Cannon (TV Series) The Hero (1975) User Reviews

Family business.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 14 August 2018]

Tom (Dean Stockwell) is doing what he does best...he's at a local bar drinking. However, while he's there, he's threatened by a nasty guy. Later, after Tom leaves the bar, that nasty thug is waiting for him and gives chase. Oddly, however, he is knocked out and when he awakens, he finds the thug next to him...dead! The police arrest Tom...who tells them what happens but no one believes him. If he would just say he was attacked and fought back, he would likely serve no prison time. But if he sticks with this story, he's in trouble...and that's when Tom's father hires Cannon to investigate.

The dead man apparently was a member of a cult-like group, much like Charles Manson and his sick 'family'. This means that a group of psychopaths is angry and blame Tom for their friend's death....and they are a violent brood who would have no problem killing him. Can Cannon unravel everything before Tom assumes room temperature?

A theme running throughout the episode is Tom's masculinity and his father, a retired general. The old man wants Tom to be tough and admit to the killing...mostly to allay his fears about his son being a wimp! Nice guy, huh?

Overall, this is a very good episode with a nice twist. Well worth seeing.

WHATEVER THE GENERAL WANTS, HE GETS.

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 9 December 2022]

Irv Pearlberg, the man behind the MAN FROM UNCLE tv series wrote this episode, and with lots of imagination.

THE HERO is an excellent character study, all about the son (Dean Stockwell) of a general (Morgan Woodward) accused of killing a gang leader with a ton of baggage. The ongoing nightmare here is that he wakes up, after being attacked, to find the dead man beside him. How convenient. It's an old storyline, also used on MANNIX , but well done.

The acting is spot on, especially Dean Stockwell, who had been working in movies and tv since he was nine years old ( SONG OF THE THIN MAN as William Powell and Myrna Loy's cute son).

Series regular Lee Purcell returns, a super actress. Lee was best at playing desperate roles, with lots of emotion.

Of honorable mention is Morgan Woodward, who worked with William Conrad on scores of westerns at Warner Bros/ABC TV such as TEMPLE HOUSTON, which Conrad produced and directed. Morgan was inducted in the Hall of Fame for great western performers --although he plays a general here!

He appeared in 55 episodes of DALLAS. He was working everywhere, and thanks to Bill Conrad for getting him on the show.

Check this out: the opening chase scene was filmed at the historic train museum near Griffith Park, not far from Forest Lawn. It's still around with all the neat old choo choo's. A great place to spend the day. Take lots of pictures!

Not to be missed. SEASON 5, EPISODE 12 Nov 1975 and Happy Thanksgiving.

Gold-Plated Helter Skelter

[JasonDanielBaker · 9 April 2014]

Well-meaning drunk aerospace executive Tom Longman (Dean Stockwell) intervenes after seeing a wild-eyed creep (Thom Christopher) abusing a woman in the back of a bar. The creep identifies himself as Paul Rogan - a well-known violent psycho cult leader. Rogan leaves but finds Longman later and runs him off the road then he pulls a knife on Longman and chases him through an amusement park.

In a drunken stupor Longman stumbles and is knocked out. When he regains consciousness he is holding the now bloody knife and Rogan is dead from stab wounds from that very same knife. At his first moment of consciousness he is discovered by a security guard. Given Rogan's reputation not only can Longman walk on murder charges by claiming self-defence but the media will proclaim him a hero.

Longman will have none of it. He didn't kill Rogan. Longman's father (Morgan Woodward) hires fat, homely, short and balding private detective Frank Cannon (William Conrad) to troubleshoot. After Cannon fails to convince Tom Longman to claim self-defence he is left with plan b - finding out what really happened and proving it. That proves difficult when Rogan's 'family' i.e. brainwashed followers try to kill Longman and Cannon.

The Manson Family murders became fodder for fiction and movies and TV shows about crazed cults. For whatever reason the one depicted in this episode is a group of bored rich kids who like to play with guns. It seemed like Cannon was a show fixated upon the affluent and malevolent overlooking the fact that the vast majority of it's audience had little or nothing in common with characters like that.

As with any episode of this show the guest stars are the most impressive aspect of the production. Among them Thom Christopher and Randy Powell each excelled at playing baddies and cads in their careers in apparent avoidance of straight ahead roles. We see them here near the very beginning of their respective careers on the screen.

Laurie Walters ('Eight is Enough') appeared uncredited as a cult member.