Toma
This series Is based on the real-life story of New Jersey detective David Toma. Toma was a master of disguise and undercover work. Toma himself made a cameo appearance in many episodes.
- 1973-1974
- 1 season
- Universal Television
- Suspense, Drama
This series Is based on the real-life story of New Jersey detective David Toma. Toma was a master of disguise and undercover work. Toma himself made a cameo appearance in many episodes.
Season 1 Episode Guide
23 Episodes 1973 - 1974
Episode 0
Pilot
Wed, Mar 21, 1973 90 mins
A cop in Newark, New Jersey, defies his superiors to try to bring down the head of a Mafia numbers racket.
Episode 1
The Oberon Contract
Thu, Oct 4, 1973 60 mins
Eddie Siatti is accused of murdering Councilman Oberon, but his friend Toma thinks he was framed.
Episode 2
Ambush on 7th Avenue
Thu, Oct 11, 1973 60 mins
Spooner assigns a university student to accompany Toma in his investigation of gangland killings.
Episode 3
Crime Without Victim
Thu, Oct 18, 1973 60 mins
Jesse Wainwright, once arrested by Toma for drug possession, is reported kidnapped. Toma has his doubts about the case but the boy's mother, a troubled woman, insists that the abduction is real.
Episode 4
Stakeout
Thu, Oct 25, 1973 60 mins
A lovely young lady Shirley seems to be key to breaking up a multi-million dollar drug ring. Toma need assistance tailing her so he takes on a partner known for erratic behavior despite Inspector Spooner's warnings.
Episode 5
The Cain Connection
Thu, Nov 1, 1973 60 mins
Toma assumed a secret identity to act as a go between when a college professor makes a deal with two different crimes organizations.
Episode 6
Blockhouse Breakdown
Thu, Nov 8, 1973 60 mins
In what's almost completely a two-character play, Toma learns that a rooftop sniper has taken 12 shots at 12 cops -- and has scored on every hit. But none of the victims has been seriously injured. Toma tries to figure out the gunman's motivation in a definitely-do-not-try-this-yourself way -- he takes a rifle, runs across the rooftop himself under heavy fire from the cops (who have been ordered to miss) and nose-dives into the gunman's wheelhouse, a control room for the building. His so-called mission is to "help" the gunman go after more cops. The gunman doesn't believe that for a minute (would you?), but Toma gets him to talk and tries to find out his motivation. When Toma finds out that the gunman has been playing it so that the cops -- who are hiding out directly underneath the wheelhouse -- are about to get 12 hand grenades dumped live right onto their heads, he must fast-talk the gunman into realizing it's a futile gesture.
Episode 7
Frame-Up
Thu, Nov 15, 1973 60 mins
Det. David Toma is accused of severely beating up a numbers runner.
Episode 8
The Bambara Bust
Thu, Dec 6, 1973 60 mins
Toma travels to the Mideast and poses as an archaeologist to find out who is smuggling drugs in ancient antiquities.
Episode 9
50% of Normal
Fri, Jan 18, 1974 60 mins
Toma goes undercover as a priest to gain the confidence of women who been attacked by someone who always wears a ski mask.
Episode 10
Rock-A-Bye
Fri, Jan 25, 1974 60 mins
Toma infiltrates a baby "adoption" where infants are sold for $25,000. The would be parents are desperate people who are unable to use legal means and unwilling to cooperate.
Episode 11
Time and Place Unknown: Part 1
Fri, Feb 8, 1974 60 mins
In the conclusion of a two-part drama Toma has infiltrated a bank burglary ring but he can't get in touch with police headquarters to report the location of the heist.
Episode 12
Time and Place Unknown: Part 2
Fri, Feb 15, 1974 60 mins
Toma, having successfully infiltrated a criminal gang, must participate in their next heist or risk blowing his cover.
Episode 13
A Funeral for Max Berlin
Fri, Feb 22, 1974 60 mins
Toma poses as a stevedore to investigate corruption on the waterfront. His target is a union that is reputed to be the most crime-ridden in the state.
