The F.B.I.
The Runner
TV Flash files “The Runner” as the first listed hour of season 8 — The F.B.I. (1965–1974) on ABC, season 8, episode 1, aired 1972-09-17, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S08E01: listed hour 193 of 241 in the The F.B.I. guide, first listed hour of season 8. It aired 1972-09-17 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Escape to Nowhere” (S07E26). Next is “The Edge of Desperation” (S08E02).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
A solid backwoods chase drama opens the eighth season. Object of the manhunt: an ex-football star who has escaped from jail in a desperate bid to recapture lost glory. The ex-football hero tries to recapture his lost hopes by kidnapping a beautiful girl.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Runner sit in the The F.B.I. guide?
S08E01 is listed hour 193 of 241 — first listed hour of season 8, season 8 episode 1.
When did The F.B.I. S08E01 air?
The Runner aired 1972-09-17 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start?
Zimbalist's Erskine on a federal manhunt hour is the polish: Quinn Martin case-file cool, Bureau-inspired plotting. Weekly Most Wanted energy, not a serialized mole hunt you must enter at episode one.
In the series
Why this series still plays
The F.B.I. is Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Inspector Erskine, case-file cool with the Bureau's cooperation — and J. Edgar Hoover's shadow in the production lore. Quinn Martin packaged Most Wanted energy as weekly procedural myth. Mid-sixties crime TV as official branding: federal polish, nationwide manhunts, and a series that treated the badge as drama engine and public-relations campaign.
The silhouette is a badge with a handshake. *Federal polish, Most Wanted energy, case-file cool as official branding.* The F.B.I. is Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Inspector Lewis Erskine — Quinn Martin's ABC drama (1965–1974; nine seasons, 241 episodes) packaged with the Bureau's cooperation, and J. Edgar Hoover's shadow in the production lore. Philip Abbott's Arthur Ward and William Reynolds's Tom Colby in the orbit. Dramatized cases inspired by Bureau files, spies to bank robbers. **This was not a private-eye bruise;…
Filed against
- Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Inspector Lewis Erskine
Efrem Zimbalist Jr.’s Stuart Bailey made 77 Sunset Strip Hollywood-PI cool — jazz theme, parking-lot slang, 1960s catalog detective factory with Kookie in the margins. The F.B.I. and Batman: The Animated Series stretched the same…
- Philip Abbott as Arthur Ward
Philip Abbott played Arthur Ward on The F.B.I., 1960s case-file cool with Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Inspector Erskine — Bureau cooperation, J. Edgar Hoover’s shadow in the production lore, Quinn Martin packaging Most Wanted energy as weekly…
- William Reynolds as Special Agent Tom Colby
William Reynolds’s Special Agent Tom Colby backed The F.B.I. as case-file cool beside Efrem Zimbalist Jr.’s Inspector Erskine — Quinn Martin packaging Most Wanted energy as weekly procedural myth, Bureau cooperation, J. Edgar Hoover’s…