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.
Episodes
An off-duty officer is killed doing some private investigation. It is soon learned that he was working on a stolen car ring. The Knights spot a daylight heist of an Excaliber and follow it to a warehouse. As the Knights moved around inside the warehouse, Joe discovers HIS car, a Shelby Cobra, stolen in Chicago months ago. Two suspects escape in Joe's car! Later the car is ditched and one of the men runs into a blind woman as he escapes. Using Joey as a guide she gives a detailed description of the man. In the end, Joe's car is taken in evidence, but he does it get back. In this episode, Jamie Kincaid is introduced. She is the wife of the off-duty officer.
The show has two separate storylines. One deals with date rape, the other with a prison breakout. In the date rape, a man at a fitness center feels women are coming on to him because of how they dress when they exercise. This storyline gives us the impression that Joe is a women's rights activist. In the prison breakout, the Knights get involved with a retired Texas Ranger who feels the justice system has failed. He hinders their investigation. It is discovered that a recent armor truck heist was not for the money but for the prison breakout. Levon uses an 18-wheeler to stop the truck.
The Desperado is Bodine,(Rex Smith of STREETHAWK), who robs from the bank that repossessed his oil rig, his house and his life. He is a modern day Robin Hood as he gives the money he takes to street people and other unemployed oil workers. No one wants to give him up. Then he mets the daughter of the banker that destroyed his life. Soon Ms Devane is the Desperado's getaway driver. Things change for the 'good bad guy' when he randomly shots a bank guard, and Ms Devane discovers she has been duped. Bodine shots a cab driver in his desperate flight to freedom but now the citizens who were on his side are also trying to capture him. He foolishly makes the wrong choice when cornered by the Knights.
Three night club owners are killed within six weeks of each other. All killed with the same gun. The sixth killing comes on the same day as the anniversary of Lt. Beaumont accidently killing a 14 year-old-boy. The Knights discover a garbage collector is behind the killings. Beaumont is setup as a silent partner of a new club. When the collector pushes her take his offer, she says she has a better deal. Unfortunately she uses the phrase ""Case closed, cerrado,"" that she also used at a news conference earlier in the week and is recognized as a cop. She is grabbed and forced into the alley. There she wrestles free, but is lured into a similar dark alley as when she killed the teenage boy. She kills the collector as he comes up behind Joe at the end of the alley.
The Knights happen upon a ransom drop in progress. Teddy & Frank Stark decided to kidnap the daughter of Houston's wealthiest woman. Unfortunately as the Knights soon find out, the woman's wealth crashed when the oil boom went sour. When the ransom drop fails, the Stark Brothers contact a local radio DJ, Lois Smoke, and made their demand again. In the money exchange, Lois pulls the girl from Starks' van, but is pulled in herself. Shortly after it crashes into a wall, and Frank, the smarter one of the two, dies. Teddy grabs Lois and goes into a broken down building. It is a cool ending with Joey going in the back and Levon crashing through the front to rescue Lois Smoke.
An attempt is made on an evangelist's life. At first the suspect is another evangelist. Soon it is narrowed down to a young man who works for Rev Summerfield's wealthiest contributor. The Knights hide Summerfield and his wife at Levon's former pastor's farm. While at the young man's house, the Knights intercept a call from a man who says, 'you must finish your mission.' The Boys race back to the farm, killing the man as they save the Summerfields. It is discovered that the son of the contributor wanted to be the sole beneficiary of his father's estate. He did not want to share it with any church.
The Boys are put in charge of a man getting an early prison release. The public and Levon are not happy for the man he killed was a prominent businessman. The man, Jessup, says he was framed by co-workers. While Jessup visits his sister, the Boys disperse a mob outside her apartment. Jessup slips out and is later found dead. The Boys are suspended because they were responsible for Jessup. Still they hunt for the evidence his sister said was being mailed to her. Jessup's co-worker's send a man to the sister's place to also wait for the evidence. The Knights get their man - unfortunately, since they violated their suspension while being suspended, they were put on suspension again!
Joe and Levon come face to face with the homeless in this episode. Chicken has a new cook who lives in an abandoned high-rise with her fiance, who is missing. The owner of the building isn't aware anyone is living in the building and arranges to have the building burned so he can collect the insurance money. The first explosion is near the area of Elizabeth and her kids. The Knights race to save her before the building is lost.
No overview is available.
It is Christmas in Houston, and once again Sgt Gutierrez is tracking someone from Mexico. This time the missing is a kidnapped baby. It turns out that an unscrupulous lawyer gets babies wherever she can for her private adoptions. Estaban takes the baby from the adoptive parents and heads back to Mexico, only to be caught near the border and held for identification. When the adoption parents arrive, they also see the anguish of the baby's parents and what has happened to them since the baby was taken. In the end, the baby is returned, and the adoptive parents are invited to Chicken's Christmas party for local orphans.
Joey is sitting in a bar without a date when a pretty girl makes a play for him. He soon learns she has charged $300 on his credit card that he supposedly allowed with a nod of his head. When he and Levon go looking for the girl,Neely Lloyd, they find a dead girl in her apartment. It turns out the bartender and Neely are scamming partners, and are on the run because they scammed the wrong person - a mob collector. Who is also in trouble for losing the wrong money. They find Neely as she is setting up her next mark. In this episode, we also learn that Levon's father is an alcoholic and he only contacts Levon once a year on his birthday.
