This Rarely Talked About '80s Cop Drama Starred A Former NFL Player In The Title Role
Football fans might know him as an NFL player from the '70s, but he went on to star as a plainclothes officer in an '80s crime drama and subsequent TV movies.
Former NFL player Fred Dryer gained fame not just from his days on the football field, but through his portrayal of a gritty, no-nonsense LAPD detective in the 80s TV series Hunter. Airing from 1984 to 1991, the show saw Dryer play Detective Sergeant Rick Hunter, a man with a troubled past in organized crime who now vowed to uphold justice.
While comparisons to Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry were often made, Dryer himself noted that Hunter had a lighter touch, not willing to bend rules for long. The series concluded in 1991, partly due to Dryer's insistence on a hefty pay raise from $150,000 to $350,000 per episode, a request NBC refused. However, Dryer's association with Hunter didn't end there.
He made frequent guest appearances in various TV shows and even returned as Hunter in a TV movie in 1994, four years after the series ended. This sequel, The Return of Hunter: Everyone Walks in L.A., tied into the O.J. Simpson murder trial, sparking speculation about a possible connection. Despite NBC suggesting otherwise, Dryer himself initiated the idea.
Two more TV movies featuring Dryer as Hunter aired in 2002 and 2003, but NBC's attempts to revive the series as a TV show fell through after filming just five episodes in 2003.
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