Code of Vengeance
Encyclopedia
Code of Vengeance is the umbrella title
for a series of American
television
programs, produced by Universal Television
, that aired on NBC in 1985 and 1986. Charles Taylor
stars as David Dalton, a Vietnam veteran
who has become a drifter
, travelling across the United States in a camper van with only his dog for company. Dalton gets involved in the personal lives of the people he meets and uses his fighting skills to help them win justice.
The Dalton character was created for All That Glitters, a planned spin-off
series from Knight Rider, and a backdoor pilot aired as a second-season episode of that series in 1984. The character, originally a suave government agent, was retooled as a lone drifter for a new pilot, which aired as the television movie
Code of Vengeance, to surprise ratings success in June 1985. A subsequent series, to be called Dalton, was ordered by NBC for midseason, then production was cancelled after just four episodes were completed. These aired in the summer of 1986 as a television movie titled Dalton: Code of Vengeance II and as a part of a fill-in series called Dalton's Code of Vengeance.
for a proposed series titled All That Glitters. The show's two-hour backdoor pilot aired on April 8, 1984, as a special double-length episode of Knight Rider titled "Mouth of the Snake". The production featured Charles Taylor as David Dalton, an action-oriented government agent, and Joanna Pettet
as Joanna St. John, the widow of a murdered lawyer, fighting crime and accepting secret missions from Archibald Hendley (played by George Murdock
) on behalf of the United States Department of Justice
. In this pilot episode, Dalton and St. John work with Knight Rider stars Michael Knight
(David Hasselhoff
) and KITT
(voice of William Daniels
) to locate Eduardo O'Brien (Pedro Armendáriz, Jr.), a master criminal who has stolen a prototype rocket launcher.
This backdoor pilot was written by Robert Gilmer and Robert Foster, directed by Winrich Kolbe
, and produced by Robert Gilmer, Gian Grimaldi, and Tom Greene. Cinematography was handled by H. John Penner with art direction by Russell Smith and music by Don Peake. Both Glen A. Larson and Robert Foster were credited as executive producers on the project.
Noting the limited roles of Michael and KITT in the episode, the authors of Knight Rider Legacy state that "[m]any fans consider this to be one of the worst episodes of Knight Rider ever produced during its four-year run" and that it posted a season-low in the Nielsen ratings
. Feeling the format was too similar to Cover Up, a show Larson had created for CBS
that began airing in September 1984, NBC declined to pick up All That Glitters as a series.
who drifts across the country, encountering people in trouble, and helping them to find justice with his unique fighting skills. The physical agility, acrobatic skill, and martial arts
expertise that Dalton displayed in "Mouth of the Snake" was toned down to a simpler, more violent fighting style. The reviewer for the Associated Press
described Dalton as "a modern version of Shane" that's also "like Highway to Heaven
" but with Dalton using "his fists rather than good deeds" to solve problems. Dalton travels from place to place in a camper van with only his German Shepherd
named "Wichita" for company.
In this second pilot, Dalton is a "mysterious stranger" who arrives in a small town in Arizona
where he meets Nadine Flowers, a young mother (played by Erin Gray
), her son A.J. (Chad Allen
), and her mother Ione (Lenka Peterson
). Nadine hires Dalton to complete an addition to her house left undone after her brother disappeared while hunting. When the brother turns up dead under suspicious circumstances, Dalton investigates then sets out to avenge the brother's murder. This act of justice entangles him in a conflict between warring rival drug smugglers and gun runners along the border between Arizona and Mexico
. Other prominent cast members included Charles Haid
as "Jim Blanton", Keenan Wynn
as "Willis", Randall "Tex" Cobb as "Willard Singleton", and Joe Dorsey
as "Chief Milford Carsworth". In a nod to the show's origins, Keenan Wynn's character is shown watching a Knight Rider episode, with KITT's voice clearly audible, as armed thugs surround his home. The teleplay
was written by Robert Foster with Duke Callaghan and Thomas Del Ruth
splitting cinematography
duties under director Rick Rosenthal
. Robert Foster served as executive producer
and the pilot was produced by Universal Television
.
