3 Stars, 1 Character, 1 Clue - Name The Series Quiz

Answer: Code Red

"Code Red" followed the Rorchek family, a clan of Los Angeles City Firefighters. Family patriarch, Joe Rorchek (Lorne Greene), was a Battalion Chief in command of waterfront fire station 49. Also working at the station were his two sons, Chris (Sam J. Jones), who piloted one of the fire department's helicopters, and Ted (Andrew Stevens), who was one of the firefighters on the engine. The Rorchek family adopted a young troubled youth, Danny Blake (Adam Rich), who became a part of the fire department's Explorer program, which allowed his to work and hang around the fire station.

This action series aired only for a single season with eight episodes.
The cast also included Julie Adams as Ann, Joe's wife, Martina Deignan as Haley Green, a female firefighter, and Dennis Haysbert as fellow firefighter Stuff Wade.

The visually stunning special effects and camera angles used for the episodes were credited to series producer Irwin Allen, who also produced numerous disaster films including "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) and "The Towering Inferno" (1974) and the television series "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" (1964), "Lost In Space" (1965), "The Time Tunnel" (1966), and "Land Of The Giants" (1968).

Answer: The FBI

"The FBI" a series produced by the Quinn Martin company, ran for nine seasons (1965-1974), generating 240 hour long episodes.

The series chronicled the activities of FBI Inspector Lewis Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.) and his search for fugitives wanted by the FBI. Erskine reported to his boss, Assistant Director Arthur Ward (Philip Abbott), and assisting Erskine through the run of the series were Special Agents Jim Rhodes (Stephen Brooks) and Tom Colby (William Reynolds).

The series had the full approval of The FBI and it's director, J. Edgar Hoover.
The series was permitted to film some shots in the FBI Headquarter in Washington, DC. and use actual case files as reference information for their stories. The series highlighted many of the state of the arts crime fighting technology used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Answer: Today's FBI

"Today's FBI" was an updated version of the popular 1965 series, "The FBI". Even though both series occupied the same Sunday night time slot on the ABC Television Network, the series lasted for only one season (1981-1982) compared to nine seasons for the original series.

Stories for "Today's FBI" were based on the actual files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as were the stories on the original series.
In the series, Special Agent Ben Slater (Mike Connors), a 20 veteran of the FBI, lead a teams of specialized agents in a quest to enforce federal laws against organized crime, corrupt businessmen, pornographers, etc.
Slater's team included Carol Potter (Maggie Clinton), a psychologist, Nick Frazier (Joseph Cali) an operative who specialized in undercover work, Dwayne Thompson (Harold Sylvester), a former Naval intelligence agent, and Al Gordean (Richard Hill),an athletic operative.

"Today's FBI" broadcast 18 episodes during the 1981-1982 season. Similar to the original 1965 series, "Today's FBI" received the full approval of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and was given access to their actual files.

Answer: Airwolf

The real star of this 1984 series was the sleek, black, super secret helicopter called "Airwolf", which was often referred to by it's pilot, Stringfellow Hawke (Jan-Michael Vincent) simply as "The Lady".

The Airwolf crew, which included Dominic Santini (Ernest Borgnine) and Caitlin O'Shannessy (Jean Bruce Scott) flew secret missions for the U.S. government Intelligence agency referred to as "The Firm", headed by Michael Coldsmith Briggs III, code name Archangle, who was the deputy director of the agency. In the series premier, Hawke was contracted by The Firm to recover Airwolf, which had been stolen by the aircraft's creator, Charles Henry Moffitt (David Hemmings). Upon successful recovery of the aircraft, Hawke chose to keep the helicopter hidden in a secret location, to use as leverage to get information from The Firm on the status of his brother, who was reported as "missing in action" during the Vietnam War. Hawke agreed to use Airwolf to assist the Firm, but retained possession of the technologically advanced aircraft.

"Airwolf" aired 55 episodes over three seasons (1984-1987) on the CBS network before low ratings resulted in the series being cancelled.

The rights to the series were acquired by the Arthur L. Annecharico company, which produced a syndicated version of "Airwolf" in 1987. The fourth season of "Airwolf" was filmed in Canada, with a complete cast change.
The new series did not have access to the Bell 222 helicopter used in the network production, and all of the flying sequences used for the fourth season was stock footage from the original series. The new production did have a full scale mock up of the Airwolf helicopter interior which was used for close up shots while filming.
The syndicated series starred Barry Van Dyke as St. John (Sin-Jin) Hawke, who was Stringfellow's long lost brother. 24 episodes were produced for the syndicated series.

