Scenario:Bill drafts Ralph into the major leagues when
baseball players begin
suffering a series of strange injuries.
The suit's powers make Ralph an overnight sensation
as he uncovers a plot to sell illegal weapons
using the World Series as a distraction. Of Note: Pam appears only
briefly via phone. Critique: Not
bad but the super baseball player is a bit hokey. B-
2x2 "Operation: Spoilsport"
11-11-81 69201
Written by: Frank Lupo
Directed by: Rod Holcomb
Guest stars: John Anderson, Robin Riker,
William Bogert
Scenario: The world is just hours away from nuclear
destruction, and only Ralph
and the suit can avert doomsday.
The aliens return to deliver a dire warning that
a defense system has gone haywire. Ralph and
Bill must fight the military to disarm it. Of Note: Pam phones it in
again. Bill is kidnapped again. Critique: Great stuff and the movie "War Games"
(released in 1983) totally rips this episode off. A+
2x3"Don't Mess Around with Jim"
11-18-81 96204
Written by: Stephen J. Cannell
Directed by: Robert C. Thompson
Guest stars: Joseph Wiseman, Stan Lachow,
Luke Andreas
Scenario: Ralph and Bill are kidnapped by an eccentric
billionaire. Years ago, he was
also given a suit by the
aliens but misused it for personal gain. Now, he wants
to atone for his actions by giving his money to
charity. His former business partners plan to kill
him and claim his fortune, so he blackmails
Ralph and Bill
into helping him. Of Note: Ship is back again. Pam is totally absent.
Bill is kidnapped twice in one episode. New Suit Power: Telekinesis Critique: This
fantastically address a logical, and previously alluded to, question about
the corruption factor with the suit and it's neat to learn some suit
history. A+
2x4 "Hog Wild"
11-25-81 96206
Written by: Stephen J. Cannell
'Directed by: Ivan Dixon
Guest stars: Dennis Burkley, Paul
Koslo,
Gregory
Sierra, Tony Burton
Scenario: Ralph and Bill are taken prisoner by a
motorcycle gang
which plans to use the super suit to take over
a small town. The town's apathetic residents must
be convinced to stand up against the cyclists, while
without his suit, Ralph is almost helpless. Of Note: No Pam. Critique: Grow
a set Ralph! Maxwell with broken ribs takes out bikers, even one guy
while handcuffed. Ralph can't even figure out a way to stop them while
invincible in the suit. Biker gangs are cheesy and
stereotypical in any show, still it's a good twist that they took the suit and
blackmailed Ralph into helping them. B
2x5 "Classical Gas"
12-2-81 96208
Written by: Frank Lupo
Directed by: Bruce Kessler
Guest stars: Ed Winter, George
Loros, William Bogert
Scenario: Ralph is upset at the sudden attention that
Pam is getting
from a record promoter and he asks Bill to
check this new rival out. In the meantime, Ralph helps
his students prepare for a singing appearance at a rock concert, unaware that
the promoter is involved in a plot to spread nerve gas through the
concert's crowd. Of Note: Pam Returns Critique: A
jealous Ralph is a funny Ralph but the rock concert was lame, as was LA
Freeway. B-
2x6 "The Beast in the Black"
12-9-81 96203
Written by: Juanita Bartlett
Directed by: Arnold Laven
Guest stars: Christine Belford, Rae Allen,
Jane
Merro, Jeff MacKay
Scenario: Bill Maxwell is possessed by the spirit of a
dead woman who
wants to use his body to return to the living.
In order to save Bill, Ralph must enter a strange
dimension where the suit doesn't completely protect him
from a beast which tries
to keep him from getting through. Of Note: New Suit Power: Traveling
through the forth dimension. Maxwell dies briefly. Critique: Bill
"dying" was a really creepy touch. Culp does a great job on
making this concept spooky when it could have easily been silly. A
2x7 "The Lost Diablo"
12-16-81 96211
Written by: Juanita Bartlett
Directed by: Lawrence Doheny
Guest stars: John Miranda, Gary Grubbs, Fred
Downs, Bill Quinn
Scenario: Bill's plan to trick Ralph into finding a
lost gold mine results in their capture by a strange band of mountain men. To
make matters worse, Ralph has
doffed the suit, and the men
are talking of murder. Critique: Ralph's students least annoying
appearance. B
2x8 "The Plague"
1-6-82 96207
Written by: Rudolph Borchert
Directed by: Arnold Laven
Guest stars: Ed Grover, Jeff Cooper, Arthur
Rosenberg, William Bogert
Scenario: The only FBI agent willing to investigate a
plague victim's past is Bill
Maxwell, who hopes that the
suit will help protect him. Ralph, however, is soon
convinced that he's suffering from the disease.
