Tag: Syndicated

The brutal murder of a woman in a honeymoon suite repeats the pattern of a previous murder case, and Jack suspects that the common element may be a hideous Cupid statue that Uncle Lewis sold to another man four years ago – and that man, too, was convicted of murdering a woman after seducing her with the aid of a Cupid statue. Ryan and Mickey discover that the statue was taken by a member of a local college fraternity, and they try to track it down, finding that it’s changed hands again. The Cupid is now in the possession of a disturbed young man who is too socially awkward to form normal relationships, and becomes obsessed with women he meets on campus. Ryan and Mickey get themselves invited to the fraternity’s next party to recover the statue before another woman is killed.

written by Stephen Katz
directed by Atom Egoyan
music by Fred Mollin

Cast: John D. LeMay (Ryan Dallion), Wendy Robey (Mickey Foster), Chris Wiggins (Jack Marshak), Denis Forest (Eddie), Carolyn Dunn (Laurie), Kirsten Kieferle (Bar Girl), Ross Fraser (Hastings), Kevin Lund (Bowser), Dennis Fitzgerald (Harold), Joy Boushel (Redhead), Ardon Bess (Hotel Manager), Peter Faussett (Frat Member), Matt Trueman (Alex), Richard Alden (Security Guard), Patrick Tierney (Bartender), Victor Ertmanis (Jock)

Notes: Mickey is still engaged to Lloyd (see The Inheritance). Denis Forest also made guest appearances on Nightmare Cafe, The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr., The X-Files, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He would become a regular in the second and final season of Friday The 13th’s syndicated Paramount stablemate, War Of The Worlds, as Malzor. He died in 2002 at the age of 41. He and guest star Carolyn Dunn both made several more appearances in Friday The 13th (as different characters). The episode featured several contemporary songs as source music (in soundtrack terms, background music which the characters can hear, such as from a radio): “Heart Like Mine” and “Try” by Blue Rodeo, “The Breakaway” by David Quinton, “Does It Matter To You” by David Quinton and Anton Evans, and “Do It All Night” and “Party Rock” by Stan Meisner.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A homeless girl is offered a cup of tea by a stranger, a cup with a design of vines and leaves printed on its side. The vines seem to spring from the cup and strangle the girl to death…and then return to the cup.

This isn’t the first unexplained murder in the same general area, though, and the police have no clues. Mickey and Ryan pay a visit to the investigator following the case, but he’s less than receptive to “amateur” help. The only clue is an ivy leaf, which Jack is able to identify…and trace back to a cup sold by Uncle Louis. The cup is yet another cursed item, one which can transfer a victim’s youth and vitality to the person who holds the cup. Ryan is incredulous when the cup’s trail leads to Lady Die, a past-her-prime rock star trying desperately to return to the limelight. But Lady Die is recognized by Bertie, an older woman trying to catch Jack’s attention, as someone she knew when she was younger. Can they be the same person? Has Lady Die been trying to reclaim her youth for longer than any of them can imagine?

written by Barbara Sachs
directed by F. Harvey Frost
music by Fred Mollin

Cast: John D. LeMay (Ryan Dallion), Wendy Robey (Mickey Foster), Chris Wiggins (Jack Marshak), Hilary Shepard (Lady Die), Maxine Miller (Birdie), Lubomir Mykytiuk (Langley), Lisa Jakub (Kristen), Richard Fitzpatrick (Lt. Fishbein), Brian Young (Drifter), Ann Cornish (Sarah), Erica Wood (Runaway), Bruce Vavarina (Young Bum), Tim Burd (Teddy), Jan Fillips (David Kay), Walter Bolton (Coroner), Karen Hines (Punk)

Notes: Hilary Shepard comes by her musical talent naturally – she’s as much a musician as she is an actress. She’d get to sing in another unlikely genre show, guest starring in two episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as the genetically augmented savant Lauren in Statistical Probabilities (1997) and Chrysalis (1998). She also played Divatox in Power Rangers Turbo and Power Rangers In Space.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

To help dispel the somewhat shady reputation of Curious Goods, Ryan invites friends to the store for a Halloween party. Mickey worries that their visitors might enter the vault of cursed objects, which does indeed happen; a crystal ball is disturbed and begins growing with a green light. Ryan evacuates the partygoers, and Jack tries to help a wayward trick-or-treater get home. A thick fog climbs the stairs from the vault, eventually forming the image of Uncle Lewis, claiming he wants to atone for his sins and be free of his pact with the devil. But it’s another trick: Lewis wants to return from the dead, even if it costs Mickey and Ryan their lives.