Answer: Hawaiian Eye

"Hawaiian Eye" was one of four popular series, featuring private detective/security agencies based in exotic American cities in the United States. Each series was its own entity, but cast members were occasionally used in "crossover" episodes.

Hawaiian Eye was a combination private investigation/security agency, based in Honolulu, Hawaii. Thomas Jefferson Lopaka (Robert Conrad) and Tracy Steele (Anthony Eisley) ran the agency, whose primary client was the exclusive Hawaiian Village Hotel.
The series was highlighted by the beautiful scenery of the beaches and city of Honolulu.
Also featured in the series was Connie Stevens, who played Chryseis "Cricket" Blake, a nightclub singer who was also a photographer and often assisted the agency, and Poncie Ponce as Kazuo "Kim" Quisado, a ukulele playing, wise cracking cab driver, who added an element of comic relief to the series.

"Hawaiian Eye" ran 134 episodes over its four season run (1959-1963)

The companion series to "Hawaiian Eye" were Bourbon Street Beat" (1959) which featured a private investigation agency in New Orleans, Louisiana, "Surf Side 6" (1960), which followed to exploits of private investigators based in Miami Beach, Florida, and the most popular of the series, "77 Sunset Strip" (1958), where the private investigators were based in Hollywood, (Los Angeles) California. Because all four of the Warner Brothers series were filmed primarily on the same lot in Hollywood/Burbank area of California, it made it easy for characters of one series to make guest appearances on another series.

Answer: Iron Horse

Dale Robertson starred as Benjamin Calhoun, a gentleman cowboy and gambler, who with a winning poker hand, wins a partly completed frontier railroad line. Calhoun became the owner and operator of the Buffalo Pass, Scaplock & Defiance Railroad, and became determined to oversee the completion of his newly acquired railroad line. The series followed the challenges confronted by Calhoun and his crew in completing the railroad. Indians, unscrupulous businessmen and unfriendly townspeople proved to be little challenge for Calhoun.

Calhoun was assisted in his tasks by Dave Tarrant (Gary Collins), his construction engineer, and Barnabas Rogers (Robert Random), his clerk, who operated to railroad. The series also featured Ellen Burnstyn as Julie Parsons, one of Calhoun's close friends.

"Iron Horse", sometimes referred to as "The Iron Horse" air for two seasons (1966-1968) on the ABC television network, with 47 episodes.

Answer: Blue Thunder

"Blue Thunder" premiered in 1984, and featured a high tech crime fighting helicopter. The TV series was loosely based on the hit 1983 movie of the same name.
The TV series starred James Farentino as Lieutenant Frank Chaney, who was the pilot on the helicopter. In the movie, Roy Scheider starred as Frank Murphy, Blue Thunder's pilot.
Dana Carvey was featured in a co-starring role as Clinton Wonderlove, Blue Thunder's tactical observer who flew with Chaney. Sandy McPeak was cast as Captain Braddock, commander of the Astro Division that oversaw and supervised the actions of the Blue Thunder team.

The television version of the series featured a ground support unit for Blue Thunder, which was a large black van that carried spare aviation fuel, replacement parts for Blue Thunder, additional weaponry, and an all terrain vehicle that contained a machine gun mount. The support team, known as 'Rolling Thunder' was comprised of Officers "Bubba" Kelsey (Bubba Smith) and "Ski" Butowski (Dick Butkus), who were both former NFL football players turned police officer.
The Blue Thunder team were officers of the Los Angeles Police Department who were granted "Federal Officer" status while participating in the Blue Thunder program, which was funded by a federal agency known as APEX.

"Blue Thunder", an action packed police series, aired only 11 episodes in the 1984 season. Cancellation of the series was attributed to the similarity of the series to "Airwolf" which also debuted in 1984 and featured a high tech helicopter, and to time scheduling that resulted in "Blue Thunder" competing in the same Friday night time slot as the extremely popular series, "Dallas" (1978).

Answer: 1st and 10

"1st and 10" was one of the first HBO television series.
The initial storyline follow Diane Barrows (Delta Burke), owner of a profession football franchise call The California Bulls. The stories centered on the anticS, both on and off the field, of the players and other team personnel. Ernie Denardo, the team's head coach was played by veteran actor Reid Shelton. In later seasons, the team was coached by a former team player, T.D. Parker, played by O.J. Simpson who was also known as "The Juice".

Team players for the Bulls included Buford "Bubba" Kincaid (Prince Hughes), Leslie "Dr. Death" Crunchner (Donald Gibb) "Mad Dog Smears (Tony Longo), Jethro Snell (Cliff Frazier), quarterback Tom Yinessa (Jason Beghe), and temperamental place kicker Zagreb Shkenusky (John Kassir). While tough in appearance, the players often showed the softer and more sensitive sides.

