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J.J. Starbuck Episode Guide

1 :01x01 - Pilot

First aired: Sep/26/1987
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
Director: Corey Allen
Guest star: Jay Underwood (Charles Winslow), Lee Lucas (Boy), Luke Andreas (Fred), Glynn Turman (Lieutenant Caspersons), Eric Server (Sgt. Marchall), Michael Muntz (Louis), David Huddleston (Charlie Bullets), Don Shanklin (Koy Steel), Donna Mitchell (Charlotte Iskin), Bill Bixby (Donald Iskin), Carolyne Barry (Miss Sheff), Patrick Cronin (Harold Smythe), Patty Duke (Verna McKidden), Amy Yasbeck (Doreen), Michael Laskin (Fred Hack), Lora Staley (Gail Stoltz), Stephen Anthony Henry (bailiff)

Dale Robertson plays eccentric Texas billionaire JJ Starbuck who pokes his nose into other people's business in the name of justice. In the opener, JJ travels to Beverly Hills where a wealthy businessman is suddenly cleared of his wife's murder by a bodybuilder, who claims the death was the accidental result of a lovers' quarrel.



2 :01x02 - A Killing in the Market

First aired: Sep/29/1987
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
Director: Larry Shaw
Guest star: Christine Haber (Karen Whitaker), Tracey Olson (Todd Tipton), Robert Conrad (Corbett Cook), Karen Elizabeth Austin (Unknown), Christianne Hirt (Marci Tipton), Trent Dolan (Shane Smith), Kim Johnston Ulrich (Daphne)

Robert Conrad plays Corbett Cook, a Wall Street wizard, whose overtures to J.J. about a shady business deal become secondary when J.J. crowds him with questions about the apparent suicide of his assistant.



3 :01x03 - Murder In E Minor

First aired: Oct/20/1987
Writer: Babs Greyhosky
Director: Kim Manners
Guest star: Kelsey Grammer (Pierce Morgan), Don Hood (Lieutenant Arden), Bruce Harwood (Unknown), Rebecca Toolan (Unknown), Eric Christmas (Albert), Peggy McCay (Theresa), William Buck (Wickman)

J.J. interrogates Pierce Morgan, a pianist, about the apparent suicide of a competition judge who was disapproving of the pianist's style.



4 :01x04 - The Blimpy Who Yelled Blue

First aired: Oct/27/1987
Writer: Burt Pearl
Director: Bill Corcoran
Guest star: Sherry Hursey (Julie), Richard Mulligan (Professor Potts), William Frankfather (Nelson), Kaj-Erik Eriksen (Unknown)

J.J. calls into question the "accidental" demise of a children's-book illustrator when the dead man's collaborator and heir refuses to continue his partner's charitable work.



5 :01x05 - Incident at Sam September

First aired: Nov/10/1987
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
Director: Lyndon Chubbuck
Guest star: James Louis Watkins (Rimler), J. Patrick McNamara (Jannel), Ty Haller (Sam Miller), Nehemiah Persoff (Batulik), Kent McCord (Lt. Col. Joseph Martin), Wolf Muser (Krueger)

The military notifies J.J. that he's on his own if he goes up against the terrorist holding executives hostage at J.J.'s Middle Eastern oil refinery.



6 :01x06 - Gold from the Rainbow

First aired: Dec/05/1987
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
Director: John Peter Kousakis
Guest star: Raye Birk (Phil Macey), Telly Savalas (The Greek), Paul Regina (Andy Case), Christine Anton (Katrina), Paul Provenza (Unknown)

After J.J.'s car stalls, a Greek bearing gifts of room and board assists J.J., who tries to repay his host by helping him fight a development company.



7 :01x07 - Graveyard Shift

First aired: Dec/15/1987
Writer: Randall Wallace
Director: Bob Bralver
Guest star: John Schuck (Powell Umber), Geoffrey Lewis (Slydel Toomes)

Starbuck buys into a movie studio to uncover clues a decades old-murder case.



