Police Story
Police Story is an anthology television crime drama. The show was the brainchild of author and former policeman Joseph Wambaugh and represented a major step forward in the realistic depiction of police work and violence on network TV. Although it was an anthology, there were certain things that all episodes had in common; for instance, the main character in each episode was a police officer. The setting was always Los Angeles and the characters always worked for some branch of the LAPD. Notwithstanding the anthology format, there were recurring characters. Scott Brady appeared in more than a dozen episodes as "Vinnie," a former cop who, upon retirement, had opened a bar catering to police officers, and who acted as a sort of Greek chorus during the run of the series, commenting on the characters and plots.
Seasons
1. Slow Boy (1)
Air Date: 1973-03-20
A special surveillance detail set up to catch criminals in the act finally nabs Slow Boy while he is robbing a supermarket. Complications arise when the robber takes a hostage before the police can detain him.
2. Slow Boy (2)
Air Date: 1973-03-20
A tough cop in charge of a special felony squad goes after the vicious son of a Mafia chief who is pulling a string of strong-arm robberies.
3. Dangerous Games
Air Date: 1973-10-02
Undercover cop Charlie Czonka tries to catch the big man behind a ring of prostitution, dope and extortion
4. Requiem for an Informer
Air Date: 1973-10-09
A down-and-out addict becomes an informer for the bank robbery detail and wins the friendship of a cop.
5. The Ten Year Honeymoon
Air Date: 1973-10-23
Two partners on the police force start getting on each other's nerves after ten years together when one begins acting strange.
6. The Violent Homecoming
Air Date: 1973-10-30
A Mexican-American police sergeant who's been assigned to his original neighborhood leads the Juvenile Division in an attempt to head off a gang war.
7. The Ho Chi Minh Trail
Air Date: 1973-11-06
An undercover cop nearly loses his life trying to crack a big-time drug-selling operation.
8. Collision Course
Air Date: 1973-11-20
The question of whether or not policewomen should be assigned to ride in patrol cars is brought to the head in a gun battle with two killers.
9. Death on Credit
Air Date: 1973-11-27
Sergeant Rick Calvelli works undercover in order to crack a phony credit card ring that plays dangerously.
10. The Big Walk
Air Date: 1973-12-04
A beat cop has his newly established authority challenged when a wealthy girl he arrests avoids retribution in court.
11. Man on the Rack
Air Date: 1973-12-11
An unauthodox cop accidentally kills a fellow officer and is put under investigation by Internal Affairs.
12. Line of Fire
Air Date: 1973-12-18
A young police officer joins a special unit and must learn to cope with killing.
13. Chain of Command
Air Date: 1974-01-08
The possibility of a conspiracy to murder cops creates a war between a black community and the police.
14. Countdown (1)
Air Date: 1974-01-15
When policeman Joe LaFrieda kills a member of an underworld family during a robbery attempt; a contract is put out on his life.
15. Countdown (2)
Air Date: 1974-01-22
The police clash head-on with the Mob when a contract is taken out on Officer Joe LaFrieda's life.
16. Cop in the Middle
Air Date: 1974-01-29
A cop on the take devises a plan to save himself from disgrace.
17. The Ripper
Air Date: 1974-02-12
Two officers from Robbery-Homicide attempt to track down a killer of homosexuals who mutilates the bodies of his victims.
18. Country Boy
Air Date: 1974-02-19
A young recruit from a rural community attempts to defy his background by completing the tough Police Academy training to become a cop.
19. The Hunters
Air Date: 1974-02-26
Two detectives become emotionally involved in a case when a friend is the victim of a robber/rapist/murderer.
20. Wyatt Earp Syndrome
Air Date: 1974-03-05
As an officer tracks down a rapist, his marriage dissolves in favor of his badge.
21. Fingerprint
Air Date: 1974-03-12
A police veteran in the Latent Prints Division is discouraged with his job until some unexpected combat gives him a new perspective.
22. Chief
Air Date: 1974-03-19
A police chief must overcome an assissination plot and political games in order to speak at a local meeting of police-haters.
