The Hunted Lady is a 1977 American TV movie starring Donna Mills as a woman who goes on the run. It was a pilot for a TV series that never eventuated but screened as a stand-alone film. [1]
When two detectives uncover the truth about a United States senator's closed ties to the criminal underworld, one ends up dead, and the other - Susan Reilly - is framed for his murder. Strong evidence and a weak alibi combine to turn all sides solidly against her, including her fellow officers and superiors in the Los Angeles Police Department. Unable to prove her innocence, Susan escapes, in search of the answers that can clear her name before the police catch her, but more than her freedom is threatened. When the mob finds out that the sharp-eyed young female detective is on the loose, they send out an assassin with very specific orders: find her, then silence her. [2]
The success of Charlie's Angels in the 1976-77 ratings season prompted all the American TV networks to feature more sexy young women in action-orientated roles, either adding them to existing programs or introducing new shows that focused on them. NBC picked up The Bionic Woman from ABC and also added young female characters to the 1977–78 seasons of Baa Baa Black Sheep and BJ and the Bear . They introduced several new shows with female sex symbol leads such as Quark , The Roller Girls and Who's Watching the Kids? , as well as commissioning pilots for several series which were direct imitations of Charlie's Angels: The Secret War of Jackie's Girls , The Hunted Lady and Cover Girls . [3]
It was the 28th highest-rated show of the week. [4]
Charlie's Angels is an American crime drama television series created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts for ABC. It originally aired from September 22, 1976, to June 24, 1981, airing for five seasons consisting of 115 episodes. It was produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions. The show follows the crime-fighting adventures of three women working at a private detective agency in Los Angeles, California, and originally starred Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Jaclyn Smith in the leading roles and John Forsythe providing the voice of their boss, the unseen Charlie Townsend, who directed the crime-fighting operations of the "Angels" over a speakerphone. There were a few casting changes: after the departure of Fawcett, Cheryl Ladd joined; after Jackson departed, Shelley Hack joined, and she was subsequently replaced by Tanya Roberts.
A television pilot in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distributor. A pilot is created to be a testing ground to gauge whether a series will be successful. It is, therefore, a test episode for the intended television series, an early step in the series development, much like pilot studies serve as precursors to the start of larger activity.
Tanya Roberts was an American actress. Some of her credits include playing Julie Rogers in the final season of the television series Charlie's Angels (1980–1981), Stacey Sutton in the James Bond film A View to a Kill (1985), Kiri in The Beastmaster (1982), Sheena in Sheena: Queen of the Jungle (1984), and Midge Pinciotti on That '70s Show (1998–2004).
Jaclyn Smith is an American actress. She is most notable for her role as Kelly Garrett in the television series Charlie's Angels (1976–1981), and was the only original female lead to remain with the series for its complete run. She reprised the role with cameo appearances in the films Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003) and Charlie's Angels (2019). Her other films include Nightkill (1980) and Déjà Vu (1985). Beginning in the 1980s, she began developing and marketing her own brands of clothing and perfume.
Donna Mills is an American actress. She began her television career in 1966 with a recurring role on The Secret Storm, and in the same year appeared on Broadway in Woody Allen's comedy Don't Drink the Water. She made her film debut the next year in The Incident. She then starred for three years on the soap opera Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1967–70), before starring as Tobie Williams, the girlfriend of Clint Eastwood's character in the 1971 cult thriller Play Misty for Me. Mills played the female lead in the heist film Murph the Surf (1975), and had starring roles in a number of made-for-television movies during the 1970s.
Hunter is an American crime drama television series created by Frank Lupo that ran on NBC from September 18, 1984, to April 26, 1991. It stars Fred Dryer as Sergeant Rick Hunter and Stepfanie Kramer as Sergeant Dee Dee McCall, and Charles Hallahan as Captain Charles "Charlie" Devane. The title character Sgt. Rick Hunter is a wily, physically imposing, often rule-breaking homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Michele Ann Marie "Shelley" Fabares is a retired American actress and singer. She is known for her television roles as Mary Stone on the sitcom The Donna Reed Show (1958–1963) and as Christine Armstrong on the sitcom Coach (1989–1997), the latter of which earned her two Primetime Emmy Awards nominations. Her film roles include playing the leading lady to Elvis Presley in Girl Happy, Spinout and Clambake.
Susan Oliver was an American actress, television director, aviator, and author.
Anne Francis was an American actress known for her ground-breaking roles in the science fiction film Forbidden Planet (1956) and the television action-drama series Honey West (1965–1966). Forbidden Planet marked a first in in-color, big-budget, science-fiction-themed motion pictures. Nine years later, Francis challenged female stereotypes in Honey West, in which she played a perky blonde private investigator who was as quick with body slams as with witty one-liners. She earned a Golden Globe Award and Emmy Award nomination for her performance.
Douglas Fowley was an American movie and television actor in more than 240 films and dozens of television programs, He is probably best remembered for his role as the frustrated movie director Roscoe Dexter in Singin' in the Rain (1952), and for his regular supporting role as Doc Fabrique and Doc Holiday in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. He was the father of rock and roll musician and record producer Kim Fowley.
Don Barry, also known as Red Barry, was an American film and television actor. He was nicknamed "Red" after appearing as the first Red Ryder in the highly successful 1940 film Adventures of Red Ryder with Noah Beery Sr.; the character was played in later films by "Wild Bill" Elliott and Allan Lane. Barry went on to bigger budget films following Red Ryder, but none reached his previous level of success. He played Red Doyle in the 1964 Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Simple Simon".
Simon Oakland was an American actor of stage, screen, and television.
Allison Mills, also known as Alley Bean, is an American actress, known for her roles on television. She starred as Norma Arnold, in the coming-of-age ABC comedy series, The Wonder Years (1988–1993). In 2006 she began playing the role of Pamela Douglas, the sister of the late Forrester matriarch Stephanie Forrester, on the CBS soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful. From 2022 to 2024, Mills also portrayed antagonistic Heather Webber on the ABC soap opera, General Hospital, for which she received a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series.
Banyon is a detective series broadcast in the United States by NBC as part of its 1972–73 television schedule, though a standalone two-hour television movie was broadcast first in March 1971. The series was a Quinn Martin Production, the first-ever show Martin made for the NBC network, though he did not produce the pilot.
Angel is a 1984 American exploitation thriller film directed by Robert Vincent O'Neil, written by O'Neil and Joseph Michael Cala, and starring Donna Wilkes, Cliff Gorman, Susan Tyrrell, Dick Shawn, and Rory Calhoun. Its plot follows a teenage sex worker in Los Angeles who faces danger when a serial killer begins stalking and murdering her colleagues.
Lin Bolen was an American television executive and producer. She was most noted for her role at NBC daytime television programming as the first female vice president of a TV network, a position she held from 1972 until 1976. In this role, Bolen was responsible for commissioning the long-running game show Wheel of Fortune and is credited with bringing successful long form to network soap operas. Bolen was mentioned in Who's Who in America as a trailblazer for women in television.
Flying High is an American comedy-drama television series, created by Dawn Aldredge and Martin Cohan, starring Kathryn Witt, Connie Sellecca, Pat Klous, and Howard Platt. The series aired on CBS from August 28, 1978, to January 23, 1979.
Cover Girls is a 1977 American made-for-television crime drama film directed by Jerry London and starring Cornelia Sharpe, Jayne Kennedy and Don Galloway.
The Secret War of Jackie's Girls is a 1980 American TV movie that was conceived as a pilot but never went to series. It is about female pilots who undertake secret missions in World War II. The pilot was directed by Gordon Hessler.