Episode 14
The Big Dealers
Fri, Mar 1, 1974 60 mins
Tom's learns his nephew Jimmy has become addicted and is determined to bring down his chief supplier. Various disguises are assumed before Toma locates the head of the drug ring.
Episode 15
The Contract on Alex Cordeen
Fri, Mar 8, 1974 60 mins
A mobster comes to Toma with news that he, the mobster, has a price on his head. Toma follows along hoping to foil the hit attempt. But the mobster's fatalistic attitude leads Toma to suspect that the mobster is hiding something -- specifically, the exact reason there is a contract out on him.
Episode 16
Joey the Weep
Fri, Mar 22, 1974 60 mins
Toma joins forces with Windy, a down on his luck newsman, when their mutual friend Joey is killed. A bookie, Joey collected numerous enemies when he was alive making their task difficult.
Episode 17
Friends of Danny Beecher
Fri, Mar 29, 1974 60 mins
Toma goes undercover as a friend of an ex-con who was jailed after killing a police officer. Toma investigates the claim that the fatality occurred during a botched raid leading to death of the young man's girlfriend.
Episode 18
The Madam
Fri, Apr 12, 1974 60 mins
David is asked to go undercover as a wealthy Italian to break up a call girl operation. He learns they uses teenagers after getting them addicted to drugs. But his growing closeness to the madam makes his job difficult.
Episode 19
Pound of Flesh
Fri, Apr 19, 1974 60 mins
Patty Toma's long-ago boyfriend, who is also a buddy of David Toma, is a restaurateur with a big money problem. To finance the restaurant, he borrowed money from loan sharks who have become increasingly nasty as his "vigorish" (payment with interest) goes deeper into arrears. They stop him at a bank's night depository and cheerfully take the restaurant's entire revenues for the week, leaving him with a nasty knife-slash wound on one hand as a reminder that he only paid up for the one week and he's still due the next week, with lots of so-called interest payments. The restaurateur is getting increasingly desperate -- he had already paid more than triple the amount of the loan with only a minuscule reduction of the principal -- and Toma volunteers to help. Soon, the leader of the loan-sharking operation is murdered in an apparent power play. Toma finds out that one of his street-contact "friends" was involved in the killing, and manages to infiltrate the new gang. Features a great gunfight at the end where Toma manages to knock out or pin down everybody without using his gun -- despite dodging multiple gunshots.
Episode 20
Indictment
Fri, Apr 26, 1974 60 mins
Jamie Farr, in a rare villain's role, plays a L.A. County prosecutor who has a high conviction rate because he uses every trick in the book, some of them unethical to say the least and criminal to say the worst. When Toma tries to prosecute a murder suspect, he realizes that the prosecutor isn't interested in justice at all but simply wants to throw the book at anybody and everybody -- including some innocent people.
Episode 21
The Street
Fri, May 3, 1974 60 mins
Toma is double crossed as he tries to prevent established mobsters from taking over a local vice operation.
Episode 22
The Accused
Fri, May 10, 1974 60 mins
Toma and three other cops are on stakeout in a particularly dangerous Los Angeles neighborhood. One of the cops, in the back seat of a car, has a six-round assault rifle. A thug is chased by Toma and one of the other officers, stops in front of the officer with the machine gun and takes the entire magazine in one burst -- the officer "froze" while pulling the trigger. The dead man, who was black and unarmed, is held up as a martyr and the cop is put on a departmental hearing that could get him dismissed from the force, or worse. Although the cop accompanying Toma on the chase, an elderly man, is cleared of screaming a racial epithet (because his voice is so damaged there is no way he could have shouted it at the volume a witness says he did), that doesn't clear the back-seat cop of the charge of shooting an unarmed man -- until Toma does a double take at the autopsy report which shows the the man was hit SEVEN times by the burst, even though only the six slugs were recovered from his body. What caused the seventh wound? Toma's task is made urgent after the cop is shot (his ultimate survival is left unclear) and he must try to stop the gunman from starting a racial mob war. Story by the real David Toma.