Written by E. NICK ALEXANDER Directed by LARRY DOBKIN Regular Cast ROBERT URICH as Dan Tanna PHYLLIS DAVIS as Beatrice Travis BURT BRAVERMAN as Binzer JUDY LANDERS as Angie Turner NAOMI STEVENS as Sgt. Bella Archer TONY CURTIS as Philip Roth Guest Cast ROBERT REED MAUREEN McCORMICK MICHAEL CALLAN DOLLY MARTIN MICHAEL SWAN Cameos PETER BROWN as Richie INGA SWENSON as pageant producer

Robert Urich with Tony Curtis

VEGA$ [1978-1981] was a detective series starring the ubiquitous Robert Urich.  [Urich did dozens of pilots and starred or costarred in at least nine series - Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1973); S.W.A.T. (1975-76); Soap (1977),  Gavilan (1982-83); Spencer (1985-1988) American Dreamer (1990-91),  Crossroads (1992); It Had to Be You (1993).  Vega$ was a splashy series which often featured familiar Hollywood names in cameo parts and had Tony Curtis making flamboyant appearances as the owner of the casino where Dan Tanna was based..
 
  Dan Tanna and his henchpersons

This episode concerns the chase after a serial rapist with a penchant for teen-age blondes.  The identity of the rapist is no mystery to the audience as we see his face in the first scene and shortly thereafter we see that he's doing the technical lighting for a beauty pageant.  In a dab of stunt casting, Robert Reed plays  Mike Logan the father of rape victim Jenny Logan [Maureen McCormick].  But this is no Brady Bunch.   Maureen plays the rape victim that gets Dan Tanna involved in the case.  Robert Reed is a wealthy businessman about to embark on a political career.  He want's the rapist found but he doesn't want his daughter's rape reported to the police.  He knows rapists aren't one-time criminals.  They'll get him convicted for a prior rape once he's caught.  As it turns out, he rapes a second girl before they can catch him.  And then he kills a third victim.

Peter's cameo part is as Richie the life guard.  Dan's girlfriend tells him that Jenny was something of a swinger who had Richie on a string for a couple of weeks.  Dan sounds shocked as Richie is twenty years older than young Jenny.   Forensics found horse manure on the floor of Jenny's car where she was raped.   Dan Tanna figures maybe the rapist is a horseman.  So when he approaches Richie, whom he knows as they both work for Roth, he offers him a job moonlighting on a dude ranch.

That, of course, is the humor in Peter's cameo as he lets Dan know horses spook him.  He'd never have anything to do with horses.  He also insists his relationship with Jenny was totally platonic.

Dan Tanna does, of course, eventually get the rapist after a little detour to figure out the connection between Logan's assistant and his daughter which is suspicious but not relevant to the rape.  [Michael Callan who plays the assistant is the same age as Peter, although he looks older, so Dan can express disgust at that relationship.]  They eventually decide to flush out the rapist using someone matching the victims' description.  In a not particularly believable moment, Dan's girlfriend Bea is used as bait despite the fact that the victims of choice are eighteen and the actress who plays Bea is thirty-one.

NiteOwl Review:  Peter had a cute cameo which wasn't big enough to make this episode a must for Peter collectors, except the completists out there.  Bob Urich was a likable actor, although we liked him better in Spencer.  As Dan Tanna, he sported the fashion look we thought was carried off even better by Tom Selleck in Magnum - jeans with sports jackets. Cast Note:  Naomi Stevens was replaced about midway through the first season by Greg Morris (late of Mission Impossible) as Dan Tanna's contact on the Las Vegas Police Department.

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