The Rookies - Season 2

First aired: 9/10/1973 23 episodes

Episodes

1. Cauldron

Aired: 9/10/1973

Willie and Terry are kidnapped by a disturbed criminal who is dying. The criminal leaves the two rookies in the desert, abandoned, with no food source and little hope of being rescued. Willie, in this situation, struggles to saves Terry's life.

2. Margin for Error

Aired: 9/17/1973

While performing their routine patrol, Gillis and Danko unexpectedly stumble upon a robbery that is taking place. They radio for additional support and a veteran police team arrive at the crime scene. One of the veteran policeman is killed in the midst of the robbery, and his partner places fault on Danko. The veteran policeman makes the suggestion that Danko be appointed to ride with him, a suggestion that turns out to have almost catastrophic results.

3. Deadly Cage

Aired: 9/24/1973

Webster is asked to play the role of a prisoner at the State Prison. He disguises himself as an inmate, in an effort to aid the issue of prison reform. However, when the other prisoners discover that Webster is merely pretending to be a fellow inmate, pandemonium results.

4. Frozen Smoke

Aired: 10/1/1973

Juvenile detail is typically known to be a relatively easy tour. However, this is not the case for Willie. While on juvenile detail, Willie discovers that he is not as emotionally strong as he once thought. He is presented with pain and death, in amounts that are greater than he can manage.

5. Get Ryker

Aired: 10/8/1973

Jill, Danko's wife, is assigned to protect Lieutenant Ryker after he is wounded by a former prisoner who desires to take revenge. However, Ryker decides to take charge of the situation when Jill's life is at stake.

6. Cry Wolf

Aired: 10/15/1973

A lonely lady who resides by the beach places a call into the police station for aid. Willie and Terry ignore this routine call, only to find out that the call was legitimate and the woman has been robbed and beaten. The rookies are then thrown into a peculiar series of robberies.

7. A Matter of Justice (a.k.a.) Justice for Jill Danko

Aired: 10/22/1973

Jill Danko is seriously wounded by a seemingly demented gunman while dining with her husband Mike. Later, they find out that the gunman is unable to be prosecuted in court, because he is suffering from a brain tumor which appears to be the cause of his action. The rookies take it upon themselves to prove the man is dangerous and can place society in jeopardy.

8. Blood Brother

Aired: 10/29/1973

Like many Vietnam veterans returning home after the war, Jimmy Webster is angry at society for treating him as if he was an outsider, and not openly accepting him. He is unable to find employment and is left with an important decision to make: either he can fall back on his cousin, Terry Webster, and turn to him for support, or he can join a robbery operation and make a large amount of money.

9. Code 261

Aired: 11/5/1973

A young nurse suffers a terrifying ordeal when she is raped in the underground garage of Memorial Hospital. The rookies attempt to help the woman by offering support. They offer encouragement and assistance as the woman proceeds through the legal formalities which often are unsympathetic to the rape victim, and sometimes humiliate her.

10. Prayers Unanswered, Prayers Unheard

Aired: 11/12/1973

Lieutenant Ryker is selected to be personally in charge of an important investigation. A priest is murdered and a nun is badly beaten in a destitute neighborhood, and the community worries that religious restlessness with arise. As the investigation progresses, the rookies uncover a completely different motive.

11. Down Home Boy

Aired: 11/19/1973

A telethon featuring an extremely famous country western singer requests of the police department extra protection. The rookies are assigned to the event. Their placement on this assignment results in their protecting the singer from a couple of bitter and unforgiving country folk from Tennessee. The hillbillies hold the singer responsible for the death of their sister, who died while she was giving birth.

12. Lots of Trees and a Running Stream

Aired: 12/2/1973

Jill is confronted by her past when a former lover of hers appears at her home. Mike is currently out of town. The unanticipated visitor gives the impression that he is fatally ill, thereby luring Jill into becoming involved with him, despite her uncertainty. Only after a period of time does Jill realize the great lengths this former lover will go to try to get her back and claim her as his own.

13. Another Beginning for Ben Fuller

Aired: 12/10/1973

A retired police lieutenant interferes in the investigation of an aggravated assault involving his best friend.

14. Sound of Silence

Aired: 12/17/1973

One of Willie's young female friends is desperately afraid when she discovers that she is afflicted with diabetes. After she makes the realization, the young woman flees to a drug rehabilitation center, to be around the other young people whom she trusts. However, she neglects to bring her insulin.

15. Trial by Doubt

Aired: 1/7/1974

Willie Gillis is assigned to ride with an older officer and, while on patrol, the man is killed. When the murderer is captured, the other policemen are inclined to take the law into their own hands. Falsely accused of incompetence, Willie is forced to search his soul to arrive at justice.

16. The Authentic Death of Billy Stomper

Aired: 1/14/1974

A college girl from Jamaica witnesses the murder of a notorious drug pusher and Terry Webster is assigned to get her testimony in the days that follow, they fall in love, but the girl is tracked down by the murderer and killed. Terry uses himself as a decoy to trap the killers.

17. The Late Mr. Brent

Aired: 1/28/1974

Mike and Jill Danko's marriage is strained by Mike's protective interest in the widow of a man Mike was forced to kill in the line of duty.

18. The Teacher

Aired: 2/4/1974

The rookies must contend with 'The Teacher' an ex-convict who masterminds several well executed robberies using the young boys who are in the city looking for excitement.

19. Eyewitness

Aired: 2/11/1974

A young man with a Jekyll - Hyde personality becomes a puzzle for Terry and Willie when he gives them a description of a suspected cop-killer. But for Mike and Ryker he poses a different problem: extreme danger.

20. Something Less Than a Man

Aired: 2/18/1974

An old friend of Ryker's, once a good policeman and now a pathetic drunk, is framed for the murder of a gangster who has terrorized the neighborhood. To gain favor from his daughter and neighbors, he pleads guilty, but Lt. Ryker, with the help of the rookies, finds a better way to give the man back his dignity.

21. Rolling Thunder

Aired: 2/25/1974

The Ludlow precinct institutes a Police Cadet Program. One of the boys involved becomes overzealous and is kidnapped, along with Terry, by his sister's boyfriend who is a fugitive.

22. Time Lock

Aired: 3/4/1974

A brilliant young felon holds Terry and three women, one of whom is pregnant, hostage in a bank vault in order to free his partner from jail.

23. Death Watch

Aired: 3/18/1974

Two ex-convicts are loose in the city carrying contagious meningitis. After Willie is exposed to it when he gives the ex-convict mouth - to â€“ mouth resuscitation, the other rookies are given the task of finding the men and stopping a possible epidemic.