9.0/102 votes#1 - Hard Contract
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/28/1984
Hunter & McCall make a pact of protectiveness and loyalty toward each other when she is nearly killed by her old partner after she tries to stop him from a killer-for-hire assignment.
Director: Bruce Kessler
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
9.0/101 votes#2 - The Countess
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 9/27/1974
Jim is helping a Countess avoid a blackmailer but is then charged for the Blackmailer murder...
Director: Russ Mayberry
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
9.0/101 votes#3 - Profit and Loss (2)
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 12/27/1974
Rockford discovers the investment firm Fiscal Dynamics is a financial fraud and its president Leon Fielder will do anything to prevent him from destroying his company.
Director: Lawrence Doheny
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
9.0/101 votes#4 - Chicken Little Is a Little Chicken
Season 2 Episode 9 - Aired 11/14/1975
A good deed for Angel makes Rockford the target of a mobster.
Director: Lawrence Doheny
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
9.0/101 votes#5 - A Portrait of Elizabeth
Season 2 Episode 16 - Aired 1/23/1976
A client of Beth's hires Jim misleadingly to check on his company.
Director: Meta Rosenberg
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
9.0/101 votes#6 - There's One in Every Port
Season 3 Episode 12 - Aired 1/7/1977
After being conned by friends Jim sets them up to settle the score and save himself.
Director: Meta Rosenberg
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
9.0/101 votes#7 - The House on Willis Avenue
Season 4 Episode 21 - Aired 2/24/1978
When a fellow P.I. is killed on the Ventura freeway, Jim and Richie Brockelman team up to find out if it really was an accident.
Director: Hy Averback
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
9.0/101 votes#8 - White on White and Nearly Perfect
Season 5 Episode 4 - Aired 10/20/1978
Handsome, charmed PI Lance White (Tom Selleck) may speak lines that sound like they're from a 1940s B movie, but everyone is so attracted to him they hang on his every word. That is, everyone except Jim.
Director: Stephen J. Cannell
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
8.7/103 votes#9 - My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 4/29/1981
Ralph reconsiders his suit of powers after a flying mistake almost takes out a bus full of tourists. Bill also reconsiders his job path when one of his heroes is suspected of plotting out the theft of a precious diamond.
Director: Gabrielle Beaumont
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
8.7/103 votes#10 - The Kirkoff Case
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/13/1974
Rockford is hired by Larry Kirkoff to find the identity of his parents killer. There are a number of possible suspects including Travis Buckman and Tawnia Baker who were lovers of Mrs. and Mr. Kirkoff respectively. The police actually suspect Larry of the crime, but, lack of evidence prevents them from making a case against him. Rockford's investigation runs him afoul of some pretty bad men who want everyone to go on thinking Larry killed them.
Director: Lou Antonio
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
8.5/102 votes#11 - In Pursuit of Carol Thorne
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/8/1974
Jim tails a woman just released from prison. She was involved in a robbery of a Marine Payroll. The mastermind of the crime and his henchman follow her as well. They search for the remaining robber who wound up with the loot.
Director: Charles S. Dubin
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
8.2/106 votes#12 - The Greatest American Hero
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 3/18/1981
Ralph Hinkley, an average school teacher, is given a suit with amazing powers by aliens. Now, Ralph must decide if he'll use his new powers to fight crime, even though he already lost the suit's instruction manual.
Director: Rod Holcomb
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
8.0/101 votes#13 - The Hot Grounder
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/5/1984
The Police Commissioner is the main suspect in the murder of his wife.
Director: Bill Duke
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
8.0/103 votes#14 - Recipe for Heavy Bread
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/1983
The cook from the A-Team's POW camp gives them a tip about a drug deal between the camp's former commander and a prisoner who had sold out to him.
Director: Bernard McEveety
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
8.0/101 votes#15 - The Real Easy Red Dog
Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 10/31/1975
A private investigator uses Rockford to divert police attention from her insurance case.
Director: Ivan Dixon
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
8.0/101 votes#16 - Resurrection in Black & White
Season 2 Episode 8 - Aired 11/7/1975
A magazine writer seeks evidence to free a man she thinks was wrongly convicted of murder.
Director: Russ Mayberry
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
8.0/101 votes#17 - The Reincarnation of Angie
Season 2 Episode 12 - Aired 12/5/1975
Hoods snatch a stockbroker, and his sister hires Rockford for $23.64, because Jim's in the yellow pages and her big brother instructed her not to dial the cops. Jim's protective of the naive 25 year old bookkeeper, despite the tiny fee, because he fears her brother is dead, and she can't accept that her only relative, who's always taken care of her, may be mixed up in a securities scam.
Director: Jerry London
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
8.0/101 votes#18 - The No-Cut Contract
Season 2 Episode 15 - Aired 1/16/1976
A minor league football player drags Jim into his troubles.
Director: Lou Antonio
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
8.0/101 votes#19 - Just Another Polish Wedding
Season 3 Episode 17 - Aired 2/18/1977
Jim gets Gandy (Isaac Hayes) a job with his P.I. buddy Marcus Hayes (Louis Gossett Jr.) who promptly then tries to steal the case.
Director: William Wiard
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
8.0/101 votes#20 - The Prisoner of Rosemont Hall
Season 4 Episode 20 - Aired 2/17/1978
When the son of an old friend goes missing, Jim goes to the young man's college to try and find out what happened.
Director: Ivan Dixon
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
8.0/101 votes#21 - Heartaches of a Fool
Season 5 Episode 1 - Aired 9/22/1978
Jim finds that a country music star, corrupt union boss and Chinese triad all have one thing in common with why Rocky ended in hospital after his rig was forced off the road: sausages.
Director: William Wiard
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
7.7/103 votes#22 - The Hit Car
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 3/25/1981
Bill, who has been trying to bust open a drug ring for over 20 years, must drive a witness to Los Angeles for the trial of the gang leader and asks Ralph for help.
Director: Rod Holcomb
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
7.7/109 votes#23 - Mexican Slayride (1)
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 1/23/1983
Newspaper reporter, Amy Allen, sets out to prove the A-Team really exists and ends up hiring them to rescue one of her fellow reporters whose been kidnapped by Mexican outlaws.
Director: Rod Holcomb
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
7.5/1020 votes#24 - Double Exposure
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 12/16/1973
A filmmaker kills one of his clients. in a break, during the screening of a new ad campaign
Director: Richard Quine
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
7.5/102 votes#25 - The Big Squeeze
Season 3 Episode 15 - Aired 1/15/1985
The A-Team opens its own restaurant to lure a ruthless loan shark who has other restaurant owners terrified.
Director: Arnold Laven
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
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Stephen J. Cannell Ratings Summary
"Hard Contract" is the best rated episode written by Stephen J. Cannell. It scored 9/10 based on 2 votes. It was directed by Bruce Kessler. It aired on 9/28/1984 and is rated 0.0 points higher than their second-best episode, "The Countess".