The Worst Episodes of Midnight Caller

Jack Killian retires from the San Francisco Police Department after accidentally shooting his partner, Rusty, in a crossfire situation. He's drawn back to the world of the living by an offer to be a late night talk radio host. A serial killer begins calling Jack, explaining the assassinations and Jack's inadvertently pulled back into the crime fighting world.

Director: Thomas Carter

Writer: N/A

Jack receives a phone call from a kidnapper who informs Jack that he has taken a suspected murderer into his personal custody so he won't hurt any more women. He continues to use Jack's show as a forum for his demands. A supposed suicide is revealed to be an elaborate murder cover up.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

"After It Happened" is a 1988 episode of the NBC television series Midnight Caller. The controversial episode tells the story of a bisexual man who is deliberately infecting people, including series lead character Jack Killian's ex-girlfriend, with HIV. AIDS and LGBT rights activists disrupted filming, citing concerns over the negative portrayal of bisexual and HIV-positive people and fears that the show would make people with AIDS the targets of violence. Series executives made some changes to the script in response to these concerns, but activists were still displeased. "After It Happened" performed well in the ratings but received a mixed critical response. Actress Kay Lenz received an Emmy Award for her guest-starring role as Killian's ex-girlfriend Tina. NBC aired a follow-up episode in 1989 in which Tina is near death. This second script, "Someone to Love", was written in consultation with some of the groups that protested "After It Happened" and was much more favorably received.

Director: Mimi Leder

Writer: N/A

A female friend of Jack's from the police force is wounded in the line of duty and her partner killed. They seek comfort in each other's arms to grieve the deaths of their partners. Jack finds himself in the crossfire of the mob hit man trying to silence the only witness to the crime.

Director: Kevin Hooks

Writer: N/A

As Jack's luck would have it, he goes into a bank to cash a cheque and finds himself a hostage in a bank robbery. The media and the police wait out the negotiations, all with a personal interest in Jack's well-being.

Director: Michael Zinberg

Writer: N/A

Jack, Devon and Billy are forced to examine their belief in capital punishment when they are invited to broadcast the final hours of a death row inmate's life.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Jack receives a phone call from a kidnapper who informs Jack that he has taken a suspected murderer into his personal custody so he won't hurt any more women. He continues to use Jack's show as a forum for his demands. A supposed suicide is revealed to be an elaborate murder cover up.

Director: N/A

Writer: Carol Mendelsohn

Jack finds himself being raked over the coals by a jealous competitor who has insider information on an Internal Affairs investigation, which found Jack not guilty of the charges.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

A young runaway, forced into prostitution, turns to Jack via his radio show for assistance in breaking away from her pimp who is involved in the white slavery market.

Director: Robert Singer

Writer: Robert Singer

A man claiming to be Jack's father shows up and Jack is not exactly warming up to him. And Devon finally has it out with her father which doesn't end well.

Director: Robert Butler

Writer: N/A

Jack meets a night club singer, dates her and falls hard for her. She warns him of her ex-husband who's not willing to let her go. The man even attacks Jack with a knife in a bar. Later the man is killed and Jack is the prime suspect.

Director: Eric Laneuville

Writer: N/A

Jack gets involved with a retired cop's search for the man who killed his partner years ago. And it seems that Devon's father was a person of interest.

Director: Bradford May

Writer: Robert Singer

Jack is drawn back to the neighborhood he worked in as a patrolman in response to a mother's plea to help her drug-addicted son.

Director: Matt Clark

Writer: N/A

Jack continues to be haunted by the night of Rusty's death. This time he has to help out Rusty's son, Ethan, who has run away from home and calls Jack to tell him so.

Director: N/A

Writer: Paul Robert Coyle

Assisting an ill man on the street, a young doctor is faced with every mother's nightmare when her infant daughter is abducted by a young woman whose grasp on reality is failing. Jack uses the show as a forum to track down the kidnapped child, who, on top of everything, is desperately ill and will die without her medication.

Director: Eric Laneuville

Writer: N/A

One of Jack's regular callers ""witnesses"" a murder in her apartment building while talking to Jack on the phone. She isn't believed by the authorities because she is blind and there is no evidence that a crime has been committed.

Director: Robert Singer

Writer: N/A

The season finale deals with the issue of gun control, and a citizen's right to bear arms. A neighborhood convenience store owner misinterprets Jack's caution to protect himself, ends up killing a man and places partial blame on Jack for the idea.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Jack's mentor on the police force is reunited with him under horrific circumstances. His policeman son-in-law commits suicide after calling Jack's show. Jack finds himself involved in a convoluted plot of understanding why, which has him questioning the ethics of some fellow officers.

Director: Kevin Hooks

Writer: John Schulian

Jack's show is plagued by a series of on-air murders and locations of dead bodies. Jack's intuition tells him it's a serial killer but he has a hard time convincing Lieutenant Zymak.

Director: Bradford May

Writer: N/A

When Devon becomes a kidnap victim of the call-in killer, Zymak and Jack work together to discover that the crimes are a twisted vendetta against Jack and KJCM.

Director: Bradford May

Writer: N/A

In an effort to help his friend whose son is being kept alive by life support, Jack showcases the issue of euthanasia on his show.

Director: Michael Zinberg

Writer: N/A

Devon is stalked by a man who targets her during a traffic jam. She and Jack are forced into a situation that causes them to contemplate moving their relationship from platonic to something more.

Director: Colin Bucksey

Writer: N/A

The drug trade hits too close to home for a San Francisco neighborhood. Their personal war on crime becomes the focus of Jack's show.

Director: Dan Lerner

Writer: John Schulian

Jack receives a call from a hospice. Tina Cassidy's battle with AIDS is near the end. As Jack goes to her, he reflects on their time together.

Director: Robert Singer

Writer: N/A

A woman chooses imprisonment versus revealing the location of her daughter to her ex-husband. The young child is supposedly a victim of sexual abuse while her legal eagle parents sort through their own personality flaws. Jack becomes a link in the chain of lies and law-bending for the sake of the child.

Director: Colin Bucksey

Writer: N/A