SCARECROW AND MRS. KING

Lee 'Scarecrow' Stetson is an agent with 'The Agency'.

Amanda King is an unemployed divorced mother of two. She is not an agent. Not yet, anyways.

The Agency is a member of the American intelligence community and based on evidence shown frequently throughout all the adventures of Stetson and King, it is a very large and powerful and well known establishment. Whether it is actually the CIA, which has been referred to as The Agency all of its existence, is not known and really does not matter. If it is, fine. If it isn't, it is certainly right up with in scope.

Stetson, the 'Scarecrow' in the title of this series, is a very handsome and dashing looking man in his early 30s. He has been an operative for several years, long enough to be considered by his supervisor in the Operations portion of the Agency to be one of his top agents, if not the very best. That does not mean, though, that he is a super-spy, always successful and always debonaire as he does it. He is truly quite capable but he does find himself on the wrong side of a beat-down on occassion and he is very much human in that he does make a mistake or two. Which will explain how he comes to be connected with Mrs. King.

King, the Mrs. King in the title, is, as mentioned above, unemployed. She is a very good looking woman also in her early 30s. She has been divorced from her ex-husband for a bit over a year and has just recently re-entered the dating game and has sort of new boyfriend but while she obviously likes him because she is seeing him, she is also not at all anxious to get serious again any time soon. While she wants and definitely could use a job, she is busy with her two sons, ages roughly 9-12, Philip and Jamie. Helping out at home is her live-in mother, Dotty, herself a bit of a force to be reckoned with.

In the first recorded adventure, we are able to see how experienced agent Stetson and unemployed mom King became a partnership. Stetson would not call it that, at least not at first, and does bristle at having to work with anyone because he prefers to work alone and not risk losing another partner. King on the other hand seems like someone who is more than a bit interested in something exciting in her life and having found it in that mission with King would not mind a bit more thrills.

The two will slowly become a team and deal with foreign spies, smugglers, arms dealers, assassins, Little League, the PTA, and other usually stressful and sometimes deadly activities.

     Being a nut for spy shows even back in the early 80s when I was in my early 30s, I was certain that I would like this new show when I read about it. Okay, what absolutely sealed the deal for me was that fact that it starred Kate Jackson. While most likely remembered her from Charlie's Angels, I remembered her from the late 60s' Dark Shadows and then a couple years later, The Rookies.

     Bruce Boxleitner I knew a bit from How The West Was Won but it was Ms. Jackson that attracted me to the show.

     I stayed because I really, really enjoyed the show and the chemistry between the two stars. The plots were light fare that did not require too much concentration, allowing me to spend my time appreciating the dialogue which really had a lot of good repartee.

     Reviewing numerous of the episodes to refresh my memory for this entry, I was pleased that the show still held up. Yes, it was 40 years old but good banter is good banter and this show had it.