in the episode "Death Fare". Billy Drago, who would go on to play Frank Nitti in the feature film version of Stack's TV series, The Untouchables, played a killer in the 90-minute Strike Force pilot. Laurence Fishburne, future star of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Matrix and its sequels (as Morpheus), and Academy Award nominee for What's Love Got to Do With It, guest-starred in the episode "Humiliation". Richard Herd, best known in the science fiction community for his role in the 1983 NBC miniseries V and the 1984 sequel V: The Final Battle, as John, the Visitors' Supreme Commander, and on Star Trek: Voyager as Admiral Owen Paris, the father of Tom Paris, guest-starred in the episode "Kidnap". Tab Hunter played a killer in the episode "Night Nurse". David McCallum, best known for his co-starring roles in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and NCIS, played an international hit man with a long-standing grudge against Murphy in the episode "ICE". Sam Melville, who co-starred in another Aaron Spelling cop series, The Rookies, guest-starred in the episode "Internal Affair". Lynne Moody played twin sisters in the episode "The Victims". Jeanette Nolan guest-starred in the episode "Sharks". Paul Picerni, who played Stack's second-in-command, Agt. Lee Hobson, in The Untouchables, played a doctor in the episode "The John Killers". Raymond St. Jacques also guest-starred in the episode "Turnabout" as an FBI agent. Elizabeth Stack, Robert Stack's real-life daughter, appeared in the episode "Lonely Ladies". Don Stroud played a mobster out to kill Murphy in the episode "Turnabout". Philip Michael Thomas, future star of Miami Vice, guest-starred in the episode "The Victims". Episodes Reception Although initially popular, the novelty of the series quickly wore off; only 19 episodes were produced, plus the 90-minute pilot. According to Todd Gitlin's 1983 book Inside Prime Time, Strike Force finished a dismal 76 out of 105 shows in the Nielsen ratings for the 1981–82 season. Another factor in the series' demise was the competition: ABC pitted Strike Force against the successful CBS soap-opera Falcon Crest, which had, as its lead-in, the then-number one show on television, Dallas. Home media The first episode of Strike Force was released on video in North America in the late 1980s. As of 2018, there has been no official DVD release of this series, though there have been several requests for its release, and bootleg copies have circulated in the "collectors market" for the