23. The Gamble
Air Date: 1974-03-26
The transfer of desk officer Lisa Beaumont to the vice squad leads to a series of explosive developments.
1. A Dangerous Age
Air Date: 1974-09-10
Arch Tatum is close to retirement and is teamed up with a head-strong young trainee who throws a curve for the long time vet.
2. Requiem for C.Z. Smith
Air Date: 1974-09-17
Charlie Czonka resurrects his alter ego, pimp CZ Smith, to catch a murderer who mutilates prostitutes.
3. Robbery: 48 Hours
Air Date: 1974-09-24
Lt. Bruckner leads the Robbery Squad through a two-day run of holdups, big and small.
4. Fathers and Sons
Air Date: 1974-10-01
Members of the Serbian community are being gunned down and the police have few leads. Sgt. Wilson decides to use officer Joe Basic, an ethnic Slav, in an undercover situation. Joe learns his father Andrea is a possible target.
5. A World Full of Hurt
Air Date: 1974-10-08
Juvenile officers Craig and Prescott deal with runaways, delinquents, and Prescott's own troubled home life.
6. Glamour Boy
Air Date: 1974-10-29
Detectives Tony Calabrese and Bert Jameson try to hold onto a charming bank robber, which proves to be more difficult than actually catching him.
7. Across the Line
Air Date: 1974-11-12
Joe Benton is taken off the surveillance squad after being involved in too many stakeouts that ended violently, so Sgt. Barrett drafts him for his narcotics squad investigating the "Mexican Connection."
8. Wolf
Air Date: 1974-11-19
Sgt. Wolf Bozeman, a gung ho street cop who lives through his job, tries to cope with the prospect of losing that job due to his deteriorating health.
9. Love, Mabel
Air Date: 1974-11-26
Detectives investigate a series of murders of homeless men along the piers.
10. Explosion
Air Date: 1974-12-03
Detectives Bert Jameson and Tony Calabrese try to catch an extortionist who leaves remote-control bombs at his targets.
11. Capt. Hook
Air Date: 1974-12-17
A police officer fights the brass to keep his spot as a beat cop after he loses his right hand to a package bomb.
12. Incident in the Kill Zone
Air Date: 1975-01-07
Sergeant King Sherman endangers the public and the SWAT team he commands while preparing for his Lieutenant exams. His wife convinces him he'll pass his orals if he shows confidence in his leadership skills by projecting total authority.
13. Headhunter
Air Date: 1975-01-14
IA Det. Sgt. Stiles investigates an indecent exposure charge against a veteran officer, resulting in the officer's dismissal. Months later, the exposure complainant confesses to a years-old murder, and subsequently raises doubt on his original testimony.
14. Year of the Dragon (1)
Air Date: 1975-01-21
Det. John Darrin uses his experience in Chinatown to find the gang members who robbed a restaurant and killed one of the employees.
15. Year of the Dragon (2)
Air Date: 1975-01-28
Det. John Darrin has to keep his primary witness to the restaurant shooting alive, while searching for his Chinese gang snitch, who has been snatched by a rival gang.
16. To Steal a Million
Air Date: 1975-02-04
Detectives Grosser and Hyland know a big hotel heist is about to happen. They know who's involved, but they don't know which hotel or how to catch the thieves red-handed.
17. Sniper
Air Date: 1975-02-11
Detectives Calabrese and Thorpe try to catch a sniper before he, or she, strikes again.
18. The Execution
Air Date: 1975-02-18
Detectives attempt to solve a double execution-style shooting, which one victim manages to survive.
19. The Man in the Shadows
Air Date: 1975-02-25
While breaking in new partner Ron Cruz, narcotics Det. Frank Dolan is drawn by a drug-related murder into pursuing a drug kingpin from out-of-town, who may be attempting to muscle his way into the local market.
20. War Games
Air Date: 1975-03-04
Detectives Gordy and Ballard go undercover in a white-supremacist gun club to bust a paranoid gun collector who specializes in illegal military munitions.