8 :01x08 - The Circle Unbroken

First aired: Dec/22/1987
Writer: Randall Wallace
Director: Kim Manners
Guest star: Alan Rachins (Pasban Bapu)

A shifty spiritual leader tries to frame a senator's daughter for her father's murder.



9 :01x09 - The 6% Solution

First aired: Dec/26/1987
Writer: Carol Mendelsohn
Director: Zale Dalen
Guest star: Robert Hooks (Lt. Lavelle Caspersons), Patrick O'Neal (Don Chadway), Bibi Besch (Unknown)

An estate agent finds success in selling houses to a couple, getting his 6% commission, then ordering one of his agents to seduce one member of the couple to break up their marriage. After the divorce, the couple sells their house and the realtor gets his 6% again; then he sells each of member of the couple another place and gets another 6% from those sales.



10 :01x10 - Murder by Design

First aired: Jan/23/1988
Writer: Randall Wallace
Director: Charles Picerni
Guest star: Jessica Walter (Brin Coltan), Jack Elam (Esco Tokay)

Starbuck investigates Brin Coltan, a scheming interior design editor, who seems to have committed the perfect murder.



11 :01x11 - Cactus Jack's Last Call

First aired: Feb/13/1988
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
Director: Zale Dalen
Guest star: Imbert Orchard (Justice Murphy), Adam Yawrenko (Bozarth), Dakin Matthews (Lemay), Stuart Whitman (Arnold Bass), Pat Corley (Cactus Jack/Cain)

Con man E.L. "Tenspeed" Turner unwillingly accepts to help J.J. find the killer of their mutual friend, Cactus Jack, a gambler.



12 :01x12 - A Song from the Sequel

First aired: Feb/20/1988
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
Director: James Whitmore, Jr.
Guest star: Jerry Wasserman (Jean Claude), Joe Regalbuto (Steve Capstone), Jill St. John (Rachel), John Ireland (Samuel Capstone), Silvana Gallardo (Carmelita)

J.J. runs across a man who was framed for the murder of his father, a studio executive killed 10 years earlier.



13 :01x13 - First You've Got To Go To The Picnic

First aired: Feb/27/1988
Writer: Babs Greyhosky
Director: Bruce Kessler
Guest star: Roy Brocksmith (Tennyson), Joshua Bryant (Billy D. Watkins), Don Michael Paul (Tommy Watkins), Mykelti Williamson (Calvin Leeds)

J.J. makes plans for a paroled felon to coach a college-football team that hasn't won its last 265 games.



14 :01x14 - Permanent Hiatus

First aired: Feb/27/1988
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell, Lawrence Hertzog
Director: Neill Fearnley
Guest star: Melody Rogers (Rosalind), Jackson Davies (Unknown), Moira Walley (Hanna), Ed Nelson (Ted Fuller)

Ted Fuller, J.J.'s Army buddy, now a talk-show host at a station J.J. owns, adds his own change to the phrase "killing the competition."



15 :01x15 - Rag Doll

First aired: Apr/19/1988
Writer: Randall Wallace
Director: William Fraker
Guest star: Caryn West (Sugar), Raymond O'Connor (Dicky Rich), Michael Des Barres (Benny Bijou)

Jill, J.J.'s niece inquires into the apparent suicide of a friend who was looking for stardom.



16 :01x16 - The Rise And Fall Of Joe Piermont

First aired: Jun/28/1988
Writer: Carol Mendelsohn
Director: Bob Bralver
Guest star: Phyllis Hamlin (Unknown), Sean Morgan (Paine), Coby Scheldt (Avery), Joseph Hacker (Joe Piermont Jr.), Barry Nelson (Joe Piermont Sr.)

J.J. has a sneaking suspicion that the collapse of a building is behind the reluctance of construction magnate Joe Piermont's son to run for governor.



17 :01x17 - That Old Black Magic

First aired: Unaired
Writer: Steven L. Sears



18 :01x18 - Everyone's a Critic

First aired: Unaired
Writer: Steven L. Sears