Truthfully, HUNTER went thru several eras of evolution, some good, some very much not so. Although it surfaced about a year after the 4th film, SUDDEN IMPACT, it was much closer in tone and content to the 3rd film, THE ENFORCER, with regards to Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) having a FEMALE partner, Dee Dee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer), who my Dad used to compare favorably with "an AVENGERS girl" (refering of course to Diana Rigg or Linda Thorson).
The thing is, being from executive producer Stephen J. Cannell, who the previous season had given us THE A-TEAM, the 1st season had a feel of idiotic lunacy about it. The pilot had Michael Cavanaugh (from THE ENFORCER!) as Hunter's boss. He was replaced right after with John Amos (GOOD TIMES), and both of them came across as even stupider than Bradford Dillman did in THE ENFORCER.
I was watching (and taping) way too many shows at the time, and dropped off before season 2 came along, which had Bruce Davison (WILLARD) as the new boss, who was much more "reasonable", while the writing saw a definite improvement. Charles Hallahan (THE THING) became the new boss for season 3, and stayed to the end of the run! His "Charles DeVane" was someone much more in line with Rick & Dee Dee's methods, so they were able to focus more on good stories and less on idiotic arguments back at Police HQ. By dumb luck I happened to catch a late 3rd-season ep., and got hooked all over again, and began taping the show at that point (and regretting not doing so earlier, as much later, CBS Late Movie reruns skipped a lot of key episodes-- like, ALL the 2-parters).
I'd say seasons 4 & 5 were the show's peak of writing quality. But things started to go off the rails in season 6, when Fred Dryer's ego got the better of him. He took over as "co-executive producer" and started making public comments like "The show's name is HUNTER, not HUNTER AND DEE DEE." After a year of getting increasingly pushed to the side, Kramer LEFT the show. And that's when it just jumped right off a cliff.
Hunter got a new partner, a new precinct, fashions went to hell, and the writing got even worse, not to mention, often incoherent. Continuity also went by the wayside. One story had Charlie shocked to learn his late father had been a mobster-- when the running joke of seasons 1 & 2 were that Rick had always been the "black sheep" of his mob family when HE became a cop. Which was never mentioned in that episode! Then they did a story where a woman had been assaulted, and Rick inexplicably was more sympathetic to the criminal than the victim. I quit watching (and taping) the show that week. ABC actually YANKED it off the air one week later, holding back the 2nd half of season 7 until summer rerun time. It was a sad ending to a once-stupid show that had grown to become a great one.
There were 3 sequels. The 1st movie, only Dryer returned, the 2nd, Kramer came back. Then they tried to do another weekly series, but I understand someone pulled the plug after only about 6 weeks. OY.
As an aside... I just saw a recent photo of Kramer. What happened to her? I can't even RECOGNIZE her. Dryer just got older-- Kramer looks like an entirely-different person.
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