NBC also declined to pick up this pilot as a series and shelved the film to be burned off
during the summer of 1985. The pilot was eventually aired on June 30, 1985, as the NBC Sunday Night Movie, opposite a new two-hour special episode of Call to Glory
starring Craig T. Nelson
.
was released to theaters, the Code of Vengeance telemovie was a surprise ratings success. Code of Vengeance tied an episode of the popular sitcom Family Ties
as the second-highest rated show of the week. Swayed by these numbers, NBC ordered six one-hour episodes as a midseason replacement
series. The October 1985 announcement noted that the new series was to be titled Dalton.
The series, described by its lead actor as having "two stars — the landscape and Dalton", began filming in several locations across the United States. While the plan was to film two episodes in each location, the production was troubled by weather as flash flood
ing delayed filming in Houston and a hurricane
hit while filming in New Orleans.
to re-edit these four completed episodes into two feature-length movies. These "movie of the week" presentations were to be called Code of Vengeance II and Code of Vengeance III.
, to help friend Jeanne Bennett (played by Karen Landry) locate her husband—his former commanding officer, Major Monty Bennett (Donnelly Rhodes
). When he discovers that Major Bennett is now aiding the New Patriots, a conservative paramilitary group of Vietnam veteran
s bent on overthrowing the United States government, he sets off for the Florida Everglades to stop them. The New Patriots' plan is to commit acts of domestic terrorism while framing an Arab group for the atrocities in the belief that this will allow them to seize control of the government they feel betrayed them in Vietnam. Ultimately, Dalton confronts his former commander in the swamp and, after a long and unexplained flashback sequence of combat in Vietnam, Dalton stops both his commander and the group's plans.
This Universal Television
movie was produced by Herman Miller
, edited by Lawrence J. Vallario, scored by Don Peake, and Jack Priestley was the cinematographer. Gary A. Lee handled art direction and, with creator Robert Foster no longer involved, Lou Shaw was the only credited executive producer
. Direction of the combined feature edit of these two episodes, filmed on location in Houston, Texas
, and Jacksonville, Florida
, is credited pseudonym
ously to Alan Smithee
. Other prominent roles in the movie included Ed Bruce
as "Sheriff Johnson", Alex Harvey as "Sheriff Willoughby", Mitch Pileggi
as "Verbeck", Shannon Stein as "Tip Bennett", Belinda J. Montgomery as "Libby Holland", and William Sanderson
as "Bobby Fuller".
Critical reaction to this iteration of the Dalton saga was sharp. Drew Fetherston, reviewing the movie for Newsday
, called it "claptrap" and that "action [...] is all that this NBC stinker has to offer". Faye Zuckerman of the Gainesville Sun called Dalton: Code of Vengeance II a "plodder", complaining that "this film insults its predecessor". Chicago Sun-Times
reviewer Daniel Ruth gave Dalton: Code of Vengeance II a half-star review calling it "revisionist", "distasteful", and "terrible television". Deriding the film as "poorly written, badly acted, sloppily directed and choppily edited", he called it "another slap in the face of the men and women who went to Southeast Asia to do a dirty job and came home to even dirtier exploitation". Ruth concluded, "The viewer's best "Code of Vengeance" would be to reject these films."
Dalton: Code of Vengeance II also failed to deliver the high ratings of its predecessor. Against stiff competition from the final installment of ABC
's top-rated North and South, Book II
miniseries, the movie failed to crack the top 20 in that week's Nielsen ratings
. Faced with critical and commercial failure, NBC scrapped plans to air Code of Vengeance III and the fate of the unseen episodes became uncertain.
but was still experimenting on other nights. One such experiment was the anthology series The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents
featuring new stories introduced by colorized vintage footage of Alfred Hitchcock
. After just one season on the network, the show was cancelled abruptly after the July 20, 1986, airing of two repeat episodes placed 55th for the week in the Nielsen ratings
against 5th-rated Murder, She Wrote
on CBS
. Needing an inexpensive replacement on short notice as a fill-in until the 1986-87 television season started in September, NBC began airing one-hour episodes of Dalton, re-titled Dalton's Code of Vengeance, in a four-episode limited run beginning on July 27, 1986.
The first one-hour episode of Dalton's Code of Vengeance to air was "Rustler's Moon", one of the two previously-unaired hours. Dalton is on his way to Houston when he meets a "feisty rancher" named Rhonda Jo (played by Susan Walden
) and is forced to deal out his unique brand of justice against cattle rustlers trying to steal her prize bull
and do her harm. Other prominent roles included Larry Drake
as "Jack Ferguson", Paul Carr
as "Elliot", Chris Douridas
as "Willy", and a special appearance by country music
star Mickey Gilley
as himself. As with the previous presentation, this episode's direction was credited to Alan Smithee
.
