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Hardcastle and McCormick Season 1 Episodes
Season 1 Episode Guide
23 Episodes 1983 - 1984
Episode 1
Rolling Thunder: Part 1
Sun, Sep 18, 1983
Mark McCormick is a twice convicted car thief, who is on parole, is being asked by his friend to test drive a new car he designed. Milton C. Hardcastle. a tough by the book judge who presided over McCormick's last case, for some reason, is keeping a close eye on him. When McCormick's friend is killed in a mysterious accident, he is told that someone else will be test driving the car. When his friend's daughter learns of this, she thinks something is going on because her father was dead set on Mark driving the car. She then also tells him that someone broke into her father's house and stole all of his contracts with the man who will manufacture the car. Without the contracts, the man claims full ownership of the car. She thinks he had her father killed so she asks Mark to steal the prototype, which he does. But someone sees him and he is arrested. He appears before Hardcastle who says that because of this McCormick is looking at a long stretch. But Hardcastle makes McCormick a proposition; he is going to retire and he plans to pursue every person who came into his court who was guilty but because of legal technicalities, Hardcastle had to let them go. So Hardcastle plans to keep an eye on them and when they break the law, he's going to make sure they are properly arrested. Mark balks at it. And when Hardcastle tells him, the car manufacturer wants the car he stole back but McCormick tells him he thinks the manufacturer had his friend who designed the car killed so he can take his design. Hardcastle then checks him out and finds out he has a habit of going into business with people and they somehow die leaving him as the sole owner of the business.. So he tells McCormick they are going after him and McCormick agrees to Hardcastle's offer.
Episode 2
Rolling Thunder: Part 2
Sun, Sep 18, 1983
Hardcastle and McCormick continue to forge their uneasy alliance and travel to Las Vegas with a plan to draw Martin Cody out into the open using the Coyote as irresistible bait.
Episode 3
Man in a Glass House
Sun, Sep 25, 198360 mins
A mobster writes a book and in it he says some things about some people that are not nice. And among them is Hardcastle, who wants to get him. And his former associates are not pleased with it too and when they bring him to them and threaten him, he counters by saying he has records of everything they have done, so he tells them to back off. After he leaves, they meet with a fixer they've hired to get the records he has and kill him. While trying to get the records to a safe location, Hardcastle runs into him, literally, so Hardcastle wants to see what he has in his car but first a judge has to approve the search. While waiting, the fixer grabs the man's son and threatens him unless he gives the records. So he turns to Hardcastle for help.
Episode 4
The Crystal Duck
Sun, Oct 2, 198360 mins
McCormick's former cell mate who's on parole is informed by his parole officer that because of a violation which wasn't his fault, he could be sent back to prison. That's when the parole officer tells him there's a way out--that he should pay him $1000 a week, and he doesn't care how he gets it. When McCormick and Hardcastle go to play cards with some other judges, the guy robs them and McCormick knows he did it. Later McCormick tells Hardcastle about his friend and that he has been staying with him. When they go home they discover that they've been robbed. McCormick knows that his friend wouldn't have done it unless he had a good reason. They go see the parole officer and McCormick gets a weird vibe off the guy and notices he has something that looks like something that was at Hardcastle's. Later one the judges who was robbed issues a warrant for McCormick because he found out who robbed them and his link to McCormick. So Hardcastle has to try and prove McCormick's innocence or he'll go back to prison a three time loser.
Episode 5
Goin' Nowhere Fast
Sun, Oct 9, 1983
A convict escapes from prison and takes the warden's wife with him but is she his hostage or accomplice. He then calls Hardcastle, who's shocked to hear from him. He then goes after him with McCormick, but without telling him how he knows the man and what is he after.
Episode 6
The Black Widow
Sun, Oct 16, 198360 mins
When several men some of whom work for criminals turn up dead and they all appear to have dated the same woman. So Hardcastle looks into it but a Captain who doesn't like Hardcastle tells him to stay away. So Hardcastle has McCormick come on to her. Hardcastle eventually learns that McCormick is in danger.
Episode 7
The Boxer
Sun, Oct 23, 1983
A boxer whom McCormick knows, is training for the Olympics. But a criminal is pressuring him to turn pro which would make him ineligible for the Olympics. So along with Hardcastle they try to help him.
