Target: Red

Ah, Bill Bixby...we all know and love him from his classic sitcom roles in My Favorite Martian and The Courtship of Eddie's Father. Or maybe you liked him better as a hero (The Magician) or a thinking man in danger (The Incredible Hulk)? But here's something you may not have realized...Bixby was also capable of playing some downright nasty characters, such as the one on display here.

Jerry Schilling is a government-trained assassin with the ability to kill with his bare hands. It's one such murder that puts him on Stone and Keller's radar screen, and when the Feds show up, we now know what Schilling is up to...he's been hired by renegade Army General Robert 'Red' West (Andrew Duggan) to take out a visiting Vietnamese dignitary. One other casualty--that of a beautiful young hooker who made the mistake of rifling through his wallet for cash and discovering that he has multiple identities--will ensue before the cops can catch up with and stop Schilling.

It's an action-packed ride, one of the best episodes of the series and the only one directed by Mission: Impossible veteran Barry Crane. Bixby and Duggan, two actors who were very capable of playing both decent guys and creeps, deliver big-time. This episode's writer, Rick Husky, tweaked it somewhat and remade it as the T. J. Hooker episode "The Assassin" over a decade later, but Vincent Baggetta and Morgan Woodward (filling in for Bixby and Duggan, respectively) cannot compare.

And here's another bit of trivia regarding this episode...are you or anyone you know Elvis fans? Then you'll LOVE this episode, as a number of characters in the episode are named after members of the Memphis Mafia (including the villains Schilling and West). Rick Husky was also a confidante of Elvis's, and he would often name characters after other members of the Memphis Mafia in his scripts.

I have to conced that I had quite a crush on. Cheryl Miller as the daughter of Marshall Thompson in Daktari when it aired in Germany 50 years ago. She knew how to wear Jeans for sure. Now, as we get to revisit the SoSF in another syndication repeat, I noted for the first time she played other roles also - and quite good. Stone and Heller are chasing a government killer, who goes freelancing for a radical group, that doesn't like good relations with China - what an absurd motif ?. The whole thing moves fast, the killer is a man of many appearances and disguises and Stone and Heller are permanently on their heels trying to get hold of him. Cheryl Miller ? She looks great, picks up the killer into her apartment but curiosity killed the... But she holds the clue to the solution in her hand.

Jerry Schilling, a paid assassin, is hired by a retired general to take out a visiting Red Chinese official.

A pretty good episode, helped by Bill Bixby's excellent performance as the killer. This is just two years after the end of his last series The Courtship Of Eddie's Father. There is an unintentionally funny moment when Schilling gets into an unusual disguise on the day of the assassination. See it to find out what it is.