With little notice or promotion, advance critical reaction was scant. One reviewer noted that star Charles Taylor "has the bod for" an adventure hero while another opined that he thought "Knight Rider or The A-Team
or Jonathan of Highway to Heaven
took care of these baddies on their series". The debut episode placed 51st for the week, just behind a rerun of Airwolf
, with 7.3 ratings points in the Nielsen ratings
. The following week, the timeslot was filled by the special Motown Returns to the Apollo hosted by Bill Cosby
.
The original two-hour Code of Vengeance television movie
was split into two one-hour segments and repeated in two parts as episodes of Dalton's Code of Vengeance. Part one aired on August 10, 1986, and part two aired on August 17, 1986. The first part placed 48th for the week, rated just behind a rerun of The A-Team
. The second part also placed 48th for the week with 8.1 ratings points and was seen in an estimated 7 million homes, just one-fifth of the 35 million that tuned in for this film's 1985 debut.
The final airing of Dalton's Code of Vengeance was the final previously-unaired hour, an episode titled "The Last Hold Out", which aired on August 24, 1986. Dalton arrives in New Orleans and finds himself the only hope for produce wholesale
r Ray Bechet (played by Wandy Ward) and his wife Rose Bechet (Maureen Kedes) being pressured to sell their property by powerful real estate developer
Johnson Lee (Jeff Jensen). Prominent guest roles included Barry Settels as "Fante". This final episode placed 43rd for the week with 10.0 ratings points and a 19 ratings share. This rating was good enough to tie pre-season National Football League
games on both CBS and ABC but not enough to make NBC consider reviving the Dalton character yet again.
by Columbia House Home Video
. , no plans have been announced to release Code of Vengeance in any format on DVD or Blu-Ray.
and credited to Glen A. Larson
& Roger Hill, was an adaptation of the "Mouth of the Snake" episode. The back cover of the book names the adapted episode as "All That Glitters", the working title for the episode and the name of the proposed series that would have featured the David Dalton character. As in the episode, Dalton and St. John are the principal characters with Michael Knight and KITT making only token appearances. Of the five official English language
Knight Rider tie-in novels, The 24-Carat Assassin was one of two released in the United Kingdom
that was never released in the United States. The novel was translated into German
by Carla Blesgen and published by Bertelsmann
in Germany in 1988 as Ein Hochkarätiger Killer.
Umbrella title
An umbrella title is a formal or informal name connecting a number of individual items with a common theme. It is most often used in lieu of listing separately the separate components or providing a convenient "label" for a collection of disciplines.-Academia:...
for a series of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
programs, produced by Universal Television
Universal Television
Universal Television is the television production arm of the NBCUniversal Television Group, and by extension, the NBC television network...
, that aired on NBC in 1985 and 1986. Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor (actor)
Charles Taylor is an American actor best known for the role of "David Dalton" in the Code of Vengeance television series.-External links:*...
stars as David Dalton, a Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran is a phrase used to describe someone who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War.The term has been used to describe veterans who were in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States armed forces, and countries allied to them, whether or...
who has become a drifter
Vagabond (person)
A vagabond is a drifter and an itinerant wanderer who roams wherever they please, following the whim of the moment. Vagabonds may lack residence, a job, and even citizenship....
, travelling across the United States in a camper van with only his dog for company. Dalton gets involved in the personal lives of the people he meets and uses his fighting skills to help them win justice.
The Dalton character was created for All That Glitters, a planned spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
series from Knight Rider, and a backdoor pilot aired as a second-season episode of that series in 1984. The character, originally a suave government agent, was retooled as a lone drifter for a new pilot, which aired as the television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
Code of Vengeance, to surprise ratings success in June 1985. A subsequent series, to be called Dalton, was ordered by NBC for midseason, then production was cancelled after just four episodes were completed. These aired in the summer of 1986 as a television movie titled Dalton: Code of Vengeance II and as a part of a fill-in series called Dalton's Code of Vengeance.
