7.5/103 votes#1 - Odds on Evil
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 10/22/1966
Prince Iben Kostas plans to use his money to finance a war. Infiltrating his casino, the IMF team goes to work: IMFer Andre (pretending to be Cinammon's husband) breaks the bank at roulette thanks to a not-so-portable computer worn by Willie underneath his tux. Andre then loses the money to Rollin as another gambler. Kostas tries to get the money back by playing against Rollin and cheating by using marked cards and tinted contact lens. However, Rollin has a similar pair of lens and also deals bad hands to Kostas. Finally Kostas antes up the 1.5 million in war funds, thinking he can't lose. Rollins tricks him, and the team must make a desperate escape.
Director: Charles R. Rondeau
Writer: William Read Woodfield
7.5/102 votes#2 - The Carriers
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 11/19/1966
Enemy agent Janos Passik is preparing to train 200 foreign agents to infiltrate the U.S. and engage in some form of bacteriological warfare. The team figures out that Passik has created a replica of a ""typical American town"" so as to train his agents to learn how to blend into American society. Rollin, Cinnamon, Barney, and bacteriologist Rogr Lee replace the new group of recruits and must then find their way to the research lab. They soon realize that the American-trained agents will be infected with a highly contagious plague and then sent into American to kill millions. The group must not only destroy the plague samples but make sure that Passik and his superiors do not find out that the destruction was deliberate.
Director: Sherman Marks
Writer: William Read Woodfield
7.0/1019 votes#3 - Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star
Season 10 Episode 3 - Aired 4/29/1991
Lt. Columbo is pitted against an equally brilliant, nationally recognized criminal defence lawyer who murders his rock star girlfriend when he discovers she is seeing another man.
Director: Alan J. Levi
Writer: William Read Woodfield
7.0/101 votes#4 - Revenge of the Gods
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 10/21/1966
Tony and Doug arrive at the Siege of Troy, and are taken before Ulysses. Ulysses believes them to be gods, while his lieutenant Sardis doubts them. Doug wins a swordfight with Sardis to prove his divinity, so Sardis goes to Troy and tries to betray Ulysses and the Greeks. In the next battle the two travellers are almost overwhelmed, so the Project scientists send back Jiggs with a bag of hand grenades. Doug is captured during the next battle and put on the rack to be tortured. Jiggs is returned, but ages horrendously while trapped in the infinity of the Tunnel. The scientists manage to reverse the effects, but accidentally pull a Greek soldier forward (they manage to send him back). Tony ""inspires"" Ulysses to create the Trojan Horse, and goes inside it to rescue Doug. The ploy is successful. Ulysses kills Paris and rescues Helen, while Tony rescues Doug and the two vanish before the astounded Greeks.
Director: Sobey Martin
Writer: William Read Woodfield
6.7/1019 votes#5 - Columbo Goes to the Guillotine
Season 8 Episode 1 - Aired 2/6/1989
Lt. Columbo delves into the world of magic, ESP and slight of hand as he investigates the death of a magician, and there appears to be a tie to a prodigal psychic supported by a government founded institute on parapsychology.
Director: Leo Penn
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.5/102 votes#6 - Attack of the Monster Plants
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 12/15/1965
Plants grow to huge proportions and can duplicate any item placed in them - but those items are made of plant material and are useless. John Robinson must use the biggest batch of plant killer he's ever mixed up to stop these things from engulfing the spaceship.