Meanwhile, Pam must help them find a fanatic who's
threatening to release the plague germs. Of Note: Last Kevin (Ralph's
Son) reference. Ralph says when Kevin brings home a cold he always catches it.
Critique: Paranoid Bill and Ralph is very funny stuff.
B+
2x9 "Train of Thought"
1-13-82 96213
Written by: Frank Lupo
Directed by: Lawrence Doheny
Guest stars: Jean Le Clerc, David Tress, Dave
Shelley, Frank McCarthy, F. William Parker
Scenario: After
crashing into a hijacked train full of radioactive waste Ralph gets amnesia forgetting all the way back to the suit and even Bill. Pam and Bill must
convince him to help stop the train before it smashes into a
small town. Critique: Nothing
like that TV staple: amnesia from a hit on the head reversed by a hit on the
head. Yet I still love it. Good ensemble work. A-
2x10 "Now You See It"
1-20-82 96210
Written by: Patrick Burke Hasburgh
Directed by: Robert C. Thompson
Guest stars: Jon Cypher, Chris Lofton,
Richard Beauchamp, Matthew Faison
Ralph see the future, but it brings disturbing news. He "sees" a jet with
Pam on board crash, but no one will believe
his prediction but Bill. Unless he can change the future, Pam is doomed. Of
Note: New suit power: Precognition Critique: Too much stock
footage of planes in flight. This episode was in desperate need of a
side story to fill some time. B-
2x11 "The Hand-Painted Thai"
1-27-82 96215
Written by: Frank Lupo, Stephen J. Cannell
and
Patrick Burke Hasburgh
Directed by: Bruce Kessler
Guest stars: James Shigeta, John Fujioka,
Kurt Grayson,
Hilary Labow
Scenario: Years ago,
prisoners of war were brainwashed
to respond to
a code phrase. Now, someone is using them
to commit acts of sabotage. Bill and Ralph investigate, but Bill inadvertently
falls under a hypnotic trance,
leaving the heroics up to Ralph. Critique: Good concept, good
humor. A-
2x12 "Just Another Three Ring Circus"
2-3-82 96217
Written by: Stephen J. Cannell
Directed by: Chuck Bowman
Guest stars: Catherine Campbell, William
Bogert, Alex
Rodine
Scenario: The kidnapping of a Polish clown from a
visiting circus
plunges Ralph into life under the big top. Using the
suit, he takes a job as a human cannonball, while
Maxwell and Davidson search for the missing clown. Of Note: Bill shot in
the wing Critique: The circus sucks, and this show was just o.k.
B-
2x13"The Shock Will Kill You"
2-10-82 96220
Story by: Patrick Burke Hasburgh
Written by: Stephen J. Cannell
Directed by: Rod Holcomb
Guest stars: Rod Colbin, Donn Starr, Leonard
Lightfoot, Ray Girardin
Scenario: A space shuttle is about to crash, and only
Ralph can save
it. He does so, but ends up supermagnetized, perhaps
permanently. Worst of all, a strange
creature aboard the shuttle heads towards Los
Angeles, electrocuting all who get in its way. Critique: Who would
think a giant human magnet could be so funny, it makes up for the corny space
creature. B+
2x14 "A Chicken in Every Plot"`
2-17-82 96205
Written by: Danny Lee Cole and Jeff Ray
Directed by: Rod Holcomb
Guest stars: Ron O'Neill, John Hancock,
Thalmus
Rasulala, Lincoln Kilpatrick
Scenario: When an old FBI buddy invites Bill to his
Caribbean retreat,
Maxwell takes Ralph, Pam and the students along. Unfortunately, they find
themselves involved
in a voodoo plot to take over the island's
government. Critique: Sellecca does scared well in one of the only
episodes where it seems anyone's life is really in danger. Why can no one successfully
kill those rotten kids? B-
2x15 "The Devil In the Deep Blue Sea"
2-24-82 96219
Written by: Frank Lupo
Directed by: Sidney Hayers
Guest stars: Glynn Turman, Jeremy Kemp
Scenario:A visit to
St.Croix takes on strange
undertones when Ralph must solve the disappearance of several yachts and their
crews. He's convinced that It’s
all due to a huge sea monster, but Bill suspects more
ordinary -and criminal--causes. Of Note: The last episode had them flying
directly to St.Croix off the island yet Bill had to retrieve Ralph's suit from
home. ooops. Critique: The
Virgin Islands two episodes in a row actually makes me miss the familiar
surrounding of their home base. That monster at the end is the
worst! C
2x16 "It's All Downhill from Here"
3-3-82 96218
Written by: Patrick Burke Hasburgh