Origins
The David Dalton character was originally created by writer Robert Foster and executive producer Glen A. LarsonGlen A. Larson
Glen Albert Larson is an American television producer and writer best known as the creator of Battlestar Galactica, The Fall Guy, Magnum, P.I. and Knight Rider.-Career:...
for a proposed series titled All That Glitters. The show's two-hour backdoor pilot aired on April 8, 1984, as a special double-length episode of Knight Rider titled "Mouth of the Snake". The production featured Charles Taylor as David Dalton, an action-oriented government agent, and Joanna Pettet
Joanna Pettet
Joanna Pettet is a British actress.-Biography:Her parents, Harold Nigel Edgerton Salmon, a British Royal Air Force pilot killed in World War II, and mother, Cecily J. Tremaine, were married in London in 1940...
as Joanna St. John, the widow of a murdered lawyer, fighting crime and accepting secret missions from Archibald Hendley (played by George Murdock
George Murdock
George Peter Murdock was a notable American anthropologist. He is remembered for his empirical approach to ethnological studies and his landmark works on Old World populations.-Early life:...
) on behalf of the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
. In this pilot episode, Dalton and St. John work with Knight Rider stars Michael Knight
Michael Knight (Knight Rider)
Michael Knight is a fictional character and protagonist in the 1980s Knight Rider television series played by David Hasselhoff. The character first appeared in the opening scenes as Michael Long, played by Larry Anderson in the beginning of the pilot.- Michael Long :Born Michael Arthur Long on...
(David Hasselhoff
David Hasselhoff
David Michael Hasselhoff is an American actor, singer, producer and businessman. He is best known for his lead roles as Michael Knight in the popular 1980s US series Knight Rider and as L.A. County Lifeguard Mitch Buchannon in the series Baywatch...
) and KITT
KITT
KITT is the short name of two fictional characters from the adventure TV series Knight Rider. While having the same acronym, the KITTs are two different entities: one known as the Knight Industries Two Thousand, which appeared in the original TV series Knight Rider, and the other as the Knight...
(voice of William Daniels
William Daniels
William David Daniels is an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild . He is known for his performance as Dustin Hoffman's father in The Graduate , as John Adams in 1776, as Carter Nash in Captain Nice, as Mr. George Feeny in ABC's Boy Meets World, as the voice of KITT in...
) to locate Eduardo O'Brien (Pedro Armendáriz, Jr.), a master criminal who has stolen a prototype rocket launcher.
This backdoor pilot was written by Robert Gilmer and Robert Foster, directed by Winrich Kolbe
Winrich Kolbe
Winrich Kolbe is a German-born American television, film director and television producer, best known for his work in various Star Trek television series during which time he dated Star Trek Voyager's Kate Mulgrew...
, and produced by Robert Gilmer, Gian Grimaldi, and Tom Greene. Cinematography was handled by H. John Penner with art direction by Russell Smith and music by Don Peake. Both Glen A. Larson and Robert Foster were credited as executive producers on the project.
Noting the limited roles of Michael and KITT in the episode, the authors of Knight Rider Legacy state that "[m]any fans consider this to be one of the worst episodes of Knight Rider ever produced during its four-year run" and that it posted a season-low in the Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. Feeling the format was too similar to Cover Up, a show Larson had created for CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
that began airing in September 1984, NBC declined to pick up All That Glitters as a series.
Second pilot
NBC commissioned a second pilot starring Charles Taylor, Code of Vengeance, for the 1985 pilot season. The new pilot reimagined David Dalton as a flashback-prone Vietnam veteranVietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran is a phrase used to describe someone who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War.The term has been used to describe veterans who were in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States armed forces, and countries allied to them, whether or...
who drifts across the country, encountering people in trouble, and helping them to find justice with his unique fighting skills. The physical agility, acrobatic skill, and martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
expertise that Dalton displayed in "Mouth of the Snake" was toned down to a simpler, more violent fighting style. The reviewer for the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
described Dalton as "a modern version of Shane" that's also "like Highway to Heaven
Highway to Heaven
Highway to Heaven is an American television drama series which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989.- Season 1 :- Season 2 :- Season 3 :- Season 4 :- Season 5 :...
" but with Dalton using "his fists rather than good deeds" to solve problems. Dalton travels from place to place in a camper van with only his German Shepherd
German Shepherd Dog
The German Shepherd Dog , also known as an Alsatian or just the German Shepherd, is a breed of large-sized dog that originated in Germany. The German Shepherd is a relatively new breed of dog, with its origin dating to 1899. As part of the Herding Group, the German Shepherd is a working dog...
named "Wichita" for company.
