William Shatner is T. J. Hooker, a veteran cop hardened by divorce and the shooting death of his partner. In the opener, Captain Dennis Sheridan (Richard Herd) assigns Hooker to train recruits pending the investigation of a controversial shooting in which he was involved. Hooker is partnered with rookie cop Vincent Romano (Adrian Zmed).

Hooker has to escort an overeager newswoman (Karen Carlson) while hunting for a mugger who leaves a Bible at the scene of his crimes.

Guest starring: Karen Carlson, George Murdock, John Furlong, Victor Brandt, Bruce Winant, Pamela Brull, Buck Young, Anne Bruner, Victor Izay, Judith Balwin, Jeanie Van Dam, Arnold F. Turner, Maurice Manson, Belle Richter and Stacey Kuhne-Adams

Special guest star: Gary Frank

Hooker doesn't believe a teen-age junkie's (Deborah Foreman) fatal fall from a building was suicide.

Guest starring: Rick Lenz, Tom Nardini, Steve Sandor, Ed Bernard, Paul Kent, Susan McClung, Lee Bryant, Ted Gehring, Hank Brandt, Janis Hansen, John Shepherd, Pamela Brull, Deborah Foreman, Bobby Pickett, Davis Roberts, Ray Ballard, June Christopher, Nicole Eggert and Jon Caliri

A van stopped for running a red light turns out to be filled with illegal firearms.

Guest starring: Sid Haig, Vic Tayback, Joseph R. Sicari, Debra Blee, Paul Picerni, Mickey Jones, Richard Moll, Ross Borden, Beau Starr, Diana Bellamy, Phil Diskin, Adrian Ricard and Theo Forsett

Special guest star:

Hooker tries to persuade a frightened woman to testify against a psychotic murderer (Jonathan Banks). (This is Vicki Taylor's final appearance in the series, although she was mentioned in the Season 2 pilot and her nameplate was briefly seen on the desk adjacent to Romano in the Season 2 episode "Vengeance Is Mine.")

Guest starring: Lisa Hartman Black, Jonathan Banks, Michael O'Hare, Robert Hogan, Michael Pataki, Ted Gehring, Joseph Whipp, Ed Ruffalo and Gene LeBell

Hooker links a recent homicide and an unsolved case he investigated eight years earlier. Meanwhile, a new police desk clerk named Stacy Sheridan (Heather Locklear) has caught Romano's attention, unaware that she is the Captain's daughter. Robert Davi guest stars as Joe "The Barber" Picartus.

Guest starring: Rebecca Holden, Robert Davi, Victor Campos, Al Ruscio, De'voreaux White, Lyn Hallowell, Rick Fits, Betsy Russell, Christine Kellogg, Peter Mamakos and Al Berry

Hooker tries to clear a friend (James Darren) arrested for a series of robberies when custom parts from the getaway cars are traced to his auto-repair shop. Romano takes part in a departmental go-cart race. (Although this was Darren's first appearance in the series, he would not play his regular role of Jim Corrigan until the second-to-last episode of this season.)

Guest starring: James Darren, Donna Wilkes, James O'Sullivan, Gary Graham, Alan Stock, Tara St. Andrew, Roberta Lee Caroll, Beau Bilingslea, Phil Rubenstein, Richard McGonagle and Toni Catalano

Fellow officers criticize Romano for not shooting a juvenile (David Michael Elliott) who killed an officer.

Guest starring: Jeanette Nolan, Herbert Jefferson Jr., David Elliott, Scott Thomson, E.M. Margolese, David Underwood, Gloria Manos, Shirley Slater, Aaron Martin, Joshua Gallegos and Christie Mossman

Hooker tries to protect a frightened robbery witness (played by Shatner's then-wife, Marcy Lafferty) from the culprits — who don't know she's blind. Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys has a cameo as himself.

Guest starring: Marcy Lafferty, Darrell Fetty, Tony Burton and Raf Mauro

Special guest star: The Beach Boys

Hooker and Romano pursue a rapist who's left just one clue: a size 13 footprint.

