Spenser: For Hire

Spenser: For Hire

ABC Ended Drama • Mystery

3 Seasons · 65 Episodes · Premiered September 20, 1985 · Ended May 7, 1988

Legendary Beantown gumshoe-with-a-difference, Spenser, is cut from a very different cloth than the usual round of TV detectives, a renaissance man who isn't afraid to mix up a gourmet salad or just mix it up. Full-time bookworm and former boxer, the stylish Spenser drives a vintage Mustang that calls out his own sense of time and place - a yearning for a simpler time of ethics and standards, and displays an appreciation of the best of the past in the present. Keeping Spenser in touch with his complex inner life is his psychologist soulmate, Susan Silverman, while the street-savvy Hawk guides Spenser safely through Bostons labyrinthine underworld.

Where to Watch: ABC

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Seasons & Episodes

Season 1

22 episodes
E01
Promised Land
Sat, Sep 21 1985 1:00 AM GMT+0000 120 min
Spenser is hired by a real estate developer to find his runaway wife, who is mixed up in bank robbery and murder. 
E02
No Room at the Inn
Sat, Sep 28 1985 2:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
Mobsters plan to escape justice by killing bodyguard Spenser and his charge, a grand-jury witness.
E03
The Choice
Sat, Oct 5 1985 2:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
Spenser rescues a Senator's kidnapped daughter and becomes a celebrity, and the target of two men who kill for the thrill of it.
E04
Children of a Tempest Storm
Sat, Oct 12 1985 2:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
Susan agonizes over revealing her pregnancy to Spenser, who has taken in the children of the hit man he killed in self-defense.
E05
Original Sin
Sat, Oct 19 1985 2:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
Spenser suspects foul play in the apparent suicide of a novice who left the convent to help the poor in the ghetto fight evictions.
E06
Discord in A Minor
Sat, Oct 26 1985 2:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
After a symphony conductor's daughter is kidnapped, bodyguard Spenser is fired, but he finds later that her disappearance wasn't what it seemed.
E07
The Killer Within
Wed, Nov 13 1985 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
Spenser is hired to protect a woman's identical twin sister from assassins.
E08
Autumn Thieves
Wed, Nov 20 1985 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
Spenser is framed for theft after being hired to follow a man who stole a religious museum piece and promised it to two rival buyers.
E09
Blood Money
Wed, Nov 27 1985 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
A ransom delivery snafu leads Spenser to doubt the existence of a radical group claiming responsibility for kidnapping a corporate executive.
E10
Resurrection
Wed, Dec 4 1985 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
Spenser tries to save the parole of an ex-prostitute charged with weapons possession.
E11
Internal Affairs
Wed, Dec 18 1985 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
Quirk is suspended over allegations that he tipped off an illegal-gambling ring about a planned raid, and he refuses to speak in his own defense.
E12
Death by Design
Wed, Jan 8 1986 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
Spenser thinks his client, who is researching designer drugs, is worried about more than missing earrings and the whereabouts of her gigolo boyfriend. 
E13
A Day's Wages
Wed, Jan 15 1986 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
Bodyguards Spenser and Hawk accept blame when security methods fail, but they vow to make a racketeer pay.
E14
A Madness Most Discreet
Wed, Jan 22 1986 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
A former Bolshoi ballerina hires Spenser to recover a tape stolen from her murdered cosmonaut husband.
E15
Brother to Dragons
Wed, Feb 5 1986 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
Spenser goes undercover at a private high school to investigate heroin use on campus, but discovers something far more serious.
E16
When Silence Speaks
Wed, Feb 12 1986 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
A deaf woman hires Spenser to find a man she had been corresponding with who had gone missing. 
E17
In a Safe Place
Sat, Feb 15 1986 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
Spenser hunts for an illegal alien whose son is being held as bait by an immigration official. 
E18
Angel of Desolation
Wed, Mar 5 1986 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
Complications arise after an ex-model hires Spenser to protect her, and her Boston patrician husband is shot.
E19
She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not
Wed, Mar 12 1986 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
Spenser investigates old friend Sgt. Belson, whose partner, now dead, may have been taking bribes.
E20
At the River's Edge
Wed, Mar 26 1986 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
A 12-year-old girl hires Spenser to find out who killed her sister, whose murder is jeopardizing prospects for an evangelist with political aspirations.
E21
Rage
Wed, Apr 2 1986 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
Susan and Spenser get involved in a hostage situation when a killer abducts a teenager who witnessed his crime.
E22
Hell Hath No Fury
Wed, Apr 9 1986 3:00 AM GMT+0000 60 min
A man whose son was killed in a building collapse claims that a political coverup sent an innocent building inspector to prison. 

Season 2

22 episodes

Season 3

21 episodes
Robert Urich
Robert Urich as Spenser
Avery Brooks
Avery Brooks as Hawk
Ron McLarty
Ron McLarty as Sgt. Frank Belson
Richard Jaeckel
Richard Jaeckel as Lt. Martin Quirk
Barbara Stock
Barbara Stock as Susan Silverman
Carolyn McCormick
Carolyn McCormick as ADA Rita Fiore

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