Strike Force

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This article is about a TV show. For the 1991 arcade game based on Defender, see Strike Force (video game). For the professional wrestling tag team, see Strike Force (professional wrestling). For the MMA promotion, see Strikeforce.

Strike Force was an American action-adventure/police procedural television series that aired on ABC during the 1981–1982 television season. The program starred Robert Stack as Capt. Frank Murphy, the leader of a group of specialized detectives and police officers whose job is to stop violent criminals at any cost (usually with a hail of gunfire). Mixing elements of Stack's classic TV series The Untouchables from 20 years earlier with doses of Mission: Impossible and Dirty Harry, the series immediately provoked controversy over its violence — at one point the series was labeled the most violent in American TV history — though the series attempted to interject liberal amounts of humor into its regular characters and balanced the violence by focusing on the detectives' personal lives. For example, Stack's character is a recent divorcé who is stuck with a house that was painted pink by his ex-wife; Sgt. Rosie Johnson became a policewoman after her husband went missing in Vietnam and enjoys making jokes about her bust size.

Capt. Murphy's favorite food was chili dogs and his constant nemesis was the squad room soda machine.

Although initially popular, the novelty of the series quickly wore off; only 19 episodes were produced. The first episode was released on video in North America in the late 1980s.

The cast included Trisha Noble, Richard Romanus, Herb Edelman, Michael Goodwin and Dorian Harewood.

Episode List

1 Strike Force: Pilot 11/13/1981

2 Kidnap 11/20/1981

3 The Victims 11/27/1981

4 The Predator 12/4/1981

5 Magic Man 12/11/1981

6 Night Nurse 12/18/1981

7 The Hollow Man 12/25/1981

8 The Outcast 1/8/1982

9 Ice 1/15/1982

10 Internal Affairs 1/22/1982

11 Lonely Ladies 2/5/1982

12 Fallen Angel 2/12/1982

13 Shark 2/19/1982

14 Turnabout 2/26/1982

15 The John Killer 3/5/1982

16 Humiliation 3/19/1982

17 Deadly Chemicals 3/26/1982

18 Revenge 4/2/1982

19 Chinatown 4/9/1982

20 Death Fire 4/16/1982