Strike Force
Starring	Robert Stack Dorian Harewood Herb Edelman Michael Goodwin Richard Romanus Trisha Noble
Theme music composer	Dominic Frontiere
Composers	Dominic Frontiere Mark Snow Allyn Ferguson Nelson Riddle Ken Harrison Mundell Lowe John E. Davis
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	20
Production
Executive producers	Aaron Spelling Douglas S. Cramer
Producers	E. Duke Vincent Elaine Rich
Running time	60 minutes
Production company	Aaron Spelling Productions
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	April 2, 1981 (1981-04-02) – May 21, 1982 (1982-05-21)

Strike Force is an American action-adventure/police procedural television series that aired onABC during the 1981–1982 television season, and was produced byAaron Spelling Productions. The program starredRobert Stack as Capt. Frank Murphy, the leader of a specialized unit of 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 television seriesThe Untouchables from 20 years earlier with doses ofMission: Impossible andDirty Harry,Strike Force immediately provoked controversy over its violence – at one point the series was labeled the most violent in American TV history.^{[citation needed]} The series attempted to balance the violence by interjecting liberal amounts of humor into its regular characters and focusing on the detectives' personal lives.^[1]

• Series starRobert Stack's character, SCPD Det. Capt. Frank Murphy, is the head of the specialStrike Force unit. He is a tough, incorruptible cop, tenacious and efficient on the job, but whose personal life is as unkempt as the home he lives in. He is a recent divorcé who is stuck with a house that was painted pink by his ex-wife, Eve (who left him for a career in show business, but whom he still obviously loves dearly), where he lives with Sam, his scruffy, oversized, beer-drinking dog (whose main source of nutrition appears to be a brand of dog food labeled "Doggone It").^[2] He is as tough as nails, but caring and fair, and loyal to the people under his command.^[3] Capt. Murphy's favorite food is chili dogs (which he seems to "require" everyone on his team of "Strike Force" detectives to eat); his constant nemesis is the squad room soda machine, which seems to work for everyone in the precinct but him, and is a running joke in the series.
• Det. Sgt. Paul Strobber, played byDorian Harewood, is the only married member of the team, and the most serious; a loving family man, with a wife and young son, but easily the most fearless and dangerous Strike Force member on the street. He is like a coiled spring, ready to strike when provoked, as he does when his family is threatened by white supremacists in the episode "The Outcasts".^[4] He likes to wear turtleneck sweaters instead of ties, andhates Murphy's chili dog diet, refusing to share in it.
• Det. Sgt. Rosie Johnson, played by former Australian teen singing starTrisha Noble,^[5][6][7][8] is tough, curvaceous, and beautiful — and very much a lady. She became a police officer after her husband went missing inVietnam and enjoys making — and-deflecting — jokes about her bust size. She is crazy about Gunzer, and often tries to get him to notice her.
• Det. Lt. Charlie Gunzer, played byRichard Romanus, is the group's free-spending ladies' man, with a dry, wicked sense of humor, who Rosie likes, but is afraid to tell him. Gunzer likes fast cars (in one episode, he buys aMercedes SL sports car), and faster women, and looks upon the chaste Rosie as nothing more than a friend and colleague.
• Det. Sgt. Mark Osborne, played byMichael Goodwin, is the youngest member of the team, and clearly the most "normal" in this dynamic, dysfunctional group.^[1] Called "The Kid" by Gunzer, he is a dedicated police officer whose favorite food is chocolate chip cookies. He likes Rosie, and has asked her out at least once, but to no avail.
• Deputy Police Commissioner Herbert Klein, as played byHerb Edelman, is Strike Force's immediate superior, and a close personal friend to Capt. Murphy. A dedicated cop and family man, Herb was cited several times for valor in his early career, but seems to have lost his taste for the violence in the streets, and now is content simply to stay behind a desk and wait out his time until retirement. He is also an amateur author, who often asks Murphy his opinion on the novels he writes — which never seem to get published.