Guest starring: Robin Dearden, James O'Sullivan, George McDaniel, Ray Girardin, Charles Bartlett, Holly Gagnier, Robin Evans, Martin Beck, Martin Azarow, Tony Perez, Gail Cameron and Pendleton Brown

A vengeful sniper who has been shooting at police cars is planning to attack the police academy.

Guest starring: Kristoffer Tabori, Doran Clark, Melody Anderson, Norman Bartold, Lee Bryant, Valentin de Vargas, Nicole Eggert and Brad Wilson

News footage and eyewitness accounts point to the same conclusion: Hooker shot and killed an unarmed youth on a crowded street.

Guest starring: Robert Fields, Chris Mulkey, Mark Soper, Lee Bryant, Ken Hixon, Wayne Morton, Anthony Darren, Martha Gallub, James Faracci and Tawny Little

An ambitious detective is out to nail Hooker's friend on a charge of aiding jewel thieves while working as a diamond-exchange guard. Legendary musician Jerry Lee Lewis appears as himself.

Guest starring: Cliff Potts, Jonathan Goldsmith, Jesse Vint, Royce D. Applegate, Deborah Foreman, Tracy Smith, Sam Scarber and Bobby Justin

Special guest star: Jerry Lee Lewis

Hooker helps a hearing-impaired teenager who's been left to take a murder rap by his fellow gang members.

Guest starring: Henry Darrow, Pamela Susan Shoop, Rafael Campos, Miguel Fernandes, Trinidad Silva, Panchito Gómez, Carl Strano, Philip Baker Hall, Gary Carlos Cervantes, Robert Balderson and Ken Del Conte

Hooker tries to avert a war between independent truckers and a produce wholesaler who's been sabotaging their trucks.

Hooker searches for a dealer supplying PCP to high-school students.

Concern for a teenager in trouble leads Romano and Hooker to a gang of thieves selling stolen liquor to high-school students.

Romano unwittingly supplies information to fur thieves when he falls for a pretty model who's working for the gang.

Stacy acts as a decoy to flush out a psychotic who has killed five women — including a cop.

Thieves blow up an armored car and take flight leaving only one clue: a homing pigeon's metal leg band.

William Shatner and his Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy are reunited in a tale of a detective's quest for revenge against the man who raped his daughter.

Trivia: In his memoir Up Til Now, William Shatner wrote that Leonard Nimoy agreed to guest-star on the condition that he also be allowed to direct an episode, which he did with the same season's "The Decoy."

Hooker's concern for a teenage prostitute leads him to a pimp who's bribing city officials.

A cocaine dealer recruits couriers from the ranks of compulsive gamblers deeply in debt to his poker club.

A private investigator's murder puts Hooker on the trail of an arsonist (David Caruso) who's torching condemned buildings.

Fran Hooker and Stacy are taken hostage in a hospital by robbers who are trying to break out their critically wounded cohort. (Jenny Beck, who played Valerie in this episode, later would appear as Chrissie Hooker in the fourth-season episode "Homecoming" as well as the fifth-season premiere, "The Ransom.")

Hooker's ex-wife Fran is knocked out during a factory-district robbery. Meanwhile, Hooker assigns Stacy to field conditioning, teaming her with no-nonsense training officer Jim Corrigan (James Darren). (While this is Darren's first appearance as Jim Corrigan, a role he would fill for every episode except one the rest of the series, this marks the final appearances for Lee Bryant as Fran Hooker and Nicole Eggert as Chrissie Hooker. Leigh Christian played Fran in "The Ransom.")

A rookie cop is wounded by fleeing gun thieves, and Hooker blames himself for teaching her the aggressive style of pursuit that led to the shooting.

Hooker pursues bank robbers who use the same tactics as the gang that wounded him and killed his partner five years earlier.

Stacy goes undercover as an exotic dancer to crack a white-slavery ring.

Chinatown is the scene of a thriving black market in guns and, for Hooker, a place where more than memory links him to the past.

The murder of a high school cheerleader leads Hooker to an illegal abortion clinic and a pornographic film ring.

Two separate murders occur near a muckraking reporter (Helen Shaver), and Hooker suspects that she was the target.

Hooker must decide whether to report a veteran cop's alcoholism after his on-the-job drinking leads to the shooting of the cop's partner.