21. The Witness
Air Date: 1975-03-11
Det. Bert Jameson has a new partner, Lew Reeves, and Lew's vicious cold complicates their efforts to solve armed pharmacy robberies and to catch the chopper rider who holds up taverns.
22. The Return of Joe Forrester
Air Date: 1975-05-06
Detective Joe Forrester must go back to the rough area that was his old beat to try and catch a serial rapist.
1. Officer Needs Help
Air Date: 1975-09-09
Sgt. Billy Humm starts feeling the pressure after he's involved in a few too many on-duty shootings, even though they were judged "good."
2. The Cutting Edge
Air Date: 1975-09-16
Ed Peebles has 30 years on the force, and after his longtime partner retires he loses his direction, both on the job and in his personal life.
3. A Community of Victims
Air Date: 1975-09-23
A drug addict unintentionally acquires a gun during an apartment burglary.
4. The Losing Game
Air Date: 1975-09-30
Margaret Case moves from Juvenile to Narcotics, but her undercover work puts stress on her marriage to another cop.
5. The Cut Man Caper
Air Date: 1975-10-28
On the trail of loan-company robbers, Tillis is forced to rely upon shifty informer Freddy. But the ""snitch"" is playing both ends down the middle and he's also stolen the expensive miniature voice transmitter entrusted to his care.
6. Face for a Shadow
Air Date: 1975-11-07
Officers John Kowalski and Dick Elmore investigate a fatal hit-and-run accident that appears to be intentional.
7. The Test of Brotherhood
Air Date: 1975-11-14
Veteran officer JR Peters is paired in a patrol car with his younger brother Clay, a rookie, along with their sibling rivalry.
8. Empty Weapon
Air Date: 1975-11-21
On his first day out of the academy, Officer David Singer fails to fire his weapon when a juvenile delinquent he is pursuing pulls a gun on him, with tragic consequences later.
9. Little Boy Lost
Air Date: 1975-11-28
Detective Brennar fatally sends a 4y.o boy away from the neighborhood. On the home-front, this detective is experiencing a broader sending away of loved-ones only to reap inner confusion and heartache.
10. Vice: Twenty-Four Hours
Air Date: 1975-12-05
Pairs of vice detectives spend a day trying to bust a violent pimp, a bookie, and a man who wants to hire a hit man to kill his wife.
11. Breaking Point
Air Date: 1975-12-12
Vince Della Maggiori has to investigate when a patrolman shoots a man in his hotel room, and the stories he is given don't add up.
12. Company Man
Air Date: 1975-12-19
Married Det. Dave Hansen, under pressure from Internal Affairs, must decide whether to continue working for "the company" (LAPD), or stop seeing his school-teacher girlfriend.
13. Spanish Class
Air Date: 1976-01-02
Young officer Taylor transfers from the Valley into the Hispanic district for "the action" and the pay bump, and is schooled in the art of patrolling a multilingual beat by veteran officer Fernandez.
14. Odyssey of Death (1)
Air Date: 1976-01-09
Detectives Stoddard and Bagney look for a man involved in an armed grocery store robbery after he shoots and maims Officer Phillips, a personal friend of Stoddard.
15. Odyssey of Death (2)
Air Date: 1976-01-16
Detectives close in on the multi-generational hill-country family responsible for a series of armed robberies, rapes, and murders.
16. The Other Side of the Fence
Air Date: 1976-01-23
Detectives Benson and Fisk set up a sting to catch a pair of murderous jewel thieves.
17. Fifty Cents, First Half Hour -- One Dollar and Seventy-Five Cents All Day
Air Date: 1976-01-30
While trying to box in an armed bandit who specializes in stealing cars and robbing attendants at parking lots, Detectives Hacker and Barnes are assigned a homicide case.
18. Firebird
Air Date: 1976-02-06
A daredevil officer is severely burned in a helicopter crash during a SWAT team training exercise, and he fights his injuries and police brass to return to his old life.
19. The Long Ball
Air Date: 1976-02-13
Everyone around Sgt. Pickett knows he drinks too much. But he doesn't admit it to himself, until the department suspends him and his wife leaves.
