History Series / Hunter1984

* [[Cool Guns UsefulNotes/GunsOfFiction]]: Hunter has a Heckler & Koch [=P9S=] with muzzle compensator that is shown in the opening credits. [[ICallItVera He calls it "Simon"]]. He later switches to a Beretta 92. When Hunter needs MoreDakka he has a SPAS-12 shotgun in his car, and a [[HandCannon Desert Eagle]] he supposedly got as gift from his mobster dad (even though dad died in 1971, before the Desert Eagle came into production). Dee Dee carries a .380 automatic (either a Walther PPK/S or a Beretta Model 90) with a .25 Beretta as a backup pistol. She later switches to a S&W Model 36 snubnose revolver.

* UnfriendlyFire: Detective [[ByTheBookCop Bernie Terwilliger]] is played up to be so incompetent that during a shoot-out in a hotel hallway, he opens fire on his fellow officers until [=McCall=] restrains him."

* CoolGuns: Hunter has a Heckler & Koch P9S with muzzle compensator that is shown in the opening credits. [[ICallItVera He calls it "Simon"]]. He later switches to a Beretta 92SB. When Hunter needs MoreDakka he has a SPAS12 shotgun in his car, and a [[HandCannon Desert Eagle]] he supposedly got as gift from his mobster dad (even though he died in 1971, before the Desert Eagle came into production). Dee Dee carries a .380 automatic (either a Walther PPK/S or a Beretta Model 90) with a .25 Beretta as a backup. She later switches to a S&W Model 36 snubnose revolver.

* ClingyJealousGirl: [=McCall=] comes across as this both professionally and personally regarding a female detective who has a good rapport with Hunter.

* TrashcanBonfire: A drug dealer is murdered by a ProfessionalKiller, and at the end of the episode Hunter finds the man's fellow dealers commemorating his memory around a burning trashcan. They explain that this was the corner where the deceased made his first drug buy.

* DidTheyOrDidntThey: At the conclusion of "Unfinished Business", Dee Dee invites Hunter in for coffee. As viewers now know that this is how a previous romantic liaison started, we're left wondering if it happened again.

* UngratefulBastard: Typhoon Thompson (Music/IsaacHayes) in "The Return of Typhoon Thompson" is this toward Hunter. Rick went to bat for him with the Governor and got all charges against Thompson dropped (including auto theft and assault on a police officer) for crimes committed when he tried to clear his name after being paroled for murder. Thompson is still upset because it doesn't change the fact that people only see him now as an ex-con, despite the fact that he was innocent of the murder charge that sent him to prison.

* ByTheBookCop: Sgt. Bernie Terwilliger thinks Hunter is a disgrace for the department and never fails to point out any time he breaks a rule. Unfortunately, Terwilliger is not that good a detective himself, and usually fails where Hunter's "cowboy" methods succeed. In the second season, he gets transferred to InternalAffairs, a job which brings him into frequent confrontation with Hunter, before succumbing to the ChuckCunninghamSyndrome in the third season as his actor, James Whitmore, Jr., had begun working behind the scenes as a director.

* CatchPhrase: Hunter's "Works for me".

* CIAEvilFBIGood: Brad Wilkes, the CIA agent featured in several episodes, is depicted as amoral at best and not unwilling cross Hunter and [=McCall=] to protect suspects if they are deemed to be vital for US national interests. Meanwhile FBI agents are depicted as more moral but willing to [[ByTheBookCop follow rules to the letter]].

* TortureTechnician: "The Nightmare" features a master torturer and FormerRegimePersonnel of a BananaRepublic, noted for giving victims slow and agonizing deaths while listening to Mozart. He fled to the US by pretending to be one of his own victims and cutting himself with his own incisions, all while using the money stolen from his victims to create a new identity as a philanthropist. When one of his victims recognized him, he and his henchman begins to track down her associates, even torturing one to death, to ensure his real identity never gets revealed.

** After leaving the show at the end of season 6, [=McCall=] returned in the 2002 ReunionShow ''Hunter: Return to Justice''.

* DisneyVillainDeath: Several villains of week fall to their demises. The villainous psychologist in the pilot episode accidentally jumps off a building when he charges Rick Hunter during a final RooftopConfrontation. The villain of ''The Return of Hunter'' (played by Creator/MiguelFerrer) deliberately jumps to his death after getting what he wanted from Hunter.

** After leaving the show at the end of season 6 to be married, [=McCall=] returns in the 2002 special ''Hunter: Return to Justice'', where she is married to a new husband, with zero mentions of the previous one.
** Hunter's de facto relationship with Chris Novak is not mentioned in the 1995 special ''The Return of Hunter'', as he started a relationship with another woman. Hunter's half-Vietnamese son is not mentioned again after his sole appearance.

* HollywoodSatanism: The Sons and Daughters of Darkness in "City of Passion" are a satanic cult that engages in sex orgies with prostitutes then [[HumanSacrifice sacrifices them]] as part of their ritual. One of their leaders works as a judge in the daytime, so when [=McCall=] busts him on a solicitation charge she got more than she bargained for.

* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: In "Fagin 1986", Rick Hunter shoots an underage crook and is asked by a reporter why he didn't shoot the weapon out of his hands. Hunter ridicules the idea, yet a later episode shows Hunter doing this to a man who challenged him to a duel.

** "Code 3" involves Dee Dee investigating the drunk driving death of a nurse friend, who she suspects is murdered. The villain turns out to be a property developer who exploited his medical connections to have a stubborn fruit peddler [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident killed during a medical episode with the wrong drugs]], so it could be dismissed as an accident and he could take over the peddler's shop which stood in the way of his building project. The nurse was killed for getting too close to the truth.

** Captain Devane himself becomes one after his ex-wife was murdered in "Girl on the Beach", as he goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Hunter is the one who has to talk him out of killing the culprit.

* CowboyCop: Hunter has this reputation among his colleagues, and some journalists. While he does tend to play loose with the rules, [[DownplayedTrope he does not show the disregard for life and property that tends to be a sign of a true cowboy cop]]. In addition, many of Hunter's colleagues actually support him for his actions, while completely disdaining [[DaChief Captain Cain]] for being too much of a stick in the mud regarding police protocol.