In this second pilot, Dalton is a "mysterious stranger" who arrives in a small town in Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
where he meets Nadine Flowers, a young mother (played by Erin Gray
Erin Gray
Erin Gray is an American actress, perhaps best known for her roles as Kate Summers in the situation comedy Silver Spoons and as Colonel Wilma Deering in the science fiction television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century....
), her son A.J. (Chad Allen
Chad Allen (actor)
Chad Allen is an American actor. Beginning a prolific career as a child actor at the age of seven, Allen is a three-time Young Artist Award winner and GLAAD Media Award honoree, best known for rising to prominence as a teen idol during the late 1980s as David Witherspoon on the NBC family drama,...
), and her mother Ione (Lenka Peterson
Lenka Peterson
Lenka Peterson is an actress of stage, film and television.On Broadway, Peterson's roles included Ella in Sundown Beach , Maude in The Grass Harp , Kitty in The Time of Your Life , Sally and Mary in All the Way Home , Rose in Nuts , and Sarah in Quilters ,...
). Nadine hires Dalton to complete an addition to her house left undone after her brother disappeared while hunting. When the brother turns up dead under suspicious circumstances, Dalton investigates then sets out to avenge the brother's murder. This act of justice entangles him in a conflict between warring rival drug smugglers and gun runners along the border between Arizona and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Other prominent cast members included Charles Haid
Charles Haid
Charles Maurice Haid III is an American actor and director, with notable work in both movies and television. He is known for his portrayal of Officer Andy Renko in Hill Street Blues....
as "Jim Blanton", Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn was an American character actor. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade, and though he rarely had a lead role, he got prominent billing in most of his film and TV parts....
as "Willis", Randall "Tex" Cobb as "Willard Singleton", and Joe Dorsey
Joe Dorsey
Joe Dorsey is an American character actor. This familiar supporting player is probably best known for his portrayals of tough roles in films, even though most of his work in films and in television has been brief....
as "Chief Milford Carsworth". In a nod to the show's origins, Keenan Wynn's character is shown watching a Knight Rider episode, with KITT's voice clearly audible, as armed thugs surround his home. The teleplay
Teleplay
A teleplay is a television play, a comedy or drama written or adapted for television. The term surfaced during the 1950s with wide usage to distinguish a television plays from stage plays for the theater and screenplays written for films...
was written by Robert Foster with Duke Callaghan and Thomas Del Ruth
Thomas Del Ruth
Thomas Del Ruth, A.S.C. is a cinematographer. He was born on May 1, 1942 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, in the United States of America. He is the son of film director Roy Del Ruth, and actress Winnie Lightner...
splitting cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
duties under director Rick Rosenthal
Rick Rosenthal
Richard L. "Rick" Rosenthal, Jr. is an American film and television director. He is also a producer, actor, and writer.-Biography:...
. Robert Foster served as executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
and the pilot was produced by Universal Television
Universal Television
Universal Television is the television production arm of the NBCUniversal Television Group, and by extension, the NBC television network...
.
NBC also declined to pick up this pilot as a series and shelved the film to be burned off
Burning off
Burning off is the low-profile airing of otherwise-abandoned unaired television programs, usually by scheduling in far less important time slots or on less important sister stations...
during the summer of 1985. The pilot was eventually aired on June 30, 1985, as the NBC Sunday Night Movie, opposite a new two-hour special episode of Call to Glory
Call to Glory
Call to Glory was an American television series that aired 23 episodes during the 1984-1985 TV season on the ABC-TV network. Starring Craig T. Nelson as a USAF pilot, Colonel Raynor Sarnac. In the course of its production run, it drifted away from its original reasonably authentic setting and...
starring Craig T. Nelson
Craig T. Nelson
Craig Theodore Nelson is an American actor. He is probably best known for his Emmy-winning roles as Hayden Fox on the TV series Coach, and as Steve Freeling in the 1982 film Poltergeist. He also starred in The Incredibles in 2004 as Mr...
.
Ordered for mid-season
Promoted as being "in the tradition of Rambo" and airing just weeks after Rambo: First Blood Part IIRambo: First Blood Part II
Rambo: First Blood Part II is a 1985 action film. A sequel to 1982's First Blood, it is the second installment in the Rambo series starring Sylvester Stallone, who reprises his role as Vietnam veteran John Rambo...
was released to theaters, the Code of Vengeance telemovie was a surprise ratings success. Code of Vengeance tied an episode of the popular sitcom Family Ties
Family Ties
Family Ties is an American sitcom that aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. The sitcom reflected the move in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s. This was particularly expressed through the relationship between young...
as the second-highest rated show of the week. Swayed by these numbers, NBC ordered six one-hour episodes as a midseason replacement
Midseason replacement
In American and Canadian television, a midseason replacement is a television series that premieres in the second half of the traditional television season, usually between January and May...
series. The October 1985 announcement noted that the new series was to be titled Dalton.
