HOUSTON KNIGHTS

Episode Guide

SEASON ONE

(Spring 1987)

1. Houston Knights--Pilot episode--2hr TV movie (3/11)

2. North of the Border (3/18)

3. Houston's Hero (3/25)

4. Single In Heaven (4/1)

5. Yesterday's Gone (4/8)

6. Bad Girl (4/15)

7. Scarecrow (4/22)

8. Colt (4/29)

Synopsis of Each Episode

This shows the background of Sergeant Joey LaFiamma (Michael Pare), and deals with the conflict between a Northerner and a Southerner. LF, a Chicago police detective, was forced to leave home for doing his job. He kills a mobster who has city government connections. When a contract is put out on him, his department transfers him, through an exchange program, to Houston, Texas. In Houston, LF is teamed with a laid-back cowboy named Sergeant Levon Lundy. Their investigation procedures are complete opposites, their personalities clash, but somehow they work. Both have ghosts in their past. LF’s partner was killed when LF held back to wait for back up and his partner went ahead, so he feels he must push harder. L’s wife was killed while he was investigating a land deal (she was blown up with a car bomb meant for him), so he won’t push because he’s afraid he’ll get someone hurt. During the investigation of a case, a hit man from Chicago tries to shot LF. L kills the man. LF’s Uncle Mikey (a mobster) makes a deal with the Chicago family wanting Joe dead. If Joe stays in Houston the contract is off. If Joe comes home to Chicago, the hit is on. So this hot-tempered Italian used to having lots of family around him is stuck in a "foreign" country. L can’t fathom the loyalty of LF’s family, some of which are mobsters, some are not. L thinks LF walks funny, talks funny, and wears outlandish clothes. During the investigation of their case they are transferred to the Major Crimes Unit under the command of Lieutenant Joanne Beaumont. Beaumont was once L’s partner.

The death of a young girl in Matamaras, Mexico, brings Officer Estaban Guiterrez to Houston. He does not play by the rules, and immediately clashes with LF & L. After an attempt is made on Estaban’s life, LF & L are assigned to help him find the killer of the girl. The killer turns out to be a powerful Houston attorney. Knowing the lawyer will not return to Mexico on his own, LF/L escort him to a river crossing where they are met by Officer Guiterrez.

The daughter of a prominent Houston businessman is kidnapped and held for ransom. The girl is found by an HPD detective, and he kills the man who allegedly kidnapped her. In gratitude, her father gives the detective several things. LF becomes suspicious of the man when other witnesses involved in the case start turning up dead. Each had been interviewed by the detective. LF asks Beaumont if he can investigate "the hero." This riles L as the man was his mentor at the Police Academy. As the investigation proceeds, L slowly admits that his friend may have been behind the kidnapping.

One of the victims of a serial killer is a friend of L’s. She helped him over some rough times when his wife was killed. He feels guilty over her death, because he "wasn’t there for her." After a novice journalist takes a statement of LF’s out of context and prints it, the killer latches onto LF. The killer even enters Joe’s apartment, putting on his clothes, and leaving the killer’s clothes behind on the bed. LF finds it hard to handle when the killer starts calling him. L and a girl friend, and Joe and the journalist, go to the singles bar that most of the girls frequented. Unknown to Joe, until later, the killer stands next to him at the bar and strikes up a conversation. When the killer calls him at work, LF realizes he knows the man. Finally the killer decides to take out someone close to Joe, someone he needs. LF and Beaumont race to L’s ranch when they discover it must be him. L, though wounded, kills the killer while he is fighting with LF.

L’s high school buddy is shot at when he walks through a hotel. He asks for his friend Levon Lundy when police come to investigate. Joe

and Levon get assigned to the case. Joe recognize a Chicago "mob tailor" going into the same hotel as the shooting. Girandi’s role, the tailor, is to track a man for the hit man. Through a meeting between Joe and Girandi, L finds out his friend did not make his wealth honestly, but by laundering money. The Feds are also watching, and decided that LF must be the hit man. The Knights discover that L’s buddy staged the shooting to get police protection. The Feds try to pressure Beaumont by showing tapes of LF meeting Girandi. (There is a good scene between Joe and Beaumont in which the safest place B and LF can talk is in a jail cell.) In the end, L’s friend is killed and the Knights take down the shooters. Joe faces the fact that his family’s ties with the mob may get him trouble.

A rich kids party turns deadly when someone dies of laced cocaine. LF becomes involved with one of the young women at the party. L tries to tell him he is being played with for kicks, but Joe won’t listen. But he soon learns she deals in drugs, and is a very dangerous woman. Her father’s wealth and connections keep her out of prosecution, until video tapes are found of her dealings.

The murder of a motorcycle cop doing a traffic stop is witnessed by a young black man names Scarecrow. The Knights track him down and put him in protective custody. A young social worker clashes with LF & L over their handling of the young man. When Scarecrow is killed the Knights think their witness is gone, but it turns out he was not the witness. The social worker was. She and Scarecrow were in a parked car opposite the shooting. She saw the murder. In the end, she ID’s the killer.

The gun L carries belonged to his grandfather who also was a police officer. Levon walks into a jewelry store where a robbery is in progress. He and other store employees are forced into a walk-in

vault. He is forced to leave his gun on one of the glass counters. The gun is used to break open display cases, and is then taken by the robbers. L becomes obsessed with find the gun, which has always been used for good. The Colt ends up in the hands of some wild kids who it for robbery and murder. Levon is out of control and suspended. LF back his partner when L finds out where the boy is. The boy is killed with he threatens L & LF with the Colt. When the gun is finally returned to L, he knows he can no longer use it, and throws it into a lake.