Harry O: Hostage (ABC 19 Feb 1976, with John Rubinstein)

In Hostage Lt Trench finds himself caught in a hostage situation when petty villain Richard Trask tries to rob the safe of a liquor store he thinks contains $10,000. When the owner of the store presses the silent alarm the villain shoots one of the cops that arrive on the scene. A siege quickly develops with Trask taking several people hostage.

As a media circus develops Trench exchanges himself for the release of two of the hostages. Trask wants money for his drug addicted girlfriend Veronica in order to put her through a detox programme and he wants her brought to him at the liquor store. Trench tells Roberts to get Harry to track her down and he has just two hours to do so.

It turns out that a group of heavy drug dealers are keeping a large consignment of heroin in the store’s safe and also want it back.

In reality it’s the kind of situation that Harry wouldn’t have got involved with but the search for Veronica provides him with a handy way in. The plot is very much a rehash of Al Pacino movie Dog Day Afternoon.

production details
USA / ABC / 1×50 minute episode / Broadcast 19 February 1976

Writer: Michael Sloan / Director: Jerry London

Series: Harry O Season 2 Episode 17

cast
David Janssen as Harry Orwell
Anthony Zerbe as Lt. K.C. Trench
John Rubinstein as Richard Trask
George Murdock as Captain Shelldrake
George Loros as Paul Lavelle
Ayn Ruymen as Virginia McBain
Quinn Redeker as Harrison Bremmer
Paul Tulley as Sgt. Roberts
Bruce Glover as Nathan Carroll
Colleen Camp as Karen Bremmer
Priscilla Pointer as Constance Faraday
Linda Gillen as Jill McBain
Don McGovern as Carl Devine
Timothy Thomerson as Reporter
Charles Knapp as Photo Lab Manager