Masquerade (TV series)


Masquerade is an American espionage television series that aired for a few months on ABC in late 1983 and early 1984.

Synopsis

Considered an amalgam of ' and The Love Boat, the tongue-in-cheek series starred Rod Taylor as Mr. Lavender, the leader of "Operation Masquerade", a top-secret branch of American Intelligence that conducts missions using ordinary civilians, recruited for their anonymity and their specialized skills. Two trained field agents, Casey Collins and Danny Doyle are assigned to chaperone the amateur spies. This concept was essentially identical to Call to Danger, a series concept that had been attempted with three unsuccessful pilot films in the 1960s and 1970s, the last two starring Mission: Impossible's Peter Graves.
The Love Boat comparison stemmed from the show's casting of a different ensemble of well-known actors each week, much as Love Boat populated its episodes. The first act of every episode depicted the recruitment of a new group of agents, which was invariably followed by a briefing by Mr. Lavender aboard his private plane, ending with Lavender saying, stone-faced: "Welcome to Operation Masquerade".
The budget was a reported $750,000 an episode.
The series debuted with a 90-minute pilot film, followed by 12 episodes before the series was cancelled. This was Kirstie Alley's first television series after her debut in ' the previous year. Country singer Crystal Gayle performed the theme song.
Ratings were weak, and attempts to improve them by changing the time slot did not work either.

Ratings

SeasonEpisodesStart DateEnd DateNielsen RankNielsen RatingTied With
1983-8413December 15, 1983April 27, 19847812.0"NBC Friday Movie of the Week"
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Episodes