The series, described by its lead actor as having "two stars — the landscape and Dalton", began filming in several locations across the United States. While the plan was to film two episodes in each location, the production was troubled by weather as flash flood
Flash flood
A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas—washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a storm, hurricane, or tropical storm or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields...
ing delayed filming in Houston and a hurricane
1985 Atlantic hurricane season
The 1985 Atlantic hurricane season had the most U.S. landfalling tropical cyclones since 1916. The season officially began on June 1, 1985, and lasted until November 30, 1985...
hit while filming in New Orleans.
Shut down
Originally slated for a January 1986 debut, Dalton struggled with script and production issues that delayed its debut indefinitely. Unhappy with what they had seen so far, NBC ordered a suspension of production in December 1985 after just four episodes had been filmed. Scheduled to resume filming in Los Angeles in January 1986 after a holiday break, the network instead ended production on Dalton entirely and in early February ordered Universal TelevisionUniversal Television
Universal Television is the television production arm of the NBCUniversal Television Group, and by extension, the NBC television network...
to re-edit these four completed episodes into two feature-length movies. These "movie of the week" presentations were to be called Code of Vengeance II and Code of Vengeance III.
Movie of the week
The first of these two-hour presentations, now titled Dalton: Code of Vengeance II, aired as the NBC Sunday Night Movie on Sunday, May 11, 1986. Combining episodes written by Luther Murdock and Aiken Woodruff, Dalton: Code of Vengeance II found Dalton travelling first to Houston, TexasHouston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, to help friend Jeanne Bennett (played by Karen Landry) locate her husband—his former commanding officer, Major Monty Bennett (Donnelly Rhodes
Donnelly Rhodes
Donnelly Rhodes is a Canadian actor. He recently starred as Doctor Cottle on the Sci Fi Channel television program Battlestar Galactica. Before Battlestar Galactica he was probably best known to American audiences as the lovestruck, hapless escaped convict "Dutch Leitner" on the 1970s soap-opera...
). When he discovers that Major Bennett is now aiding the New Patriots, a conservative paramilitary group of Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran is a phrase used to describe someone who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War.The term has been used to describe veterans who were in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States armed forces, and countries allied to them, whether or...
s bent on overthrowing the United States government, he sets off for the Florida Everglades to stop them. The New Patriots' plan is to commit acts of domestic terrorism while framing an Arab group for the atrocities in the belief that this will allow them to seize control of the government they feel betrayed them in Vietnam. Ultimately, Dalton confronts his former commander in the swamp and, after a long and unexplained flashback sequence of combat in Vietnam, Dalton stops both his commander and the group's plans.
This Universal Television
Universal Television
Universal Television is the television production arm of the NBCUniversal Television Group, and by extension, the NBC television network...
movie was produced by Herman Miller
Herman Miller (writer)
Herman Miller was a Hollywood writer and producer. He pursued both undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Southern California, where he received his B.A. in 1950 and M.F.A. in 1952....
, edited by Lawrence J. Vallario, scored by Don Peake, and Jack Priestley was the cinematographer. Gary A. Lee handled art direction and, with creator Robert Foster no longer involved, Lou Shaw was the only credited executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
. Direction of the combined feature edit of these two episodes, filmed on location in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, and Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
, is credited pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
ously to Alan Smithee
Alan Smithee
Alan Smithee was an official pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project, coined in 1968. Until its use was formally discontinued in 2000, it was the sole pseudonym used by members of the Directors Guild of America when a director dissatisfied with the final product proved to...