Director: Jus Addiss
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.5/102 votes#7 - Wild Adventure
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 9/21/1966
Shortly after leaving their original crash-site planet, Smith spots a familiar star and, in an amazing show of stellar navigational skill, calculates the course to get back to Earth. He extracts a promise from Don and John that they'll return to Earth, or else he'll destroy his navigation data. They agree, but inform the family at dinnertime that they are headed for Alpha Centauri after all, mainly because the Earth is on the other side of the Sun (how do they know that? - do they know the date? And besides, from Alpha Centauri, Earth revolves clockwise, visible all the time). Smith changes course 180 degrees, then clumsily jettisons most of the fuel. They reach a refueling barge, one of several that Alpha Control put out in 1996, top up the tanks, and resume course for Alpha Centauri, not knowing that they've picked up a tailgater who follows them after Smith reverses course to Earth again. The alarm goes off in the night, and they expend a lot of fuel pulling away from the Earth's
Director: Don Richardson
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.0/101 votes#8 - The Legacy
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 1/7/1967
The IMF must get hold of a horde of Nazi gold through four young men, sons of Hitler's top aides, who are sent to Switzerland to meet for the first time and pool their parts of the ""puzzle"" together. One of the men, the only one known to them, is replaced by Rollin. Each has part of an account number, and the team needs to hypnotize and trick the bank manager into giving them the complete account # and then slip it to Rollin. The bank account contains an envelope with a microdot, which when combined with a slide in each man's pocket watch provides the location of the treasure. After seeing the other men's slides, Rollin fakes the loss of his watch, then he and the rest of the team head to the cemetary. Two of the men figure out the puzzle from their pieces and follow. In a gunfight Dan is wounded, but one of the men is killed and the other runs off rather then face Rollin's wrath. The gold turns out to have been made into a crypt, and is recovered.
Director: Michael O'Herlihy
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.0/101 votes#9 - The Diamond
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 2/4/1967
Henrik Durvard has taken over the country of Lombounda by military coup, and holds the natives in terror. He has obtained a diamond from the native miners, and the IMF are assigned to take it away from him. In London to auction the diamond, Durvard is approached by the team who offer to top all bids if they get exclusive rights to diamond production in Lombounda. Since Lombounda is not known for its diamond production, Durvard is suspicious. Eventually the team lets him figure out that they have a plan to use his country as a blind to distribute artificial diamonds that they claim they can manufacture. Durvard insists on being part of the scam, and forces the team to ""make"" a diamond from him using a piece off of the original stone. They do so, but when it comes time to fake the real diamond, the machine apparently overloads from the strain. The team slips the diamond out of the machine and leaves, as Durvard and the machine blow up.
Director: Robert Douglas
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.0/101 votes#10 - The Confession
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 2/25/1967
Andreas Solowiechek, a member of a Communist trade delegation, is arrested after assassinating a U.S. Senator, Townsend. Townsend's backer, McMillan, is rallying his supporters for the U.S. to break off all trade talks with the Russians. It is believed Solowiechek wasn't working on the orders of his government, so the IMF team have to break him. Rollin becomes the assassin's cellmate, and arranges to be handcuffed to him. Rollin then fakes an escape, and threatens to kill Solowiechek. The assassin promises that his backer can Rollin money. Meanwhile, Dan has pretended to be an artist and got into McMillan's house, leaving a camera behind hidden in his art box. Rollin and Solowiechek confront McMillan, and the latter admits that he arranged for Townsend to be killed so as to become a martyr to his cause, unaware that his words are being transmitted on national TV.
Director: Herschel Daugherty
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.0/101 votes#11 - The Train
Season 1 Episode 24 - Aired 3/18/1967
Prime Minister Larya of Svardia is working to establish democracy, but is unaware that his personal protege, Deputy Premier Pavel, plans to set up a dictatorship. The team must persuade Larya of Pavel's plans. The IMF fakes a train ride for Larya, Pavel, and Pavel's aide Androv. They then fake a crash, put Androv and Pavel in a fake hospital, and tell them that Larya is dead. They immediately begin plans to eliminate anymemory of Larya and start arresting dissidents. Then the hospital wall slides away to reveal that Larya has heard the whole thing, and dismisses them both.
Director: Ralph Senensky
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.0/101 votes#12 - A Cube of Sugar
Season 1 Episode 26 - Aired 4/1/1967
Vincent Deane is a jazz musician and undercover U.S. intelligence operative who has memorized the plans to a microcircuit code but was then captured and imprisoned. The IMF must get him out. Deane's interrogator, Brobin, has hooked Deane on drugs to try and break him using the withdrawl symptoms, unaware that the chip is concealed among some sugar cubes Deane had. Pretending to be Deane's wife, Cinnamon implicates Rollin as the real enemy agent. Brobin has Rollin captured and imprisoned,but Rollin manages to escape and tamper with Deane's drugs so that he goes into a coma. Briggs pretends to be a U.S. representative demanding Deane's body, so Brobin has it cremated to prevent a revealing autopsy. Barney and Willy switch out the ""dead"" Deane. Rollin then agrees to tell Brobin where the microcircuit is, knocks out the interrogator, and with the aid of two masks makes his escape.