On a "fishing trip" in Mexico, Hooker trolls for a diamond thief who also kidnapped his own son as an act of revenge against the boy's mother.

Romano feels betrayed when Hooker defends an officer (Lenore Kasdorf) charged with cowardice in an incident that left Romano wounded.

A murder investigation leads Hooker to a drug-money laundering ring.

Pursuing the killers of criminals freed on technicalities is Hooker's unhappy task: the suspects are fellow officers. This episode is heavily influenced by the film Magnum Force.

Hooker is suspended when his pursuit of heroin pushers interferes with federal agents who are after the ring's supplier.

Stacy becomes emotionally attached to a sick baby abandoned by a couple involved in armed robberies.

The pattern Hooker detects in the murders of several nurses suggests he has less than 48 hours to prevent the killer from striking again. (This episode marks the first appearance of Lt. Pete O'Brien, played by Hugh Farrington. O'Brien's character filled the superior's role taken by Captain Dennis Sheridan throughout the early part of the series.)

Hooker and Corrigan go undercover as drug dealers to nail the kingpins of a cocaine ring.

The pursuit of a gang of diamond thieves leads to a broken romance for Corrigan and tragedy for Hooker after he accidentally shoots a nine-year-old boy.

A murderer's former girlfriend (Shanna Reed) could send him to prison with her testimony, if Hooker can keep her alive and plug the security leak that led to the death of another witness.

Stacy's future, which includes prospects of marriage, looks bright until she is implicated in the disappearance of two kilograms of heroin from a major bust.

Although the man implicated in a series of rapes and robberies is dead, Hooker isn't convinced the case is closed.

Romano poses as a stripper in a club where the owner and a dancer are suspects in a cocaine ring.

After a girl is kidnapped, a skeptical Hooker is assigned to work with a psychic (Marcy Lafferty, Shatner's then-wife who was making her second of four appearances in the series), who's been having a recurring dream of Hooker's death.

With two barrio gangs threatening to launch an all-out war, Hooker pursues the real cause of unrest — an illegal-arms dealer who would profit handsomely.

After interrupting a weapons heist, Romano is wounded and Hooker – who knows his own revolver is empty – is trapped in an elevator in a guns-drawn test of wills with one of the thieves.

Hooker puts his career on the line combing the city for a burly robber who shot Stacy and left her with a bullet lodged close to her heart.

A teenaged prostitute (Jill Whitlow) is targeted by a pair of psychotic killers who know she can identify them in the murder of another girl.

Hooker and the department draw the fire of a city councilman over their use of high-speed pursuit after a bank hold-up hostage loses her unborn child during a chase.

Hooker leans on a reluctant ex-prostitute (Heather Thomas) whose ex-roommate could clear the name of a dead vice cop accused of taking a bribe from the head of a porno ring (Dennis Franz).

Hooker volunteers to help a colleague (Jim Brown) solve a drug-related murder and finds that the cop's daughter (Penny Johnson) — a heroin addict — is their only hope for convicting the killers. (This is the final appearance in the series of Captain Dennis Sheridan, played by Richard Herd, although he is briefly mentioned in "Lag Time" near the end of this season and in "Return of a Cop" early in the fifth season.)

Romano is temporarily blinded and his girlfriend is killed during two attempts on Hooker's life.

Stacy goes undercover to find out who's responsible for the grisly deaths of two fashion models.

A blow to the head precipitates episodes of explosive behavior in Corrigan. Meanwhile, Hooker tries to stop a strangler of skid-row denizens.

Hooker pursues the man who raped a female priest, but he's stymied by the victim, who won't testify after hearing her attacker's confession.

Romano's new sports car is stolen, but the 10-year-old Gypsy (Tori Spelling) who witnessed the crime and the subsequent murder of her uncle won't talk to the police. Hooker solicits the help of the girl's sister (Delta Burke).

Stacy poses as bait for a killer of young blonde women and turns up a strong case against a vice cop moonlighting as a security officer.

Hooker tries to persuade a radio sex therapist (Belinda Montgomery) to help him search for the killer of four unfaithful wives — all of whom were callers to her program.

A colleague from Hooker's detective days needs help tracking down a serial killer who's taken hostages.