Episode 8
Once Again with Vigorish
Sun, Oct 30, 1983
DA Pamela Peterson asks her long time friend Judge Hardcastle to help her finally put away loan shark, Frank Kelly after he once again beats legal charges after kidnapping the wife of the prosecutions key witness.
Episode 9
Killer B's
Sun, Nov 6, 1983
Hardcastle enlists his old friend Buddy Ebsen to help him infiltrate the film set of one of film producer Eddie Sands' productions, who he suspects is using his stunt drivers to smuggle drugs in from Mexico.
Episode 10
The Prince of Fat City
Sun, Nov 13, 1983
Hardcastle and McCormick take in a young gang member, who has hidden some stolen psychiatrist tapes that his fellow gang members and criminal Mr. Shelcroft are anxious to get their hands on.
Episode 11
Hotshoes
Sun, Nov 27, 198360 mins
McCormick has the opportunity to get back into the racing world, taking the spot of an injured friend. Unfortunately, Hardcastle suspects the racing team is raising funds illegally. The team discovers Hardcastle is investigating them, and Mark's life is put in danger.
Episode 12
Flying Down to Rio
Sun, Dec 4, 198360 mins
Hardcastle and McCormick follow a gun-runner named Avery down to San Rio Blanco. When their investigation into Avery gets too close, the man uses his connections to get Hardcastle thrown in jail on a drug charge.
Episode 13
Just Another Round of That Old Song
Sun, Dec 11, 198360 mins
Mark and Milton side with a recently freed ex-con over a retired corrupt police officer in a race to recover the hidden proceeds from a twenty five year old theft.
Episode 14
Third Down and Twenty Years to Life
Sun, Jan 1, 198460 mins
Hardcastle contests a young woman's claim that her brother, sent to prison by the judge for murder, was framed--until someone tries to abduct her.
Episode 15
Whistler's Pride
Sun, Jan 8, 1984
Hardcastle inherits a race horse and stumbles into the corrupt world of horse racing.
Episode 16
Mr. Hardcastle Goes to Washington
Sun, Jan 15, 1984
Hardcastle is being considered for a Supreme Court position. And a man in Washington for some reason doesn't want him to get it.
Episode 17
School for Scandal
Sun, Jan 29, 1984
Hardcastle wants to apprehend a man who's like a modern day Fagin who trains young people to steal. So he has McCormick join his ranks.
Episode 18
The Georgia Street Motors
Sun, Feb 5, 1984
Hardcastle learns that a man he sent to prison who was up for parole has decided not to take it. Hardcastle goes to see him and he says that he was doing research on other parolees and discovered that some paroled convicts were killed shortly after being released. Hardcastle learns that all the men killed were originally sentenced to death or life imprisonment. Essentially they were never ever to reenter society. McCormick suspects a vigilante. Hardcastle discovers that all of them were sentenced by one of three judges Hardcastle knew. Hardcastle decides to set a trap for them using McCormick as the bait.
Episode 19
The Homecoming: Part 1
Sun, Mar 4, 198460 mins
When Hardcastle returns to Arkansas for his high school reunion, he is hailed as a local hero. But local officials want to build a highway through a classmate's farm, and when he doesn't sell, the locals take matters into their own hands. Will Hardcastle be forced to alter his opinion of his hometown?
Episode 20
The Homecoming: Part 2
Sun, Mar 11, 198460 mins
While McCormick grieves, Hardcastle pulls himself out of the lake and drags himself up to an old friend's house. But how will they all prove their innocence?
Episode 21
Did You See the One That Got Away?
Sun, Mar 18, 1984
On the way back from a television interview, Hardcastle recognizes a convict who was supposed to be behind bars for life.
Episode 22
Really Neat Cars and Guys with a Sense of Humor
Sun, Mar 25, 1984
An auto-body man who patched McCormick's bullet-riddled car "borrows" it to impress a date---who's running from a killer.
Episode 23
Scared Stiff
Sun, Apr 1, 1984
Hardcastle and McCormick are among the hostages taken by convicts demanding a probe of corruption among prison officials.