. Other prominent roles in the movie included Ed Bruce
Ed Bruce
William Edwin "Ed" Bruce, Jr. is an American country music songwriter and singer. He is known for penning the 1975 song "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" .-Early life & songwriting career:...
as "Sheriff Johnson", Alex Harvey as "Sheriff Willoughby", Mitch Pileggi
Mitch Pileggi
Mitchell Craig "Mitch" Pileggi is an American actor. Pileggi is known for playing FBI assistant director Walter Skinner on the long-running popular series The X-Files. He also had a recurring role on Stargate Atlantis as Col. Steven Caldwell...
as "Verbeck", Shannon Stein as "Tip Bennett", Belinda J. Montgomery as "Libby Holland", and William Sanderson
William Sanderson
William Sanderson is an American character actor.-Early life:Sanderson was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to an elementary school teacher mother and a landscape designer father...
as "Bobby Fuller".
Critical reaction to this iteration of the Dalton saga was sharp. Drew Fetherston, reviewing the movie for Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
, called it "claptrap" and that "action [...] is all that this NBC stinker has to offer". Faye Zuckerman of the Gainesville Sun called Dalton: Code of Vengeance II a "plodder", complaining that "this film insults its predecessor". Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
reviewer Daniel Ruth gave Dalton: Code of Vengeance II a half-star review calling it "revisionist", "distasteful", and "terrible television". Deriding the film as "poorly written, badly acted, sloppily directed and choppily edited", he called it "another slap in the face of the men and women who went to Southeast Asia to do a dirty job and came home to even dirtier exploitation". Ruth concluded, "The viewer's best "Code of Vengeance" would be to reject these films."
Dalton: Code of Vengeance II also failed to deliver the high ratings of its predecessor. Against stiff competition from the final installment of ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's top-rated North and South, Book II
North and South (TV miniseries)
North and South is the title of three American television miniseries broadcast on the ABC network in 1985, 1986, and 1994. Set before, during, and immediately after the American Civil War, they are based on the 1980s trilogy of novels North and South by John Jakes. The 1985 first installment, North...
miniseries, the movie failed to crack the top 20 in that week's Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. Faced with critical and commercial failure, NBC scrapped plans to air Code of Vengeance III and the fate of the unseen episodes became uncertain.
Replacement series
In the summer of 1986, NBC was doing quite well in the ratings with its Thursday night lineupMust See TV
"Must See TV" is an advertising slogan used by the NBC television network to brand its prime time blocks of sitcoms during the 1990s, and most often applied to the network's Thursday night lineup, which featured such popular sitcoms as The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court, A Different...
but was still experimenting on other nights. One such experiment was the anthology series The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents
The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents
The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1985 to 1986, and on the USA Network from 1987 to 1989...
featuring new stories introduced by colorized vintage footage of Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
. After just one season on the network, the show was cancelled abruptly after the July 20, 1986, airing of two repeat episodes placed 55th for the week in the Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
against 5th-rated Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. Needing an inexpensive replacement on short notice as a fill-in until the 1986-87 television season started in September, NBC began airing one-hour episodes of Dalton, re-titled Dalton's Code of Vengeance, in a four-episode limited run beginning on July 27, 1986.
The first one-hour episode of Dalton's Code of Vengeance to air was "Rustler's Moon", one of the two previously-unaired hours. Dalton is on his way to Houston when he meets a "feisty rancher" named Rhonda Jo (played by Susan Walden
Susan Walden
Susan Walden is a film and television actress. She started her career on The Young and the Restless in the early 1970s, and is best known for her role as J.L. Duval on the hit Canadian TV Show Danger Bay...
) and is forced to deal out his unique brand of justice against cattle rustlers trying to steal her prize bull
Cattle judging
Cattle judging is the process of judging a series of cattle and pronouncing a first, second and third place animal based on each animal's individual traits compared to that of the others. Most cattle judging occurs in show rings at agricultural shows....
and do her harm. Other prominent roles included Larry Drake
Larry Drake
Larry Drake is an American actor.Drake was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Lorraine, a homemaker, and Raymond Drake, a drafting engineer for an oil company. Drake is renowned for his portrayal of developmentally disabled Benny Stulwicz on the television show L.A...
as "Jack Ferguson", Paul Carr
Paul Carr (actor)
Paul Carr was an character actor who was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Carr acted for some fifty years in television, film, and on-stage.-Beginnings:...
as "Elliot", Chris Douridas
Christopher Douridas
Chris Douridas is a popular DJ and musical tastemaker at Santa Monica, California, radio station KCRW, where he hosts a two hour program showcasing progressive new music. He is also a filmmaker, actor, television presenter, and a three-time Grammy-nominated producer of soundtracks and music...
as "Willy", and a special appearance by country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
star Mickey Gilley
Mickey Gilley
Mickey Leroy Gilley is an American country music singer and musician. Although he started out singing straight-up country and western material in the 1970s, he moved towards a more pop-friendly sound in the 1980s, bringing him further success on not just the country charts, but the pop charts as...
as himself. As with the previous presentation, this episode's direction was credited to Alan Smithee
Alan Smithee
Alan Smithee was an official pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project, coined in 1968. Until its use was formally discontinued in 2000, it was the sole pseudonym used by members of the Directors Guild of America when a director dissatisfied with the final product proved to...
