The Rookies
The exploits of three rookie police officers in a large unnamed Southern California city are followed in this weekly series. Mike Danko is a married former marine, Willie Gillis is a recent college graduate and Terry Webster joined the police as part of a special minority recruitment plan. Their supervisor is Lt. Eddie Riker and Jill is Mike's worried wife who works as a nurse at the local hospital.
- 1972-1976
- 4 seasons
- ABC
- Suspense, Drama
- TV-PG
The exploits of three rookie police officers in a large unnamed Southern California city are followed in this weekly series. Mike Danko is a married former marine, Willie Gillis is a recent college graduate and Terry Webster joined the police as part of a special minority recruitment plan. Their supervisor is Lt. Eddie Riker and Jill is Mike's worried wife who works as a nurse at the local hospital.
Season 4 Episode Guide
23 Episodes 1975 - 1976
Episode 1
Lamb to the Slaughter
Tue, Sep 9, 1975
Lt. Ryker befriends the son of an arrested burglar, only to be taken hostage by the boy's escaped father.
Episode 2
Reading, Writing and Angel Dust
Tue, Sep 16, 1975 60 mins
When a youth leaps to his death, the Rookies enlist the aid of another kid to trace the drug source.
Episode 3
One-Way Street to Nowhere
Tue, Sep 23, 1975 60 mins
A gang of thieves and gun runners takes Terry hostage to trade for their hospitalized leader. Mike is seriously wounded during the arrest. The leader attempts to break out. How will Terry survive?
Episode 4
Someone Who Cares
Tue, Sep 30, 1975
Terry pursues two young men who gave an unidentified 19-year-old girl drugs which subsequently led to her death in a car accident.
Episode 5
Ladies Day
Tue, Oct 7, 1975
After Jill Danko and one of the doctors from the hospital are taken hostage at the women's prison farm, Officers Danko, Webster, Owens, and Lt. Ryker are called in to defuse the situation.
Episode 6
Reign of Terror
Tue, Oct 14, 1975
Chris is wounded on duty and Hank witnesses it, but he is afraid to come forward for fear of harm to him or his family.
Episode 7
Death Lady
Tue, Oct 21, 1975 60 mins
A female officer is blamed when her male partner in killed because some feel that he would still be alive if he hadn't been so concerned with protecting his "lady partner." She pairs up with Danko to help solve the case and save her reputation.
Episode 8
Measure of Mercy
Tue, Oct 28, 1975 60 mins
A child at the hospital where Jill works is in critical condition and about to be operated on, and much blood is needed for the operation. Fortunately there's a sufficient supply in the blood bank, but Jill is passing by when she sees a guy take the blood out of the cooler. When she asks him what he's doing, he knocks her out and absconds with the blood. Upon learning of this, the guys try to find the blood for the child, and are told that the guy who stole plans to sell it. The press learns about this and announces how much the blood could be worth, so the guys who stole it thinking that the man they stole it for is short-changing them decides to take some of it back until the man sells it and gives them a cut.
Episode 9
A Time to Mourn
Tue, Nov 4, 1975
Officers Owens and Danko track down the man who raped Owens' sister, but the tables are turned on Owens when the rapist claims police brutality during his arrest. Meanwhile, Kim Owens struggles to cope with her feelings and her faith after the attack.
Episode 10
The Institutional Man
Tue, Nov 11, 1975
A repentant ex-con out on parole is tracked down by his former associates to aid in a robbery.
Episode 11
Invitation to a Rumble
Tue, Nov 18, 1975
A gang leader from Terry's old neighborhood runs him down in a speeding car. Loyalty within the gang is strained as Terry is still well-regarded in the community and none want to see him die, or their gang brother jailed.
Episode 12
Reluctant Hero
Tue, Nov 25, 1975 60 mins
A rookie officer (John Ritter) is unsure whether he can live up to his father's super-officer image. He trips and takes down a world-class hired killer, leading the assassin to make the rookie his next target.
Episode 13
Dead Heat
Tue, Dec 2, 1975
Terry and Chris become locked in the sweltering heat of a local department store overnight during a stand-off with three armed criminals.
Episode 14
The Voice of Thunder
Tue, Dec 9, 1975
Chris and Terry remember seeing the same girl at the scenes of several Sunday bombings terrorizing the city.
Episode 15
The Code Five Affair
Tue, Dec 16, 1975
Terry and Chris bust a drug operation, but the drug organization uses an elaborate scheme to get their heroin back, involving sending a pretty girl to con Chris out of information on a scheduled transfer. The heist is successful and Chris investigates the girl to discover whether she was in on it or was also being used.
Episode 16
Shadow of a Man
Tue, Dec 23, 1975 60 mins
A veteran cop whose partner is killed during a robbery attempt steals some of the money to improve his home life.
Episode 17
Eye for an Eye
Tue, Dec 30, 1975
A man unjustly imprisoned for 18 years vows vengeance on the two men he feels responsible for putting him there, Ryker being one of them. Ryker tries to make amends by offering help to the newly-pardoned man, but it's refused. The formerly-innocent man now breaks laws to pursue his own kind of justice.
Episode 18
Sudden Death
Tue, Jan 6, 1976
A mentally-deranged former POW thinks Rookie Mike Danko, who was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, panicked and left him behind to be captured and tortured in a POW camp.
Episode 19
From Out of the Darkness
Tue, Jan 20, 1976 60 mins
A security guard is killed during a robbery; when Terry arrives, he sees that the dead man was the father of a girl with whom he was once involved. While the robbers are being sought, Terry goes to see the man's daughter. He recalls how he met her. She's blind and a musician. When they were getting serious, her father told Terry that she's never been self-reliant and he's worried about what will happen when he's gone. He tells Terry that until she met him she had been planning to attend a school for blind musicians, and he asks Terry to let her go, which he does. When he goes to tell her about her father, someone tries to kill her, and Terry wonders why.
Episode 20
The Mugging
Tue, Jan 27, 1976
Three junkies mug and brutalize a middle-aged woman; as she lingers near death and legal issues keep the criminals on the street, her doctor son spirals into increasing anger.
Episode 21
Blue Movie, Blue Death
Tue, Feb 24, 1976
The rookies go undercover to investigate a syndicate-backed film company that is responsible for the deaths of some of its actors.
Episode 22
Deliver Me from Innocence
Tue, Mar 2, 1976 60 mins
A 16-year-old guy gets involved with a junkie and ends up getting blamed for the addict's crimes.
Episode 23
Journey to Oblivion
Tue, Mar 30, 1976 60 mins
A rich young man murders his bookie, then hires a professional criminal to help him abduct and kill the only eyewitness: Jill Danko.