After being terrorized by Scott Jacoby’s Bad Ronald, in the cult classic tv film of the same name, one would think that actress Cindy Fisher would be a bit leery around charismatic, misunderstood strangers. I would further assume that this would especially apply to mysterious figures played by actor Judson Scott, a man whose piercing blue eyes and knife sharp cheekbones always spelled imminent and inexplicable celluloid danger. But, hey, a job’s a job…and playing a questioning spirit named Sunset on the Fallen Angel episode of the short lived, early ’80s series Strike Force had to be a fun one.
For those uninitiated, Strike Force, a rare failure for the Aaron Spelling conglomerate, specialized in bringing a sleazier, Dirty Harry vibe to Friday evenings on ABC in the 1981-82 season. Plotlines, over the first few entries, revolved around revenge fueled families who gruesomely decapitated their victims & perverted, low-class charmers who kidnapped, raped and murdered beautiful, unsuspecting women. Led by stern jawed Robert Stack, the regular (crime solving) force also included the prolific Dorian Harewood, former Australian pop star Trisha Noble, the handsome Michael Goodwin (who went onto the even shorter-lived nighttime soap The Hamptons) and favored character actor Richard Romanus, often utilized as the team’s comic relief.
In accordance with similar outings, Fisher’s moneyed Sunset is sensationally whipped by Scott’s Johnny Lee here, after refusing to take part in a Manson style massacre he orchestrates. Fleeing him and his devoted cult members, she soon holes up with the Stack’s crew on a small farm. As Johnny and his associates wage war upon them, further casualties mount. (The handsome Shannon Presby, best known as the lead in Sean Cunningham’s The New Kids, plays a sadistically reverential follower who is arrested by Noble and Goodwin.)
Of course, after the bullets stop flying, Sunset and the show’s regulars, unsurprisingly, have survived the opposing onslaught. But as the end credits fade, it remains ambiguous, a la Patty Hearst, to what degree the show’s shamed heiress with have to pay for her initial involvement with these sadistic degenerates. Nicely, the emotional resonance of this question is amplified by the work of Fisher, who brings both vulnerability and edge to her creation. *
* (Fisher would play a more traumatized version of this character a few years later on an episode of TJ Hooker. In Trackdown, a 4th season episode of the show, her young married is captured by Richard Hatch’s sadistic criminal, giving her another showcase role and a place of note in ’80s television entertainment.)
Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!
aturally, many performers known for their work in horror films, made their way down the glitzy corridors of 
Gloria’s fellow cohorts, meanwhile, include Lucy (Anjanette Comer), a well-to-do alcoholic, Dorian (Joan Hackett), an insecure animal lover whose fantasies are her ultimate undoing, Mary Grace (Julie Sommars), a tender soul being held emotionally captive by her invalid mother and the intelligent and determined Joy (Denise Nicholas). Unfortunately, in a wildly politically incorrect move, Joy, the sole black woman of the group reveals, in a bizarrely detailed monologue, that she has blown all her educational and career opportunities through some sort of nonchalance and emotional disregard, to settle for the life of a high class prostitute. There is an interesting Tennessee Williams vibe to the exchange and Nicholas fills it with a coat of truthful bitterness and resolve, finding honesty where another may have just filled it with the anger of a minority actress forced to play another lady of the night. Equally strange, yet not as troubling, is an early scene with Mary Grace and her mother. In a weird twist, the mother communicates only through her nurse who determines what she is thinking through glances and then relays their intent to Mary Grace. It’s a strange and unsettling bit that fills this piece with a bit more artiness and presence than your run of the mill made for television affair.
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