.
With little notice or promotion, advance critical reaction was scant. One reviewer noted that star Charles Taylor "has the bod for" an adventure hero while another opined that he thought "Knight Rider or The A-Team
The A-Team
The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The A-Team was created by...
or Jonathan of Highway to Heaven
Highway to Heaven
Highway to Heaven is an American television drama series which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989.- Season 1 :- Season 2 :- Season 3 :- Season 4 :- Season 5 :...
took care of these baddies on their series". The debut episode placed 51st for the week, just behind a rerun of Airwolf
Airwolf
Airwolf is an American television series that ran from 1984 until 1987. The program centers on a high-tech military helicopter, code named Airwolf, and its crew as they undertake various missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War theme....
, with 7.3 ratings points in the Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. The following week, the timeslot was filled by the special Motown Returns to the Apollo hosted by Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
.
The original two-hour Code of Vengeance television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
was split into two one-hour segments and repeated in two parts as episodes of Dalton's Code of Vengeance. Part one aired on August 10, 1986, and part two aired on August 17, 1986. The first part placed 48th for the week, rated just behind a rerun of The A-Team
The A-Team
The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The A-Team was created by...
. The second part also placed 48th for the week with 8.1 ratings points and was seen in an estimated 7 million homes, just one-fifth of the 35 million that tuned in for this film's 1985 debut.
The final airing of Dalton's Code of Vengeance was the final previously-unaired hour, an episode titled "The Last Hold Out", which aired on August 24, 1986. Dalton arrives in New Orleans and finds himself the only hope for produce wholesale
Wholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
r Ray Bechet (played by Wandy Ward) and his wife Rose Bechet (Maureen Kedes) being pressured to sell their property by powerful real estate developer
Real estate development
Real estate development, or Property Development, is a multifaceted business, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of improved land or parcels to others...
Johnson Lee (Jeff Jensen). Prominent guest roles included Barry Settels as "Fante". This final episode placed 43rd for the week with 10.0 ratings points and a 19 ratings share. This rating was good enough to tie pre-season National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
games on both CBS and ABC but not enough to make NBC consider reviving the Dalton character yet again.
Video release
The double-length second-season Knight Rider episode "Mouth of the Snake", the All That Glitters backdoor pilot, was released on DVD in April 2005 by Universal Home Video as part of the Knight Rider: Season Two set. This episode had been previously released on VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
by Columbia House Home Video
Columbia House
The Columbia House brand was introduced in the early 1970s by the Columbia Records division of CBS, Inc. as an umbrella for its mail-order music clubs, the primary incarnation of which was the Columbia Record Club, established in 1955. It had a significant market presence in the 1980s and early...
. , no plans have been announced to release Code of Vengeance in any format on DVD or Blu-Ray.
In other media
The novel Knight Rider: The 24-Carat Assassin, published in September 1984 by Target BooksTarget Books
Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of...
and credited to Glen A. Larson
Glen A. Larson
Glen Albert Larson is an American television producer and writer best known as the creator of Battlestar Galactica, The Fall Guy, Magnum, P.I. and Knight Rider.-Career:...
& Roger Hill, was an adaptation of the "Mouth of the Snake" episode. The back cover of the book names the adapted episode as "All That Glitters", the working title for the episode and the name of the proposed series that would have featured the David Dalton character. As in the episode, Dalton and St. John are the principal characters with Michael Knight and KITT making only token appearances. Of the five official English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
Knight Rider tie-in novels, The 24-Carat Assassin was one of two released in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
that was never released in the United States. The novel was translated into German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
by Carla Blesgen and published by Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann AG is a multinational media corporation founded in 1835, based in Gütersloh, Germany. The company operates in 63 countries and employs 102,983 workers , which makes it the most international media corporation in the world. In 2008 the company reported a €16.118 billion consolidated...
in Germany in 1988 as Ein Hochkarätiger Killer.