20. Eamon Kinsella Royce
Air Date: 1976-02-20
Detective Eamon Kinsella Royce juggles his police responsibilities and his second job . . . as an insurance investigator.
21. Officer Dooly
Air Date: 1976-03-05
Despite his best intentions, Dooly is a poor guy who can't seem to do anything right, at least not in his commanding officer's eyes.
22. Open City
Air Date: 1976-03-12
Vice Detectives Daley and Gentry are on a camping trip when they hear a woman scream in the distance, and a few minutes later, gunshots. Thus begins their investigation into Mob involvement in the pornography industry and snuff films.
1. Payment Deferred
Air Date: 1976-09-21
Detective Joe Barley enlists Holly, his "retired" snitch and recovering addict, to help him find the man who shot his partner.
2. Bought and Paid For
Air Date: 1976-10-05
Detectives Belmont and Melino want the three men involved when a patrolman, the son of a Lieutenant, is killed when he interrupts a bank robbery. The one they need is the psychopath who recruits amateurs in his capers.
3. Two Frogs on a Mongoose
Air Date: 1976-10-12
Manny and Deke are on the narcotics squad, investigating a double shooting at a dry cleaning shop, when they get a tip that the shop owner is in business dealing drugs with a man called Mongoose.
4. The Other Side of the Badge
Air Date: 1976-10-26
Jack Mitchell is in control and keeps his cool when patrolling with his rookie partner, but his home life with his wife and her teenage daughter is not so tidy.
5. Three Days to Thirty
Air Date: 1976-11-09
While working out his last three days before retirement, Frank Moran is assigned a hot case.
6. Trash Detail, Front and Center
Air Date: 1976-11-16
Lew Randle, head of the Special Investigations Team, comes back after vacation and is immediately engulfed in the investigations of several armed robberies. He has to buck department politics to take down the violent trio responsible.
7. Thanksgiving
Air Date: 1976-11-23
K-Joe and Bunny investigate the sniper shooting of a young girl riding in a car on the freeway.
8. Monster Manor
Air Date: 1976-11-30
Gene (Santos) has a falling out with his wife and moves into a temporary bachelor's apartment, which becomes a party hangout for his buddies and attracts a lot of unwanted attention from others.
9. Oxford Gray
Air Date: 1976-12-07
Sgt. Kyles and Inv. McLiam try to break up the criminal activities of a local entrepreneur and philanthropist by bringing back his past as a violent revolutionary in Detroit and playing on his paranoia.
10. The Jar (1)
Air Date: 1976-12-14
Two detectives are called before the grand jury after a man is shot and killed when they attempt to arrest him.
11. The Jar (2)
Air Date: 1976-12-21
Hagen and Triplett are reassigned to an out-of-the-way detail to keep them out of the public eye pending their manslaughter trial.
12. Trial Board
Air Date: 1977-01-04
An undercover Vice detective is accused by one of his fellow Vice detectives of stealing cash during a drug bust.
13. Spitfire
Air Date: 1977-01-11
Detectives try to track down the two remaining robbers who participated in a tire store holdup that resulted in the deaths of an employee and one of the robbers. Their investigation leads them to a large illegal weapons operation.
14. Nightmare on a Sunday Morning
Air Date: 1977-01-18
Holly Green, a 19-year-old waitress is brutally beaten and raped by a pair of creeps, she then reluctantly helps bring her assailants to trial.
15. The Malflores
Air Date: 1977-01-25
Officers Webber and Cheruco discover a violent new gang on the streets, the Malflores, comprised entirely of Latinas.
16. The Blue Fog
Air Date: 1977-02-01
Veteran Detective Jack McGraw is given the unsavory task of investigating Vice detectives suspected of taking bribes from the Chinese crime family running an illegal gambling operation.
17. Hard Rock Brown
Air Date: 1977-02-15
LAPD Narcotics detectives work with a Mexican counterpart to try to break up the operation run by the Alvarez brothers, which is flooding the market with Mexican heroin known as "hard rock brown."
