Masquerade

The mission: The NIA must use average people as agents because a bitter ex-agent has written a book exposing most of the United States’ top secret agents. In the debut show, Russian agent “Wolfen” is killing off agents one by one and nearly bumps off our hero, Taylor. “Wolfen" is played by British bad boy Oliver Reed. ‘Operation: Masquerade’ is put into effect as common people get involved in a scam to discredit Wolfen in the eyes of his Russian superiors. As Taylor says ‘‘We must make him appear a lazy, incompetent, womanizing agent. Sort of like the Soviet version of ‘Arthur.’ He recruits Ernest Borgnine as the plumber, Cybill Shepherd as the actress, Richard Roundtree as the halfback Mean Willie Walters, Robert Morse as a shifty pickpocket, and Austin Pendleton as an actor who is a master of disguises. Howard Da Silva plays a Soviet official.

Lavender sends a courier to deliver some sensitive material. But a man named Marlos kills the courier and makes off with the material. Lavender knows Marlos is behind it so they have to get it back. Part of his plan is stop the sale which is about to take place.

Masquerade Chief Lavender and a group of carefully selected civilians skilled in karate travel to Hawaii to rescue the daughter of a U.S. senator from white slavers.

Lavender and Co. substitute a double for a Russian physicist planning to defect. Susan George and Kai Wulff get the main guest assignments this outing, as, respectively, a female bodyguard and a KGB assassin out to eliminate defectors. Lavender & Co. and their recruits use a “ringer” to impersonate a defecting Russian physicist and thereby convince the KGB hit men they've done their job.

Lavender (Rod Taylor) and his civilian team board a cruise ship on a dangerous mission to capture a traitor and abort the military takeover of a small Caribbean republic.

Casey goes undercover in a Portuguese prison as Lavender and his team work to free an NIA agent carrying a microchip with information on a missing submarine. Guests: Joe Santos, Maggie Roswell.