Stacy poses as a masseuse to find out who's trying to take over massage parlors.

Hooker's charged with bribery and corruption, then leaves for Las Vegas to meet with the prostitute accused of paying him off.

Hooker's fierce pursuit of the gang behind a series of rapes and robberies may be motivated more by revenge than duty: a friend was a victim.

Hooker teams up with a young Hollywood detective named Dani Starr (Sharon Stone) in search of a jewel thief named Gable (Jonathan Goldsmith) wanted for murder and other felonies. Hooker awakens bound and gagged by Gable in a closet leading him to thrash around in a panic trying to free himself and Dani Starr chases Gable through an abandoned factory trying to stop him and retrieve the jewels. She has a close-call with Gable nearly being hit by his car. What is Gable's actual motive? Filmed as a back door pilot featuring Sharon Stone which was not picked up.

Stacy and a seriously wounded Corrigan are taken hostage by a murderous trio who take refuge in a church, demanding safe passage to Mexico. (William Shatner's then-wife, Marcy Lafferty, makes her third appearance in the series. Here, she plays Rita Holmes, one of the hostage takers. Lafferty also appeared in the second-season episode "Blind Justice" and the third-season episode "Psychic Terror" and would appear for the final time in "Partners in Death" in the fifth season.)

Hooker's vacation with his children is interrupted by a race-track robbery that leaves an officer dead. (Jenny Beck plays Chrissie in this episode and the fifth-season premiere, "The Ransom." Nicole Eggert played Chrissie in five first- and second-season episodes.)

An officer's cocaine problem endangers Hooker as they pursue suspects in a string of cross-country serial murders.

Stacy loses her confidence after a procedural lapse with a robbery suspect nearly costs her her life.

Corrigan is accused of planting a "throwaway" gun on a suspect he shot while investigating a series of box-office heists. (This is the final appearance in the series of Vince Romano, played by Adrian Zmed.)

A "three-hour" extradition trip to Chicago becomes an extended stay for Hooker when he goes undercover to nail a heroin dealer.

Trivia: William Shatner is the only regular cast member to appear in this episode, which was supposed to serve as a testing ground for a retooling of the series, which would have Hooker move to Chicago full-time and work alongside a new partner in a new environment. The proposed reboot was dropped when ABC canceled the series.

Hooker's daughter is kidnapped by an ex-cop. The ransom: the whereabouts of the guy's own family — relocated by the FBI after he was sentenced to prison.

Hooker's dad (John McLiam), a retired cop, arrives unexpectedly and shows more than a passing interest in Hooker's current case.

A cop killer has also targeted the dead man's partner.

The investigation of a 17-year-old porno actress's murder is hampered by her uncle (Christopher Stone), a cop obsessed with nailing the killers himself.

A man Hooker served with in Vietnam is out to assassinate a Russian trade delegate.

Hooker clashes with a Fed out to bust the drug dealer who killed one of Hooker's cops in a bungled sting operation.

Corrigan gives serious consideration to leaving the force after pulling the trigger in two fatal shootings.

Hooker's under pressure to solve a grisly series of sex murders.

Armed robbers take Stacy hostage, and one of the suspects has personal ties to the mayor.

Hooker probes the "murder" of an officer who was once his lover.

Stacy loses her memory following a car accident and is taken in by a motorist who says he's a doctor.

Stacy's job performance is hampered by the fear that she'll be the next victim of a murderous gang of bank robbers.

Hooker searches for a murderer whose victims all were female lawyers who attended the same law school.

Corrigan and Stacy's preoccupation with each other leads to an incident that leaves Hooker wounded. (William Shatner's wife, Marcy Lafferty, makes her fourth and final appearance in the series in this episode as Stephanie Bailey, one of the criminals being pursued.)

Hooker protects a retired mobster-turned-informant—the latest target of a right-wing paramilitary group.

Hooker, Corrigan and Sheridan travel to Hawaii on special assignment to protect the life of a U.S. Senator and his family who are threatened by terrorists.

While off duty, Hooker is forced to shoot a hitman before he can find out who the man was hired to kill.

Hooker's pursuit of a murderous jewelry-store robber is impeded by a TV-news reporter.