A man who has lived in Oman most of his life returns to Houston after his father is killed during a robbery. In the airport parking lot a man tries to rob Sandhurst, and Sandhurst gives him Middle Eastern justice. He cuts off the man's hand, and writes an Arabic letter in blood on the man's forehead. One of the things stolen from his parent's home is a gold handcrafted necklace. As the Knights track Sandhurst, Sandhurst tracks the robbers, killing anyone who may have touched the necklace. The showdown comes in a shop that deals in Middle Eastern art. A shop the fence had asked to find a buyer for. A little side story woven into this, is Levon agreeing to talk to Eric Kincaid about the 'birds and the bees.' Levon discovers that Eric is way ahead of him.
A young man who works for Councilwoman Sonia Zamora is killed by a hate group. At the scene the group leaves is a white hand painted on a wall. When one of the group's members fail to kill an assigned 'target,' the Knights get their first lead into the group. But the leader lures Joe and Levon to a pawn shop and as the Boys leave they are fired upon. They find a freshly painted white hand on the wall of the shop they were just in. The Councilwoman is an out-spoken advocate for alien's rights, so the leader of the hate group decides the best thing is to take her out. He dies in the attempt.
The Knights are teamed with a detective who is used to working solo. He assists Joe and Levon in a raid on a warehouse, and ends up saving LaFiamma's life. However, Lundy feels the man is really putting all their lives at risk with his tactics. The man, Dan Stocker, seems suicidal. His son overdosed several years ago, and at that time it was discovered that Stocker was working both sides. The death of his son was related to the dealings he had, still has, with a known drug dealer. In the final shootout, Dan takes a bullet meant for Lundy, and dies in Lundy's arms. The detectives and other officers console a young woman Dan was just getting to know - by telling him he died a hero. (Used with permission JoeyPare/Houston Knights Roundup. www.geocities.com/hk_roundup )
No overview is available.
Using a tip from Chicken, Joe & Levon raid a warehouse and discover cash hidden in cases of 'Cajun Spice.' The man they are seeking isn't there so they go to one of the bars he owns. There Joey meets Angie Duval who he later discovers is the niece of the man they are seeking, Charlie Beaupre. After Chicken's car explodes with one of his young delivery boys inside the Knights attempt to put Chicken under protective custody. Chicken however has other ideas. Without realizing it, Angie helps narrow the field as to who is trying to frame Beaupre and take over his business.
Joe and Levon wrestle with a man who has been exposed to radiation. Joe did not like having to give up one of his best suits when told by a government official that all clothes were to be burned while they were scrubbed down. The boys learn that a radioactive stone was stolen from some medical equipment. In the background of this storyline is a persistent reporter who is looking for a story. After another man dies from handling this stone, the Knights realize this is far more dangerous than the government man told them. In the end, the government tells the Boys that nothing may be said about any of this, but the Boys quietly take the reporter aside and tell her an anonymous story which has happened in more places than Houston.
No overview is available.
This episode is about the senseless murder of a quiet, suburban family. The only surviving member is college student, Aaron Frost, who stayed at his girlfriend's house that night. He has no idea why anyone would murder his family. But as the Knights begin their investigation they discover that Aaron's tuition is being funded by Steve Kayden a member of a local crime family. They also learn that Kayden is having problems inside his organization. Aaron knows who killed his family, and he in turn kidnaps Kayden's father and kills him. The Knights discover that Aaron has been doing money drops in the Cayman Islands for Kayden as he travels back and forth from Harvard. Aaron is no match for Kayden who kidnaps Aaron's girlfriend Mickey, when his hitman fails to kill Aaron. A tip leads the Boys to the warehouse where Mickey is hostage and Aaron is facing Kayden's gun. In the final moments Mickey realizes that Aaron really doesn't care for her at all. The Knights change the odds and bring down
Three teenage boys pull off a burglary in a small grocery store that one of the boys had worked at. When the safe is open they discover a huge stack of bills wrapped in brown paper. They grab the money and take off. The Knights are in the area when the store's silent alarm goes off and catch one of the boys as they escape, but store owner refuses to press charges. It turns out the stolen money is fake, and the mob sends in a 'button man' to tie up loose ends and take care of the teens. The Button Man kills one of the teens, and uses another to draw out the third one. The ending comes in a shoot-out between the Button Man and Joe on the 19th floor of a building under construction.
The opening scene is a funeral. Levon is standing off to the side watching a man bury his mother. As the man walks back to his car, Levon attacks him! Lundy is sure this man is responsible for the death of his wife. Everything floods back about Caroline jeopardizes his present relationship with Jamie Kincaid. Beaumont tells Levon to back off the case, but Lundy can't. He and Joe track Corliss to a cabin after the man escapes his protective custody. But the man who really engineered the attempt on Lundy, Harrison Taylor, also sends men to the cabin. A stunned Lundy stares into the cabin, where Corliss lays dead and his partner injured. Joey tries to convince Taylor's secretary to find them the evidence they need. At first she refuses but later does. The evidence sends Levon directly to Taylor as he attempts to leave the roof of his building by helicopter.
The Vietnamese community is up in arms when three of their immigrants are murdered. All clues point to a Vietnam veteran with a history of violence. Neither the tight-knit community nor the vets are interested to cooperate with the police. When the Knights go to talk with this veteran, Joe and the man end up in a stand-off, each man aiming a gun at the other. A nurse who served with the man, helps to talk him down. Later as the Knights talk with the nurse and others, they discover the doctor who has been counseling these veterans has been interested in every aspect of killing someone. The veterans say the doctor is more violent then they are. The doctor goes to pick up the nurse because he thinks she is attracted to him but when she refuses him, he threatens to kill her. Joey kicks in her door and kills the man.
