Michael Butler
Writing
Known For

Baretta is an American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. The show was a milder version of a successful 1973–74 ABC series, Toma, starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey police officer David Toma. While popular, Toma received intense criticism at the time for its realistic and frequent depiction of police and criminal violence. When Musante left the series after a single season, the concept was retooled as Baretta, with Robert Blake in the title role.
Baretta

Houston Knights is an American crime drama set in Houston, Texas. The show ran on CBS from 1987 to 1988 and had 31 episodes. The core of the show was the partnership between two very different cops from two different cultures. Chicago cop Joey LaFiamma, played by Michael Paré, is transferred to Houston after he kills a mobster from a powerful Mafia family and a contract is put out on him. Once there, he is partnered with Levon Lundy, played by Michael Beck, the grandson of a Texas Ranger. Although as different as night and day, and after a rocky beginning they form a successful partnership and become friends. This is aided to a certain extent by an event where a hitman from Chicago who holds the contract to shoot La Fiamma arrives in Houston and is ultimately killed by Lundy. During the series, it is revealed that both La Fiamma and Lundy have their own personal demons; La Fiamma's Chicago police partner had been killed when he went ahead while La Fiamma had waited for backup to arrive. Lundy's wife had been killed by an explosion that was intended to kill him.
Houston Knights

A mysterious preacher protects a humble prospector village from a greedy mining company trying to encroach on their land.
Pale Rider

Kate McShane is an American legal drama television series that aired from September 10 until November 12, 1975. Kate McShane was the first series to feaure a female lawyer in the lead role.
Kate McShane

The Utah community of Santa Ynez is being terrorized by a mysterious black coupe that appears out of nowhere and begins running people down. After the car kills off the town sheriff, Captain Wade Parent is determined to stop the murderous driver.
The Car

Phoenix cop Ben Shockley is well on his way to becoming a derelict when he is assigned to transport a witness from Las Vegas. The witness turns out to be a belligerent prostitute with mob ties—and incriminating information regarding a high-ranking official.
The Gauntlet

A Chicago cop is caught in the middle of a gang war while his own comrades shun him because he wants to take an irresponsible cop down.
Code of Silence

A hard-nosed Chicago cop is sent to London to bring back an American mobster being held for extradition. Brannigan in his Irish-American way brings American law to the people of Scotland Yard but has to contend with a stuffy old London first.
Brannigan

Two Texas border guards find a jeep buried in the desert, with a skeleton, a scoped rifle, and a box with $800,000 in cash. Before they decide whether to keep the money or report it, they privately investigate the clues and unravel a decades old mystery.
Flashpoint

An in-depth look at Dirty Harry (1971), featuring interviews with such film artists as Michael Madsen, 'Hal Holbrook', John Milius, 'Shane Black' and John Badham.
The Long Shadow of Dirty Harry

An ad-agency boss (Alan Alda) leads a white-water-rafting trip into danger.
White Mile

Filmmakers, social scientists and authors take a provocative look at the moral, political and ethical themes of the Dirty Harry films.
A Moral Right: The Politics of Dirty Harry

A young Anatolian Greek, entrusted with his family's fortune, loses it en route to Istanbul and dreams of going to America.
America America

After his mistress is murdered, a Mafia leader goes after the killer with a bloody vengeance. Soon after the hunt begins, a gang war ensues.
The Don Is Dead

Follow Eastwood's career from television star to matinee idol to Oscar-winning director in this wide-ranging documentary.
The Evolution of Clint Eastwood

A disgruntled phone company employee develops a device whereby those answering a phone can be murdered, and it's up to Nat Bridger to stop the killer.
Murder by Phone

Two bickering mercenaries are hired by the CIA to overthrow a South East Asian dictator.
Fifty/Fifty

An American Indian deputy sheriff is caught in the middle of a community dispute when the tribe tries to save an historic mission from a housing developer. This TV pilot film was an ABC Movie of the Week and later became a TV series.
Nakia

Harry Arno is a Miami Beach bookie who finds himself in trouble with his mob bosses for reasons he can't quite figure out. When an assailant attempts to kill him, he decides that it's time to retire, so he relocates to Greece.
Pronto

The first of three private-eye movies created by Robert Blake about rugged Joe Dancer as the forerunner to a prospective but unrealized series after the retirement of his "Baretta" character. In the initial outing, Blake, as Dancer, follows a trail of bodies through a maze of corruption involving a politically ambitious Beverly Hills family.