Notable guest stars during the series run included:

• Eric Braeden, best known for his roles as Victor Newman on the soap operaThe Young and the Restless, and as Hans Dietrich in the 1960s TV seriesThe Rat Patrol, guest-starred in the episode "The John Killers".
• Paul Brinegar, known for his co-starring roles in TV series such asRawhide,Wyatt Earp, and the Clint Eastwood filmHigh Plains Drifter, guest-starred in the episode "Fallen Angel".
• Joanna Cassidy guest-starred as Frank's ex-wife, Eve Murphy, in the episode "Turnabout" (which probably would have been a recurring role had the series continued).
• Christopher Connelly, best known for the ABC seriesPeyton Place, guest-starred in the episode "Death Fare".
• Billy Drago, who would go on to playFrank Nitti in thefeature film version of Stack's TV series,The Untouchables, played a killer in the 90-minuteStrike Force pilot.^[9]
• Laurence Fishburne, future star ofCSI: Crime Scene Investigation,The Matrix and its sequels (asMorpheus), and Academy Award nominee forWhat's Love Got to Do with It, guest-starred in the episode "Humiliation".
• Richard Herd, best known in the science fiction community for his role in the 1983NBCminiseriesV and the 1984 sequelV: The Final Battle, as John, the Visitors' Supreme Commander, and onStar Trek: Voyager as AdmiralOwen Paris, the father ofTom Paris, guest-starred in the episode "Kidnap".
• Tab Hunter played a killer in the episode "Night Nurse".
• David McCallum, best known for his co-starring roles inThe Man from U.N.C.L.E. andNCIS, played an international hit man with a long-standing grudge against Murphy in the episode "ICE".
• Sam Melville, who co-starred in another Aaron Spelling cop series,The Rookies, guest-starred in the episode "Internal Affair".
• Lynne Moody played twin sisters in the episode "The Victims".
• Jeanette Nolan guest-starred in the episode "Sharks".
• Paul Picerni, who played Stack's second-in-command, Agt. Lee Hobson, inThe Untouchables, played a doctor in the episode "The John Killers".
• Raymond St. Jacques also guest-starred in the episode "Turnabout" as an FBI agent.
• Elizabeth Stack, Robert Stack's real-life daughter, appeared in the episode "Lonely Ladies".^[3]
• Don Stroud played a mobster out to kill Murphy in the episode "Turnabout".
• Philip Michael Thomas, future star ofMiami Vice, guest-starred in the episode "The Victims".

Although initially popular, the novelty of the series quickly wore off;^[3] only 19 episodes were produced, plus the 90-minute pilot.^[11] According toTodd Gitlin's 1983 bookInside Prime Time,Strike Force finished a dismal 76 out of 105 shows in theNielsen ratings for the 1981–82 season.^[12]

Another factor in the series' demise was the competition: ABC pittedStrike Force against the successfulCBS soap-operaFalcon Crest, which had, as its lead-in, the then-number one show on television,Dallas.

The first episode ofStrike Force was released on video in North America in the late 1980s.^{[citation needed]}

As of 2018, there has been no official DVD release of this series, though there have been several requests for its release,^{[citation needed]} and bootleg copies have circulated in the "collectors market" for the last three decades sinceStrike Force's cancellation.^{[2][13][14][15][16]}

• Strike Force atIMDb
• Strike Force pilot opening sequence (1981) with guest star Billy Drago - YouTube video
• "Strike Force" episode guide - from The Classic TV Archive
• YouTube Video:Strike Force episode #5: "Magic Man" (1982)
• Strike Force - ABC promo (1981)

• 1981 American television series debuts
• 1982 American television series endings
• American Broadcasting Company crime dramas
• 1980s American crime drama television series
• Television series by CBS Studios
• American English-language television shows
• Television series by Spelling Television
• American detective television series
• Television shows set in Los Angeles

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