written by William Taub
directed by Timothy Bond
music by Fred Mollin

Cast: John D. LeMay (Ryan Dallion), Wendy Robey (Mickey Foster), Chris Wiggins (Jack Marshak), R.G. Armstrong (Uncle Lewis), Adrian Pocock (Greta), Victoria Deslaurier (Evil Greta), David Matheson (Larry), Alan Watt (Howard), Maxwell Moffatt (Old Man), Braun McAsh (B.T.), Tom Melissis (Erik), Ron Vanhart (Hearse Driver)

Notes: Make the second of a handful of guest appearances as Uncle Lewis, R.G. Armstrong (1917-2012) had a long history of genre roles, from the original Twilight Zone to The Time Tunnel, The Invaders, Beauty And The Beast, Quantum Leap, and Millennium. His movie appearances included Predator, Dick Tracy, The Car, and Children Of The Corn, among many, many others.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A seemingly random killing puts Ryan, Mickey and Jack on the trail of a possible cursed object – a scalpel believed to have been used by Jack the Ripper himself. Able to cut through nearly anything, it could be an incredible surgical tool…or a deadly weapon. The track the scalpel down to a Dr. Howard, who is rapidly gaining a reputation as a somewhat aloof, eccentric medical miracle worker. But the artifact hunters aren’t the only ones on his trail: a woman who has been trying to stalk Dr. Howard aims a gun at him in the hospital, but Ryan and Jack’s quick intervention make her only a would-be murderer. She has many clues about Howard’s past victims, but her obsession makes her almost as dangerous as Howard himself. AFter a scuffle with Howard, Jack is critically injured…and the man from whom he was trying to take the scalpel may now be his only hope of survival.

written by Marc Scott Zicree
directed by Richard Friedman
music by Fred Mollin

Cast: John D. LeMay (Ryan Dallion), Wendy Robey (Mickey Foster), Chris Wiggins (Jack Marshak), Cliff Gorman (Dr. Howard), Elva Mai Hoover (Jean Flappen), Doris Petrie (Dr. Price), Michael Copeman (Jim Bronson), Alan Rosenthal (Anaesthetist), Frank Perry (Flower Vendor), Vinetta Strombergs (Duty Nurse), Deborah Kimmett (Obs Room Nurse), Lynn Vogt (Psychiatric Nurse), Hal Eisen (Code Blue Doctor), Wendy Lum (Station Nurse), Peggy Francis (Surgical Nurse), Candace Jennings (Hooker), Susan Spencer (Emergency Nurse)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The widow of a gym manager calls upon Curious Goods to catalog her late husband’s collection of vintage boxing memorabilia. The item that catches Jack’s attention is a pair of boxing gloves belonging to an infamous fighter who accidentally killed his last opponent with a knockout punch in the 1940s…a pair of gloves that had briefly been in the Ventredi collection of cursed artifacts. Jack, Mickey and Ryan, posing as reporters, begin hanging around the gym and talking to the up-and-coming boxers training there, trying to get a fix on whether the cursed gloves are still in use by anyone there. The gloves summon forth the featureless shadow of a fighter, and the wearer can direct the shadow to kill its victim.

written by Joshua Daniel Miller
directed by Timothy Bond
music by Fred Mollin

Cast: John D. LeMay (Ryan Dallion), Wendy Robey (Mickey Foster), Chris Wiggins (Jack Marshak), David Ferry (Tommy Dunn), Jack Duffy (Manny King), Patricia Hamilton (Sadie King), Gerry Quigley (Doorman), Dennis Christensen (Pepper Boliski), Patsy Fern (Referee), Nicholas Pasco (Tony Terrific), Philip Akin (Kid Cornelius)

Notes: Guest star Philip Akin would go on to join Friday The 13th’s syndicated stablemate, War Of The Worlds, in its second season as Norton Drake; he was also a regular in the second season of Highlander: The Series (which starred Akin’s fellow new recruit in the second and final season of War Of The Worlds, Adrian Paul). He went on to play guest roles in Psi Factor: Chronicles Of The Paranormal, Relic Hunter, Odyssey 5, Mutant X, Warehouse 13 and The Expanse, and has provided voices for many animated series, including the 1990s X-Men animated series and Tales From The Cryptkeeper.

LogBook entry by Earl Green