Director: Joseph Pevney
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.0/101 votes#13 - The Psychic
Season 1 Episode 28 - Aired 4/22/1967
An investment promoter, Alex Lowell, gained control of manufacturer of NATO top-secret defense hardware and absconded to South America to sell them to an enemy powers. The IMF needs to recover the stock documents worth $80 mil. Cinnamon gets close to Lowell as a psychic who manages to prove herself accurate with her predictions thanks to IMF assistance. She then "predicts" that Rollin (as a gangster) will play against him, try to cheat, and lose. Lowell finds the fake cards that the IMF has planted. He goes through with the game, intending on cheating Rollin. He succeeds, but as Rollin is tossed out he secretly switches the stock documents with phonies thanks to a automated feeder arm, leaving Lowell with nothing but an unendorsed check for $80 milliion.
Director: Charles R. Rondeau
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.0/101 votes#14 - The Survivors
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 9/24/1967
Two scientists and their wives have been kidnapped by enemy agent Eric Stavak. If Stavak doesn't get ahold of a third scientist, the other two are useless and will be killed. If he gets the third, than Stavak will have the key to an ""ultimate weapon"" project. Phelps and Cinnamon pretend to be the third scientist and his wife and alllow themselves to be kidnapped and taken to the other two scientists and their wives. Phelps predicts an upcoming earthquake, which the IMF team goes to work and fake-implements. Phelps digs out an escape route through a storm drain, only to be shoved aside by Stavak and his henchmen as they make their escape. While Jim leads everyone out of a perfectly-working elevator, Stavak and the others are captured as they emerge onto a perfectly-intact San Francisco street.
Director: Paul Stanley
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.0/101 votes#15 - The Slave (1)
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 10/8/1967
In the country of Elkabar, King Ibn Borca is conducting a brisk slave business with the aid of supplier Karl de Groot. de Groot raids into neighboring countries. The IMF team must put the two men out of business. Barney lets himself be captured by de Groot, gets the info on a cell, then escapes with the info so they can create an exact duplicate of the cell. Jim "sells" Cinnamon to de Groot, then Willy retrieves her and captures de Groot. Jim then approaches de Groot's partner Jara and tells him he killed de Groot and that Jara has a new partner...
Director: Lee H. Katzin
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.0/101 votes#16 - The Slave (2)
Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 10/15/1967
Willy kidnaps Princess Amara, wife of the king's brother Fasar, who knows nothing of his brother's slave racket. They put Amara in the duplicate cell and then Rollin-as-Borca tells her she will be sold at the next auction. Jim delivers Cinnamon to Borca, and then they dress up a sedated Amara as Cinnamon, and Barney and Willy switch her for Cinnamon. Rollin, masquerading as an Interpol agent, convinces Fasar to go to a slave auction that Borca is holding. Disguised, the men watch as "Cinnamon" is put up for auction. Fasar reveals himself and Amara's disguise is revealed. She tells her husband of the slave cells. Borca is killed and Fasar puts an end to slavery in Elkabar.
Director: Lee H. Katzin
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.0/101 votes#17 - The Council (2)
Season 2 Episode 12 - Aired 11/26/1967
Rollin-as-Wayne orders the death of Jim, who is impersonating a federal investigator, without getting the approval of the Syndicate Council. With Jim's killing a a distraction, Rollin breaks into the safe at Syndicate HQ and duplicates the financial records. The Council, unhappy with ""Wayne's"" independence and the fact that the murder is attracting headlines, condemn him to death. Rollin runs, but at the last moment switches place with the real Wayne, who has received plastic surgeon to make him look like Rollin. Wayne is killed by the hitman, Johnny, and the records are used to bust the Syndicate.