Directed .by: Sidney Hayers
Guest stars: Sandra Kearns, Bill Lucking, Red
West, Norbert Weisser, Michael
Billington
Scenario:Ralph and Pam take a ski trip, glad to leave
Bill behind,
but when they uncover a plot to prevent a Czechoslovakian
skier from defecting, they reluctantly call
Bill for help. Matters are complicated by
a rivalry between Bill and a CIA agent who doesn't
want Maxwell's assistance. Critique: A little dry, the "get the
evil Russians" plotline is old, only the ski lodge setting is new. C-
2x17 "Dreams"
3-17-82 96221
Written by: Stephen J. Cannell
Directed by: Bruce Kessler
Guest stars: Michael Baselon, Fred
Stuthman, Robby Weaver, Nick Pellegrino
Scenario: An act of kindness backfires when Ralph
uses the suit to help a coworker with a personal project. This leads his other
co-workers to take daring chances for their own
shots at success. Soon, he must don the super
suit not only to prevent them from ruining their
lives, but also to save Bill from a vengeful, recently
paroled killer. Critique: Probably the most well written script of
the series shows the delicate balance of the uses of the suit and everything
ties together nicely. A+
2x18 "There's Just No Accounting..."
3-24-82 96223
Written by: Frank Lupo
Directed by: Ivan Dixon
Guest stars: James Whitmore, Jr., Jerry
Douglas, Marc Alaimo, William Bogert
Scenario: Bill convinces the parents of a kidnap victim
to pay the
ransom, certain that Ralph can recover it when
he saves their little girl. Ralph finds
himself being audited by an overzealous IRS agent
who's convinced he took the ransom money. Meanwhile, Ralph and
Bill keep getting shot at in drive-by shootings, but by who? Of Note:
IRS's BB: James Whitmore Jr. appears in episode 3x10 as well. Critique: 3
story levels keep this one hopping. B-
2x19 "The Good Samaritan"
3-31-82 96222
Written by: Rudolph Borchert
Directed by: Bruce Kessler
Guest stars: Keenan Wynn, Dennis Lipscomb,
Carmen Argenziano, Bill Quinn
Scenario: Tired of using the suit to fight crime, Ralph
decides to branch out. He
tries to intervene in a battle between
an old man fighting for his home and the
city taking it away, but Bill has him on the hunt for bank robbers.
Critique: Points given for trying to get out of the standard bad
guy chase formula. B-
2x20 "Captain Bellybuster and the Speed
Factory" 4-7-82
96224
Written by: Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo
Directed by: Arnold Laven
Guest stars: Chuck McCann, Anthony
Charnota,
Stanley Grover, Danny Wells, William Bogert
Scenario: Ralph's secret is discovered by a newspaper
reporter who threatens to
expose him. When the reporter
is killed, Ralph and Bill emerge as suspects,
with the only clue to the real killer being the
spokesperson for a local hamburger chain. Critique: Would have
been nice to see more fallout from Ralph being exposed and less of Bellybuster
running in that suit, eeeww. C+
2x21 "Who's Woo in America"
4-14-82 96225
Written by: Patrick Burke Hasburgh
Directed by: Bob Bender
Guest stars: Barbara Hale, Tom
Hallick, Hugh
Gillin, Jon Cedar, Michael
Prince
Scenario: Ralph receives several
surprises when his mother comes to visit.
First, she's engaged to Phillip Kaballa, a man his
own age. Second, Ralph's kidnapped by some thugs
who think he's Phillip. And worse, he learns Phillip is a courier with shady
connections. The thugs
are willing to kill everyone involved to find a package
Phillip may be carrying. Of Note: Katt's
real mother, actress Barbara Hale plays Ralph's mother Paula. Critique: A
little mediocre. C+
2x22 "Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell"
4-28-82 96214
Written and directed by: Robert Culp
Guest Stars: Dixie Carter, William Bogert, Ted Flicker
Scenario: When Bill involves Ralph in another scheme
designed to help the FBI,
there's an unexpected twist.
Bill emerges as a hero, but a bureau efficiency expert he has become attracted
to has a deadly secret. Of Note: New suit power: animal telepathy Critique: Goes
over the line of the show's regular intimacy comfort level and the Maxwell/
O'Neil relationship was hardly long enough for so much drama. Still I
love the end and wish she hadn't been a one episode only character. A-
2x9 "Train of Thought"
1-13-82 96213