18. End of the Line
Air Date: 1977-02-22
Detectives Gerard and Panelli try to catch a pair of armed robbers who hit a supermarket, and are joined by a one-armed former detective, who is now an investigator for the store's insurance company.
19. One of Our Cops Is Crazy
Air Date: 1977-03-01
Sgt. Paul Cazenovia uses highly unconventional, albeit successful, methods in his undercover narcotics unit, but his lieutenant thinks he is crazy. It doesn't help that Paul refuses to stay behind his desk while he's under suspension.
20. Ice Time
Air Date: 1977-03-08
Vice Detective Dave Tackleberry takes on a second job (to pay for his teenage daughter's figure skating development) at the same time he and his partner Det. Wurster try to bust a pimp specializing in underage girls.
21. The Six Foot Stretch
Air Date: 1977-03-22
Detectives DeHart and Ward go up against another team of officers Riggs and Salter in tracking down a criminal. A psychotic man is targeting elderly women and time is of the essence.
22. Prime Rib
Air Date: 1977-04-05
Marty Lacayo and Glenn Talbot are street narcs, meaning they are given the task of busting nickel-and-dime users and hustlers. Shep, one of their users, gives them a tasty lead on a big distributor, but they are forbidden by Lt. Hagedorn from pursuing him.
1. Trigger Point
Air Date: 1977-09-27
Veteran Sergeant Wilson can't escape the burdens of being mother hen to, among others, a green lieutenant, an alcoholic superior, and an officer who's becoming dangerously paranoid.
2. Stigma
Air Date: 1977-11-09
Manny Mandell, involved in a shootout with a fleeing felon in which his partner is fatally wounded, receives a Police Department medal as a result. The survivor's guilt is bad enough, but as a medal winner he finds the expectations overwhelming.
3. River of Promises
Air Date: 1978-01-14
Policeman Miguel Rataza works in area where illegal Hispanics encounter difficulties. Going undercover regarding green card scams and protesting unsafe conditions he finds himself falling in love with Rosalie, an undocumented worker.
4. Day of Terror, Night of Fear
Air Date: 1978-03-04
Officer Ron Tice engages hostage-taker Richey Neptune in protracted negotiations, a task complicated by the fact that one of the five hostages is the Deputy Chief's daughter-in-law.
5. The Broken Badge
Air Date: 1978-03-19
IA Sergeants Bivins and Petrelli investigate the fatal shooting of a prostitute by a veteran beat cop with a history of bending the rules. The cop is then convicted and sent to the same prison that holds some of the men he sent there.
6. No Margin for Error
Air Date: 1978-04-30
A cop is consumed by guilt after innocent bystanders are killed in police shoot-outs.
7. A Chance to Live
Air Date: 1978-05-28
The head of an undercover narcotics division assigns a young policeman to infiltrate a high-school drug ring.
8. A Cry for Justice
Air Date: 1979-05-23
Police detectives investigate the shotgun shooting of a police officer.
9. Confessions of a Lady Cop
Air Date: 1980-04-02
Career and personal pressures bring a vice investigator to the brink of a nervous breakdown.
10. The Freeway Killings
Air Date: 1987-05-03
Police officers deal with personal and professional dilemmas as they search Los Angeles for a highway killer.
1. Cop Killer
Air Date: 1988-10-29
A patrolman's guilt over the death of his partner leads him into a relationship with the dead man's widow.
2. Gladiator School
Air Date: 1988-11-05
A cop becomes the object of inmate vengeance after a trumped-up murder charge puts him behind prison walls.
3. The Watch Commander
Air Date: 1988-11-12
The wife of a veteran cop becomes increasingly concerned over her husband's intense devotion to his men and duty.
4. Burnout
Air Date: 1988-11-26
Self-doubts about a failed romance and a friend's suicide begin to take their toll on an emotionally distraught vice cop.
5. Monster Manor
Air Date: 1988-12-03
A scheme to turn an old mansion into a haven for party animals snares misfit cops in a prostitution and drug sting.
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Rating
6.9/10
Release Date
1973-03-20
Episodes
104 (6 seasons)
Status
Ended