Masquerade (TV series)

Masquerade (TV series)
Masquerade
Format Adventure/Thriller
Created by Glen A. Larson
Starring Rod Taylor
Kirstie Alley
Greg Evigan
Country of origin  United States
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 13 (1 unaired)
Production
Running time 60 min.
Production company(s) 20th Century Fox Television
Glen A. Larson Productions
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Original run December 15, 1983 – April 27, 1984

Masquerade is an American espionage television series that aired for a few months on ABC in the spring of 1983.

Synopsis

Considered an amalgam of Mission: Impossible and The Love Boat, the tongue-in-cheek series starred Rod Taylor as Mr. Lavender, the leader of "Operation Masquerade", a top-secret branch of American Intelligence that conducts missions using ordinary civilians, recruited for their anonymity and their specialized skills. Two trained field agents, Casey Collins (Kirstie Alley) and Danny Doyle (Greg Evigan) are assigned to chaperone the amateur spies. This concept was essentially identical to Call to Danger, a series concept that had been attempted with three unsuccessful pilot films in the 1960s and 1970s, the last two starring Mission: Impossible's Peter Graves.

The Love Boat comparison (frequently used in contemporary reviews of this series) stemmed from the show's casting of a different ensemble of well-known actors each week, much as Love Boat populated its episodes. The first act of every episode depicted the recruitment of a new group of agents, which was invariably followed by a briefing by Mr. Lavender aboard his private plane, ending with Lavender saying, stone-faced: "Welcome to Operation Masquerade".

The series debuted with a 90-minute pilot film and was followed by about a dozen episodes before the series was cancelled. This was Kirstie Alley's first television series after her debut in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan the previous year. Country singer Crystal Gayle performed the theme song.

Episode titles

№ Title Original airdate
1 "Pilot" 1983 December 15
2 "Diamonds" 1983 December 22
3 "Girls for Sale" 1983 December 29
4 "The Defector" 1984 January 5
5 "Caribbean Holiday" 1984 January 12
6 "Five Days" 1984 January 19
7 "Oil" 1984 January 26
8 "The French Connection" 1984 March 30
9 "Winnings" 1984 April 6
10 "The Sleeper" 1984 April 13
11 "Spanish Gambit" 1984 April 20
12 "Spying Down to Rio" 1984 April 27
13 "Flashpoint" N/A

External links

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