About this season
Vega$ is an American detective television drama series that aired on ABC between 1978 and 1981. It was produced by Aaron Spelling. The series was filmed in its entirety in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is believed to be the first television series produced entirely in Las Vegas. The show stars Robert Urich as private detective Dan Tanna, who drove around the streets of Las Vegas in a red 1957 Ford Thunderbird solving crimes and making Las Vegas a better place for residents and tourists alike.
Episodes (22)
1. Centerfold
Aired 20 September 1978 • 44 min
Model Shawn Adams' agent Nat Finer is a two-bit hustler whose shady friend Mr. Smith drugs Shawn, takes X-rated photos of her, then tries to blackmail her into a five-year contract.
2. The Games Girls Play
Aired 27 September 1978 • 44 min
A senator gets photographed in a compromising position with three housewives whose husbands neglect them. When one girl is run down by a car, it's obvious that all three are in danger from a vengeful victim.
3. Mother Mishkin
Aired 11 October 1978 • 44 min
Mother Mishkin tries to nail shady real estate developer Worthmeyer and thinks her life is in danger from him, so she hires Dan to protect her. Meanwhile, Dan recruits bumbling Binzer to repossess a car from deadbeat Freddie Tibbs.
4. Love, Laugh and Die
Aired 18 October 1978 • 44 min
Call girl Lexy Gardner is shot dead, so her mother hires Dan to find out who did it and how Lexy wound up hooking. The case expands to involve singer Eddie Banning, tennis pro Lou Spitz, and contractor William Virgil.
5. Yes, My Darling Daughter
Aired 25 October 1978 • 44 min
On her wedding day, Cindy Jenner Smalley sees. or thinks she sees, her dead father Hank, a famous country-western singer who vanished shortly after arranging his wife's mercy killing ten years before. Dan takes the case.
6. Lady Ice
Aired 1 November 1978 • 44 min
A sheik who is staying at Roth's hotel doesn't realize that his female escort Allison Jordan is the one female in a trio of crooks who steal twelve rubies from him. Her romantic evening with Dan becomes her alibi for the crime.
7. Milliken's Stash
Aired 8 November 1978 • 44 min
Cocaine smuggler Marty Trafalgar tries to retire, but his former partner Wendell Milliken from Miami won't allow him to do so.
8. The Pageant
Aired 15 November 1978 • 44 min
Mike Logan hires Dan to find his daughter Jenny's rapist. Bella discovers that the serial rapist targets slender blondes in their late teens. When the rapist kills a victim, Jenny becomes a witness and Bea becomes a decoy.
9. Lost Women
Aired 22 November 1978 • 44 min
Tanna investigates the mysterious disappearances of beautiful Las Vegas showgirls and discovers they have been abducted by a white slaver. When he gets caught trying to rescue them, Binzer and Roth try to rescue him.
10. Second Stanza
Aired 6 December 1978 • 44 min
Faded singer Ginny Gordon's comeback is threatened, and her sanity imperiled, by attempts on her life. Is her former partner responsible for the attempts, or is a recent acquaintance terrorizing her?
11. Serve, Volley and Kill
Aired 20 December 1978 • 44 min
Temperamental tennis pro Bobby Howard has been receiving threatening phone calls. His coach Sid Green hires Dan to protect Bobby, who doesn't want it. Meanwhile, Binzer tries to stop Tommy Cirko's petty larceny: impersonating a minister.
12. Ghost of the Ripper
Aired 10 January 1979 • 44 min
Psychotic Jack Schulman is killing prostitutes. Amateur criminologist Philiip Graykirk sees a pattern similar to the Jack-the-Ripper murders and predicts more deaths to come.
13. The Eleventh Event
Aired 17 January 1979 • 44 min
A benefit telethon is planned for Leon Hazlett, a five-time Olympic gold medalist who was crippled in a car crash. But emcee Paul Baker is kidnapped and a $200,000 ransom is demanded.
14. Kill Dan Tanna
Aired 24 January 1979 • 44 min
When Dan was in Vietnam, he once defied the orders of Captain North, who wound up crippled. North hires goons to help him take revenge by terrorizing Dan and the people around him.
15. Death Mountain
Aired 31 January 1979 • 44 min
Chief Gray Bear is trying to stall a Japanese businessman's construction project on the reservation.
16. Best Friends
Aired 7 February 1979 • 44 min
Dan's childhood friend visits Vegas. Unknown to Dan, he is the felon who kills Erwin Levy and wounds Roth in the process. Will Philip Roth be the next victim?
17. Demand and Supply
Aired 14 February 1979 • 44 min
A teenager gets assaulted at the seedy Pinecrest Hotel. Her mother's friend, begs Dan to take the case. Meanwhile, the pimp threatens to harm another teenage girl if she doesn't turn tricks.
18. Everything I Touch
Aired 28 February 1979 • 44 min
Dan's love interest Christy Winters is strangled in her hotel room. Her friend tries to help him solve the case and becomes the next victim. Both girls were with Dan right before their murders, leaving Dan badly grief-stricken.
19. Doubtful Target
Aired 7 March 1979 • 44 min
Savings and loan president Tyler Dickinson murders investment counselor Cy Winters and then Binzer's girlfriend Kim Sarrason. Binzer is first devastated and then vindictive. Can Dan prevent Binzer from exacting vigilante justice?
20. Touch of Death
Aired 14 March 1979 • 44 min
Newlywed Gary Cole goes to buy some jewelry for his wife Wendy, and disappears. When Wendy realizes he's missing, nobody that she questions seems to recognize the couple. Her hysteria only hampers Dan's investigation.
21. The Way to Live
10.0Aired 2 May 1979 • 44 min
Daredevil Shara Stanley's drunken mechanic Bill Woods tries to talk her out of a dangerous stunt because her beneficiaries plan to sabotage it and have her killed so they can collect on her insurance.
22. The Visitor
Aired 9 May 1979 • 44 min
Dan is hired to be the escort and bodyguard of Princess Zara during her stay in Las Vegas. But political problems follow her. Fanatic Lucille tries to kill both Dan and Zara before she herself is shot dead in Zara's hotel room.