User Reviews

Contaminated stolen beef kills 5 people in New York, and a FDA inspector is murdered when Sam tries to arrest the shipper. When the killer is arrested near Twin Falls, Colorado, McCloud tells Clifford, "I WANT HIM!" Clifford says he's NOT going to lecture him on being on his best behavior, and avoiding the "embarrassments that seem to dog your trail"-- but it comes out as a lecture anyway. And so, in a reverse-tribute to "COOGAN'S BLUFF", Sam's sent to extradite a prisoner.

Sheriff Floyd Bevins has a problem. He's up for re-election, and he'll lose his job if he doesn't come through on his promise to bring in the cattle rustlers within a week. So the LAST thing he needs is some "know it all" cop from NYC taking away the only lead he's had in months. I realize that if Sam had sat down with the Sheriff and offered to HELP, events might have unfolded exactly as they did... but without all the confusion-- and humor. But before this can even cross his mind, the gang breaks the killer out of jail, Sam finds the deputy on the floor, and HE's arrested for helping the jailbreak!

And so, the phone call... "McCloud, WHY are you calling collect? And WHY aren't you already on your way back here?" "Well, to answer your first question, they only let you make a local call for free." Before you know it, Clifford assigns Joe to take over. "Joe, I want you to consider this a SUICIDE mission. If you have to choose between coming back without your prisoner-- or going down in flames-- TAKE THE FLAMES!"

But in the meantime, Sam has convinced Deputy Dewy Cobb (who's much smarter than his boss) to let him out of jail so they can both follow a different line of investigation than the Sheriff. This involves impersonating cattle rustlers, and staging a HANGING for a real one to shake out info.

When Joe arrives, HE's suckered into one of Sam's schemes... and winds up in jail for it. Which leads to a 2nd phone call. "Broadhurst-- WHY are YOU calling collect?" "They only let you make a local call for free. It's not as bad as it looks... " "CLICK!" "Yeah, I guess it is..." And so, CLIFFORD hops a plane... and on tracking down his errant lawman, gets punched in the FACE for it.

This may be the FUNNIEST episode of "McCLOUD" ever made. And definitely one of my favorites. Producer Michael Gleason should have won an Emmy for his screenplay.

Among the cast are Claude Akins ("RIO BRAVO", "SHERIFF LOBO", "INCIDENT AT VICTORIA FALLS") as the dumb sheriff; Patrick Wayne ("THE GREEN BERETS", "SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER") as one of the deputies; John Denver (well on his way to becoming one of the best-selling recording artists in the history of the business at this point) as the mild-mannered but smarter deputy); Ed Ames (one of The Ames Brothers singing group, and actor in 72 episodes of "DANIEL BOONE") as the head cattle rustler; Vic Tayback ("STAR TREK" and countless other TV appearances) as a NYC beef salesman; Robert Sampson ("BRIDGET LOVES BERNIE", "POLICE STORY", "FALCON CREST", and countless other TV roles) as the crooked beef distributor; and Farrah Fawcett ("CHARLIE'S ANGELS", "THE CANNONBALL RUN") as one of the girls hired by the crooks to keep and eye on McCloud & Cobb.

Of the mere 5 episodes they did this season, this was the only one that was 90 minutes (including commercials) instead of 2 hours, and the storytelling and pacing benefitted greatly for it.