Masquerade — Season 1

Aired 15 December 1983 • 60 min

The mission: The NIA must use average people as agents because a bitter ex-agent has written a book exposing most of the United States’ top secret agents. In the debut show, Russian agent “Wolfen” is killing off agents one by one and nearly bumps off our hero, Taylor. “Wolfen" is played by British bad boy Oliver Reed. ‘Operation: Masquerade’ is put into effect as common people get involved in a scam to discredit Wolfen in the eyes of his Russian superiors. As Taylor says ‘‘We must make him appear a lazy, incompetent, womanizing agent. Sort of like the Soviet version of ‘Arthur.’ He recruits Ernest Borgnine as the plumber, Cybill Shepherd as the actress, Richard Roundtree as the halfback Mean Willie Walters, Robert Morse as a shifty pickpocket, and Austin Pendleton as an actor who is a master of disguises. Howard Da Silva plays a Soviet official.

Aired 22 December 1983

Lavender sends a courier to deliver some sensitive material. But a man named Marlos kills the courier and makes off with the material. Lavender knows Marlos is behind it so they have to get it back. Part of his plan is stop the sale which is about to take place.

Aired 29 December 1983 • 60 min

Masquerade Chief Lavender and a group of carefully selected civilians skilled in karate travel to Hawaii to rescue the daughter of a U.S. senator from white slavers.

Aired 5 January 1984 • 60 min

Lavender and Co. substitute a double for a Russian physicist planning to defect. Susan George and Kai Wulff get the main guest assignments this outing, as, respectively, a female bodyguard and a KGB assassin out to eliminate defectors. Lavender & Co. and their recruits use a “ringer” to impersonate a defecting Russian physicist and thereby convince the KGB hit men they've done their job.

Aired 12 January 1984 • 60 min

Lavender (Rod Taylor) and his civilian team board a cruise ship on a dangerous mission to capture a traitor and abort the military takeover of a small Caribbean republic.

Aired 19 January 1984 • 60 min

Casey goes undercover in a Portuguese prison as Lavender and his team work to free an NIA agent carrying a microchip with information on a missing submarine. Guests: Joe Santos, Maggie Roswell.

Aired 26 January 1984

Aired 30 March 1984 • 60 min

Lavender and team attempt to stop a French crime syndicate that has hijacked an Africa-bound shipment of anti-cholera serum to sell to the Cubans. Guests: Tony Franciosa, Elaine Joyce.

Aired 6 April 1984 • 60 min

Lavender and a team of gamblers try to break a Monte Carlo casino whose owner (Lloyd Bochner) plans to give top military secrets to the Soviets. Guests: Lloyd Bochner, Claude Akins, Martin Milner.

Aired 13 April 1984 • 60 min

Lavender, the guy who hires civilians to go on dangerous missions, rounds up another group for a far-fetched plot: Convince an American general, who's a double agent with the Russians, that the KGB is about to wipe him out.

Aired 20 April 1984 • 60 min

Lavender and team race against time to alter the programming of a hijacked satellite defense system before it is sold to the Russians. Guests: Alejandro Rey, Michael Constantine.

Aired 27 April 1984 • 60 min

Lavender recruits a dentist, a detective and a cab driver to travel with him to Rio to find out who's leaking government secrets to the Russians.

Aired 4 May 1984 • 60 min

The murder of an American embassy secretary brings Lavender and his civilian team to Rio during Mardi Gras to find a security leak and keep a Touchstone computer code out of enemy hands. Lavender and a Russian intelligence agent become partners on a mission to keep a KGB general from building a nuclear weapon.