Director: Paul Stanley
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.0/101 votes#18 - The Photographer
Season 2 Episode 15 - Aired 12/17/1967
David Redding is a photographer and a spy working for the other side, who has supervised the infiltration of 150 agents into the U.S. The agents are apparently carrying some kind of biological plague, and only Redding knows the code. The IMF must get it from him. To do so, they set up Cinnamon as a former fashion model and scientist married to Jim who is working with a bacillus-suspension formula. This gives Redding a reason to accept the assignment - he tortures ""Jim"" who claims the U.S. is planning a nuclear strike. Redding and his assistant Morley plan to take refuge in Redding's bomb shelter and command center after sending a signal to his country (which is blocked by Barney), but Rollin and Willy arrest them. When the IMF fakes a nuclear attack Redding leads the others to the shelter, then ""kills"" Willy. He tries to send more coded messages (again, blocked by Barney), and Rollin witnesses Redding coding them. At the end he leaves as it is revealed that the IMF switched Redding and
Director: Lee H. Katzin
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.0/101 votes#19 - The Emerald
Season 2 Episode 18 - Aired 1/21/1968
A plan to devaluate U.S. currency was concealed on a valuable emerald by a U.S. spy, and the emerald was inadvertently obtained by Victor Tomar, an international arms dealer. Tomar is traveling by ship, as is Yorgi Petrosian, an enemy agent sent to recover the emerald. Rollin as a card shark gets together with Petrosian and they make a deal - Rollin will cheat Tomar and give Petrosian the gem and keep the winnings. Cinnamon tricks Tomar into getting to a game when Jim pretends to take her expensive bracelet. Tomar loses to Petrosian, but Rollin double-crosses Petrosian and gets the cash and the emerald. Petrosian tries to kill Rollin but Willy knocks him out and they fake that he's been lost overboard and found by a passing trawler. Petrosian wires a message to his aide, William, to kill Petrosian. Then they knock out Petrosian, put him in Rollin's cabin with a mask, and Williams kills Petrosian-as-Rollin and disposes of the body.
Director: Michael O'Herlihy
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.0/101 votes#20 - The Counterfeiter
Season 2 Episode 20 - Aired 2/4/1968
Raymond Halder is the owner of a chain of clinics and runs a drug counterfeiting ring. Gant Pharamaceuticals released a drug that helps against primary vascular disease, but the drug is being withdrawn since Halder flooded the market with potentially fatal counterfeits. Gant plans to resissue the drug and the IMF must stop Halder from counterfeiting the new version. The IMF as Federal agents put pressure on Halder, but he escapes. Cinnamon pretends to be a Gant employee in charge of protecting against counterfeits. Gang bribes Rollin the Federal Agent to frame Cinnamon to force her to give him Gant's anticounterfeiting strategy. However, the team use an ultarsonic laser to make Halder think he is suffering from primary vascular disease, and he ends up at one of his own clinics where Barney-as-a-doctor prescribes one of Gant's counterfeits. Terrified for his life, Halder confesses so that he won't get a dose of his own medicine.
Director: Lee H. Katzin
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.0/101 votes#21 - The Contender (1)
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 10/6/1968
Charles Buckman is attempting to gain a stranglehold on all professional and amateur sports. If successful, the U.S. will be discredited in the world athletic community. Buckman is working with Syndicate man Dan Whelan. The IMF must eliminate them. Barney takes a crash course in boxing and impersonates Richy Lamoine. Barney-as-Richy announces a comeback, and Buckman forces manager-Rollin to sign with him. Meanwhile, Jim gets a job with Whelan. But as he sneaks through an access tunnel to get to Whelan's office, Whelan and his men come down the tunnel...
Director: Paul Stanley
Writer: William Read Woodfield
5.0/101 votes#22 - The Contender (2)
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 10/13/1968
Jim manages to avoid Whelan by hiding in the tunnel pipes overhead. He gets access to a list of Whelan's bookies. Meanwhile, Barney-as-Richy fights his way through a series of matches, helped by a concealed gas emitter in the ring beneath his opponents' corner. Finally Barney faces Buckman's champ Staczek, with orders to take a dive. He knocks out Staczek against Buckman's orders, leaving Buckman to be bankrupted covering the bets.
Director: Paul Stanley
Writer: William Read Woodfield
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The Best Episodes Written By William Read Woodfield
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William Read Woodfield Ratings Summary
"Odds on Evil" is the best rated episode written by William Read Woodfield. It scored 7.5/10 based on 3 votes. It was directed by Charles R. Rondeau. It aired on 10/22/1966 and is rated 0.0 points higher than their second-best episode, "The Carriers".