Midnight Caller

Jack Killian retires from the San Francisco Police Department after accidentally shooting his partner, Rusty, in a crossfire situation. He's drawn back to the world of the living by an offer to be a late night talk radio host. A serial killer begins calling Jack, explaining the assassinations and Jack's inadvertently pulled back into the crime fighting world.

Jack receives a phone call from a kidnapper who informs Jack that he has taken a suspected murderer into his personal custody so he won't hurt any more women. He continues to use Jack's show as a forum for his demands. A supposed suicide is revealed to be an elaborate murder cover up.

"After It Happened" is a 1988 episode of the NBC television series Midnight Caller. The controversial episode tells the story of a bisexual man who is deliberately infecting people, including series lead character Jack Killian's ex-girlfriend, with HIV. AIDS and LGBT rights activists disrupted filming, citing concerns over the negative portrayal of bisexual and HIV-positive people and fears that the show would make people with AIDS the targets of violence. Series executives made some changes to the script in response to these concerns, but activists were still displeased. "After It Happened" performed well in the ratings but received a mixed critical response. Actress Kay Lenz received an Emmy Award for her guest-starring role as Killian's ex-girlfriend Tina. NBC aired a follow-up episode in 1989 in which Tina is near death. This second script, "Someone to Love", was written in consultation with some of the groups that protested "After It Happened" and was much more favorably received.

A female friend of Jack's from the police force is wounded in the line of duty and her partner killed. They seek comfort in each other's arms to grieve the deaths of their partners. Jack finds himself in the crossfire of the mob hit man trying to silence the only witness to the crime.

As Jack's luck would have it, he goes into a bank to cash a cheque and finds himself a hostage in a bank robbery. The media and the police wait out the negotiations, all with a personal interest in Jack's well-being.

Jack, Devon and Billy are forced to examine their belief in capital punishment when they are invited to broadcast the final hours of a death row inmate's life.

Jack's mentor on the police force is reunited with him under horrific circumstances. His policeman son-in-law commits suicide after calling Jack's show. Jack finds himself involved in a convoluted plot of understanding why, which has him questioning the ethics of some fellow officers.

Jack's show is plagued by a series of on-air murders and locations of dead bodies. Jack's intuition tells him it's a serial killer but he has a hard time convincing Lieutenant Zymak.

When Devon becomes a kidnap victim of the call-in killer, Zymak and Jack work together to discover that the crimes are a twisted vendetta against Jack and KJCM.

In an effort to help his friend whose son is being kept alive by life support, Jack showcases the issue of euthanasia on his show.

Devon is stalked by a man who targets her during a traffic jam. She and Jack are forced into a situation that causes them to contemplate moving their relationship from platonic to something more.

The drug trade hits too close to home for a San Francisco neighborhood. Their personal war on crime becomes the focus of Jack's show.

A very pregnant Devon hosts a fundraiser with Jack as the object of the bachelor auction. Her college classmates attend; however, one by one, they fall victim to a murderer. Jack, Zymak and Deacon all work the angles of this case, with the evidence pointing firmly at Jack's new girlfriend.

Our man Billy Po is featured in this episode of racial tensions that are spawned in Little Italy. Billy is attacked after a date with his girlfriend, which leads Jack into an investigation of the death of a young Chinese immigrant.

The sudden death of Jack's surrogate father leads Jack and Deacon to investigate the policies of the nursing home in which he was residing. It turns out that once people move in, their stay is usually quite short.

Jack is offered a new job, which he considers as Devon prepares to sell KJCM and move to Tahiti with the father of her child. We are introduced to Nikki Malloy in this episode and the prospective new owners of KJCM. Jack and Devon deal with their imminent separation by arguing with each other every chance they can get.

Devon struggles with the sale of KJCM, wanting to ensure that her employees are well taken care of. She and Jack continue to lock horns, until push comes to shove in the delivery room! Jack has to decide whether to stay on at KJCM or move on to greener pastures.

Nikki shows who's the new boss by insisting Jack cover a prison riot near San Francisco. Jack arrives at the prison and becomes part of a chosen delegation to go inside and witness the atrocities the convicts are rebelling against. Unknowingly, Jack becomes the target of one of the inmates, who has a personal score to settle.