Fan Favorite

Scarecrow and Mrs. King

Dead Ringer (2/6/84)

47:34 minutes. Amanda helps hide a Hungarian defector (Martha Smith in a dual role) who is a dark version of Francine.

• Season "Unknown"
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      The Mole (2/13/84)

    Agency superior Blue Leader assigns Lee and Amanda to find a mole in the organization.

    ON FANCAST

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      Dead Ringer (2/6/84)

    Amanda helps hide a Hungarian defector (Martha Smith in a dual role) who is a dark version of Francine.

    ON FANCAST

    PLAY

  • PLAY

      Savior (2/27/84)

    Lee stages his own defection to capture illegal arms dealers; guest Paul Gleason.

    ON FANCAST

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• Kate Jackson - Angel to Scarecrow to Health Scare

  • Before actressChristina Applegate announced her shocking battle with breast cancer at only 36 - complete wwith its heroic surgical updates, Charlie's Angel actress Kate Jackson had been there, done that. Kate Jackson survived two, yes two, bouts of breast cancer in '87 and '89, before it was a subject that could be reasonably aired on network news. After a "partial mastectomy" and heavy doses of radiation, Jackson , 39 at the time, fought back in a courageous campaign to save her life worthy of any Angel's crime-fighting episode. The Southern belle from Alabama also told her story to all who would listen, raising awareness about breast cancer and its treatment.

    Cancer survivor Kate, now a sexy 59 going on 60 Oct. 29, had not been so lucky with the Charlie's Angels television series. The show's producers declined to renew her contract in '79, and when Charlie's Angles then jumped the shark and was pulled from the air during the '80-'81 season, it could be argued that axing Sabrina A/K/A the Smart One for a double succession of bimbos to fill her role was partly the reason for the runaway international hit series' ultimate cancellation. This would have shaken most actors, but Kate Jackson had a long TV resume dating back to roles on TV classics like Dark Shadows. Undaunted by being tossed from TV heaven by Charlie's Angels execs, Kate Jackson made her appearance next in a very clever series called "Scarecrow & Mrs. King" with Bruce Boxleitner.

    Scarecrow & Mrs King, which teamed a "housewife" with an international spy (Boxlietner), had its roots in the TV power couple genre. The male/female teams like Hart to Hart (Robert Wagner & Stephanie Powers), The Avengers in '66 with Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in the girl role, as well as 99 to Maxwell Smart and its nod to MoneyPenny and Bond, yes, 007 James Bond.

    A series leading lady again, Kate Jackson as Mrs. Amanda King used her Sabrina-Angel brains to crack cases after Boxleitner shows up with the proverbial "mysterious package" in an accidental hand-off at a train station. Lee Stetson (Boxleitner), international spy, drafts the brainy homemaker into service in what will become her double life as an agent/operative. From its '83 pilot episode to premiere to its four-year end in '87, the cancellation of Scarecrow & Mrs. King was hastened by an 800 pound gorilla tag team of super stars who made the male/female intrigue thing their own.

    Moonlighting with Cybil Sheperd and Bruce Willis were the odd detective couple that killed the Scarecrow, nailing the coffin on Mrs. Amanda King and Lee Stetson with a dynamic plot summary that included some of the most inventive gender-charged footage on screen at the time. That loud sucking sound was the whirlwind of TV viewers rushing to catch David and Maddie as they went at it undercover/s on a rival network.

    But Mrs. Amanda King and Lee Stetson prevail on Fancast, because Scarecrow & Mrs. King is a very clever sitcom about two unlikelies that are two of the most likeable people in business.

    Watch Kate Jackson and Bruce Boxleitner in full length episodes of "Scarecrow & Mrs. King" on Fancast.com.

• SCARECROW & MRS. KING: "WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

  • Kate Jackson's TV series career sizzled with Charlie's Angels (Sabrina), but it was Scarecrow & Mrs. King that saw her as also leading lady - and also provided proof positive that Jackson did not need any blonde Angel wallpaper as a backdrop to compete with her excellent acting skills.

    Cast opposite stalwart good guy Bruce Boxleitner, actress Kate Jackson fought crime as an undercover suburban divorcee operative hired by a murky outfit generically dubbed "The Agency." In a bit of Hollywood insider irony by the TV show's writers, their outline for Kate's character, Mrs. Amanda King, included a bogus side-job, actually a cover for her spy-jinx at... drum roll... the International Federal Film Company.

    As an embedded (pun intended) housewife spy, Amanda was bound by ye olde oath of silence. For every episode as specified in the series' episode guide, this meant even Jackson's nosy mother Dotty West (Beverly Garland) could not crack the code on her crazy double life as a single-Mom slash agent. Amanda was basically the original soccer Mom with two kids and one big secret, who ends up getting hitched to her very own international man of mystery Lee Stetson (Bruce Boxleitner).

    When Scarecrow & Mrs. King was pulled off the air in '87 due to the long shadow of rival show Moonlighting, among other reasons, Kate Jackson and Bruce Boxleitner went on to bigger and more complicated TV plots.

    Here's Fancast's keyhole peek into what happened to the Scarecrow cast members since the TV series' international spy episode guide was tossed into the dreaded network secret shredder:

    KATE JACKSON

    If you are a Kate Jackson fan, you are not alone. Worldwide, this former Angel has rocked male audiences since the 70's, including her divorced MILF role on Scarecrow in the 80's. Today, actress Kate Jackson remains that hot chick with "40's Glamour Chic" that stole producer Robert Evan's heart (assuming he had one at the time). She is even rumored to be reteamed with the existing elder angels for a reunion of that classic T&A PI TV show. But mostly, Kate Jackson is seen as a spokesperson for breast cancer, as a two-time survivor herself, and - though thrice married -- is one of the untarnished icons in Hollywood's TV family. In one odd episode of Family Guy, her voice is featured as... Mrs. King. In 2007, Kate Jackson had a cameo on Criminal Minds.

    BRUCE BOXLEITNER

    Since his spy run as Lee Stetson, actor Bruce Boxleitner has gone undercover in Hollywood politics. Second wife Melissa Gilbert (Little House on the Prairie) has been a top gun at the powerful Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and her husband was nominated for key spots right along with her. With a career in show business that spans the pen-ultimate episode of Gunsmoke in '75 to last year's Showtime movie Bone Eater (co-cast with Hill Street Blues alum Veronica Hamel), the Illinois-born actor continues to take roles as cop types rather than criminals.

    BEVERLY GARLAND

    If you've ever stayed at a Beverly Garland Hotel, developed by the late land baron Fillmore Crank, you've stayed in the accommodations named for Beverly the actress. When the stage-named Fillmore Crank died in '99, actress Beverly Garland never married again - who could top that man in gifting?! Meanwhile, as Dorothy "Dotty" West on Scarecrow, Beverly Garland was out of a job when the Scarecrow television series was canceled. Somehow she managed to survive anyway (read: rich husband), including evergreen TV Mom roles from Remington Steele to Scarecrow to Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. A Santa Cruz native, Beverly Garland still hangs ten in the house she and Fillmore bought in the 60's, which was way fancy and worth a small fortune now.

    Watch full length episodes of Scarecrow & Mrs. King here on Fancast, and snoop on your favorite TV actors and actresses of today.