"1st and 10" aired 80 half hour episodes over six seasons (1984-1991).
The series was highlighted by actual football game footage (courtesy of the USFL Los Angeles Express football organization) and cameo appearances by actual profession football players including Marcus Allen, Vince Ferragamo, and John Matuszak.

Answer: Cagney and Lacey

"Cagney and Lacey" was a highly acclaimed, award winning police procedural series starring Sharon Gless as Christine Cagney and Tyne Daly as Mary Beth Lacey.

The series centered around two female New York police detectives with different backgrounds. Mary Beth Lacey away from the job was a loving wife with two young sons, and a compassionate side to her police duties, while Christine Cagney, a single lady, focused more on the stricter interpretation of the law as she performed her duties. Together, the two partners balanced each other and worked as an effect team.
Episodes often showed the personal lives of the partners as they dealt with their families.

Working with Cagney and Lacey in the squad room of the NYPD's 14th precinct were fellow detectives Marcus Petrie (Carl Lumbly), Paul LaGuardia (Sidney Clute), and Victor Isbecki (Martin Kove). The squad was headed by Lt. Bert Samuels (Al Waxman).

At the beginning of the fifth season, the character of Det. Paul LaCuardia was written out of the series. The storyline revealed LaGuardia to have retired and relocated to New Jersey with his new female companion. In truth, actor Sidney Clute unexpectedly passed away after filming 68 episodes of the series. Producers of the show decided to honor Clute by keeping his name and image in the opening credits of the show for the duration of the series run.

Tyne Daly played her role for the full run of the series, but three different actresses played the part of Christine Cagney. In the TV pilot movie of the series, Cagney was played by Loretta Swit. While the producer loved her performance and wanted her to play the role permanently, Swit was committed to the series M*A*S*H (1982), whose producers would not let her out of her contract.
When the series premiered, Meg Foster played the role of Christine Cagney. The producers felt that she was too aggressive for the role, coming across a little too stern for the character. It was also reported that the toughness of her character's portrayal could suggest some lesbian overtones on the character, something the producers wanted no part of. After 6 episodes, Foster was replaced by a softer, more feminine looking Sharon Gless. The change in casting proved successful.

Between Daly and Gless, they won six consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for "Best Lead Actress in a Drama" (Daly in 1983, 1984, 1985, & 1988 and Gless in 1986 & 1987). In all, the series garnered 20 Primetime Emmy nominations during its run, winning on 9 occasions.

"Cagney and Lacey" enjoyed seven television seasons (1982-1988) and broadcast 125 original episodes.

Answer: Crime Story

"Crime Story" was set in Chicago, Illinois in the early 1960's, and featured a classic battle between the good guy, Lieutenant Mike Torello (Dennis Farina) of the police department's Major Crime Unit (MCU), and his adversary, Chicago mobster Ray Luca (Anthony Dennison). Luca headed an organized crime family and Torello, with his men, were determined to stop them.
At the end of the first season, Luca relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada, to take charge of the bookmaking operations, under the instructions of national crime boss Manny Weisbord (Joseph Wiseman), who assigns one of him men, Max Goldman (Andrew Dice Clay) to serve as liaison between himself and Luca.

Mike Torello and his unit joined a federal government strike force, and was assigned to Las Vegas, where they continued their efforts to bring Luca to justice.

Torello's MCU consist of Sgt. Danny Krychek (Bill Smitrovich) who was his second in command, Det. Joey Indelli (Bill Campbell), Det. Nate Grossman (Steve Ryan) and Det. Walter Clemmons (Paul Butler).
Luca was aided by his henchmen Pauli Taglia (John Santucci) and Frank Holman (Ted Levine).

"Crime Story" aired for two seasons (1986-1988) with 44 episodes. The series theme song, "Runaway" was a number one hit on the popular music charts in 1961, written and performed by Del Shannon.

Trivia note about the star:
Dennis Farina, who later starred for two seasons (2004-2006) on the long running series "Law & Order" (1990) as Det. Joe Fontana, was one of the few actors who played a police officer to actually have a police officer past. Farina before becoming an actor, served for 18 years as a detective in the burglary division of the Chicago Police Department.

Other notable actors in the "cop turned actor" club includes David Zayas, who is best known as Det. Sgt. Angel Batista on the Showtime series "Dexter" (2006), who worked for 15 years as a New York City (NYPD) Police Officer before becoming an actor, and Kam Fong, an 18 year retired veteran of the Honolulu Police Department who later took the role as Chin Ho Kelly on the original "Hawaii Five-O" series in 1968.