Teleplay Michael Cassutt and Elia Katz Story   Paul Schiffer Directed  Burt Kennedy REGULAR CAST JAMESON PARKER GERALD MCRANEY MARY CARVER GUEST CAST JAMES STALEY MARYEDITH BURRELL ELIZABETH WARD BRET NAYLOR JOE SIROLA PETER BROWN THELMA HOUSTON GENE ROSS

Mismatched siblings, AJ & Rick Simon and their sometimes helpful friend Police Detective  Downtown Brown

In Peter's second appearance on Simon & Simon he's a cold-blooded thug who looks good in a white suit.  [See "The Dillinger Print" for Peter's first S&S episode.]  The show opens on a yacht party with a photographer sneaking photos of the singer from a distance.

Unbeknownst to the photographer, the owner of the yacht is a gangster thought to be out of the country.  If his presence is discovered by the Feds, he'll be toast.  So he sends his cold-blooded henchmen to retrieve the film at any cost.

The photographer switches film with an innocent mid-Western family enjoying the sights of Liberty World.  When Peter and friend catch up with the photographer, they take the family's film.

In the meantime, AJ has reluctantly gone along with one of Rick's schemes to drum up business.  They burglarize a LIberty World building to show that the security system is no good.  When they go to the manager's office to report their deed and ask for a job, they decide to impress him by finding the family's missing camera..

The family ends up ensconced at Aj's house where their homey cheerfulness, down home cooking and  hot cocoa in bed, wears thin after a while.

Back at Liberty World, Rick and AJ are undercover "watching" the family but neglect to see Peter push dad in the bumper boat pond to distract attention from his cohort's theft of mom's purse.

Rick catches the thief and a kick in the gut from Peter.  But the purse fails to yield up the missing film.

Peter and friends up the ante by stabbing the photographer to death as he tries to recoup his film from the family man who's left with a bloody knife and a murder charge.

At the police station the family meets some of the local colorful characters while the Simons get daddy released.

Peter and friend burglarize a LIberty World photo booth but fail to find the right pictures.  They get an address from Rick's truck registration and then attempt to eliminate Rick and AJ as they conduct their own search for the photos..

But they're unsuccessful.  Rick and AJ score the real pictures.

Rick and AJ interview Venutia and finally find out the source of all the trouble when she identifies the man in the photo.  In the meantime, the Prairie Schooner is returned by the police, somewhat the worse for wear.

Peter and friend kidnap the family and arrange an exchange.

But the exchange is a set up.  The police arrive; Peter flees.

Peter has no compunction about firing his handgun in a crowded water park.

But he ends up on the wrong end of AJ's fist and is captured at the bottom of the water slide.  The Simons bid farewell to the family and get the not so good news that the manager of Liberty World is not happy about having a shooting in his park.  Another Rick Simon scheme  gone awry.

NiteOwl Review:   Peter's part was pretty standard villainy but he did look good in that white suit and doing a few minor stunts.   Not one of the best episodes of this show.  Although the show ran until December of 1988, it had started to run out of steam by 1986.  The shows kept getting sillier when - in our opinion - it might have been given new life had it gone a slightly more serious route.  Magnum PI managed a perfect balance of humor and serious action that Simon and Simon rarely achieved.  Had they taken better advantage of it, S&S had the makings of a superior  buddy show.  The actors were willing but the scripts were weak.  But even so, it had a long run (it debuted in November of 1981) and the great on-screen chemistry of the duo made it a fun show to watch.  Peter and his Laredo costar Bill Smith did two episodes each and found  McRaney and Parker a great pleasure to work with.  A 1995 reunion movie fell flat in our opinion or maybe we just wanted too much.  [It even lacked the wonderful instrumental theme of the series.]  Cast Notes:  Gerald McRaney went on to do a slew of TV Movies and two more series :  Major Dad (1989-1993) and Promised Land (1996-1999).  He did some of his best work as a three-time guest on Designing Women as the ex-husband of his real-life future wife, Delta Burke.  In 2001, McRaney guested on JAG and West Wing.  Jameson Parker also did a number of TV movies and a few B theatrical releases, including a couple of horror movies.  He guested  in an episode of Family Law in the winter of 2001.

Contact us at:
outrider@peterbrown.tv