their cases, provided the comic relief.

Season 3 Episode Guide

22 Episodes 1977 - 1978

Episode 1

Net Loss

Fri, Sep 23, 1977 60 mins

Episode 2

Downshift

Fri, Sep 30, 1977 60 mins

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Episode 3

Legend of the Macunas: Part 1

Fri, Oct 14, 1977 60 mins

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Episode 4

Legend of the Macunas: Part 2

Fri, Oct 21, 1977 60 mins

Episode 5

Fade Out

Fri, Nov 4, 1977 60 mins

Episode 6

Dancer

Mon, Dec 5, 1977 60 mins

Pete and Mac do a literal song and dance as they help an old vaudeville hoofer try to figure out who took several shots at him onstage, killing his dance partner.

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Episode 7

Go for Broke

Mon, Dec 12, 1977 60 mins

Episode 8

Lady of the Deep

Mon, Dec 19, 1977 60 mins

Episode 9

Thirty Thousand Witnesses

Mon, Dec 26, 1977 60 mins

Pete becomes a rather overage soccer goalie (Robert Wagner, though he looked younger, was 47 at the time of filming) in order to figure out who killed the team's previous goalie and how (the killer uses a camera with a special attachment which shoots a poisoned dart).

Episode 10

Dangerous Curves

Mon, Jan 2, 1978 60 mins

Episode 11

The Tong

Mon, Jan 9, 1978 60 mins

Episode 12

Who Killed Lila Craig?

Mon, Jan 16, 1978 60 mins

Mac reacquaints himself with a number of people he hasn't seen in years after he and Pete reopen the case of a glamorous actress who was murdered 30 years earlier.

Episode 13

Three Blonde Mice

Mon, Jan 30, 1978 60 mins

Soem interesting underwater (swimming pool) footage highlights this episode as Pete and Mac -- in full business suits and at their ages (over 70 for Eddie Albert) dive in to defuse a nuclear bomb threatening to take out a society party and much of Los Angeles to boot. This episode was broadcast on August 6, 1978 (possinly its first run) just before the TV news announced the death of Pope Paul VI.

Episode 14

Coronado Circle

Tue, Feb 7, 1978 60 mins

Episode 15

Stolen Island

Tue, Mar 28, 1978 60 mins

Episode 16

Formula for Murder

Fri, Apr 28, 1978 60 mins

Episode 17

Blue Crusaders Reunion

Fri, May 5, 1978 60 mins

Pete tags along when Mac attends a reunion of his old police buddies, but the event takes a dark turn as someone is killing off the attendees one by one.

Episode 18

Mexican Standoff

Fri, May 12, 1978 60 mins

Episode 19

Play-Off

Sun, Jun 18, 1978 60 mins

Ryan is forced to protect a kingpin's son at a golf tournament, otherwise Malcolm's life is forfeit.

Episode 20

The Cage

Sun, Jun 25, 1978 60 mins

The series began a summer run (ironically, enjoying its best ratings since the first season and tremendously better than it had done in the fall) with an episode about kidnappers grabbing the brother of a photographic model -- the brother is a veterinary student specializing in large-animal surgery, which he is to be forced to use to remove diamonds from the hide of an African rhinoceros recently imported to Los Angeles. Watch very fast for Natalie Wood bidding her then-husband Robert Wagner (Pete) goodbye from a bathtub at about the 10th minute.

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Episode 21

Photo Finish

Sun, Jul 2, 1978 60 mins

Episode 22

The Siege at the Bouziki Bar

Sun, Jul 9, 1978 60 mins

The near-ultimate in budget-conscious "bottle shows" (all but two scenes are filmed inside Malcolm's Bouziki Bar; Pamela Bellwood and two firemen are the only guest actors; and much of the show is in flashbacks) finds Pete, Mac, Malcolm and Maggie trapped inside the bar with a very pregnant murder witness while mob hit men search unseen for a way in. Some sources give this episode's air date as August 13, 1978, when the show was run off as a summer series (and did very well in the ratings).

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