Millionaire cat food company owner Felix Randolph (Werner Klemperer) is mauled to death by his pet tiger who has been let out of its cage. His four ex-wives, each of whom he suspected were trying to kill him, hire Houston. Unless the real killer is found his will stipulates that his pet cats will inherit his entire fortune.
In the spirit of murder mystery novels the victim is a hated person (this one treats cats better than people) a lot of the other guest stars wanted dead for a variety of different reasons maximizing the suspense up until the end. The victim is also killed in an offbeat way all to lighten the mood of what should be something tragic.
Another ironic murder mystery with a tongue-in-cheek tone in a first season episode along with Houston as a kind of Hugh Hefner P.I. sniffing around women and treading his spurs on chic environs. The campiness here even has our hero warding off a potential assailant with a branding iron.
Sitcom casting again too. You have Zsa Zsa who was on many of the most scatterbrained shows in TV history including F-Troop, Gilligan's Island, Supertrain etc and Sonny Bono is playing her martial arts expert bodyguard. You also have Colonel Klink as the murder victim. The scene near the end where the suspects are all assembled looks like Hollywood Squares.
This is one of the goofiest episodes of the entire series. But it lampoons itself, the wealthy and the celebrity class so well it somehow works as a biting satire of detective shows and famous people ripe for a send-up. Numerous episodes during the first season tried the same thing but failed.
There does seem to be this recurring theme of women on the show except for C.J. being presented as flighty morons with loose morals or hapless victims who couldn't tie their own shoelaces. The only ones that might be good enough to rope Houston and marry him aside from C.J. are usually decades older than him.
Houston is also nearly hit by a moving vehicle (both a truck and a car this time) again that tries to run him down. My guess would be that Lee Horsley's stand-in specialized in that kind of stunt but they just did it to death on this show.
Barbie Benton portrays one of the ex-wives - a no-talent singer/actress whose career has been paid for by her rich husband. It is both a thinly-veiled version of Pia Zadora as well as Ms.Benton herself.
In the spirit of murder mystery novels the victim is a hated person (this one treats cats better than people) a lot of the other guest stars wanted dead for a variety of different reasons maximizing the suspense up until the end. The victim is also killed in an offbeat way all to lighten the mood of what should be something tragic.
Another ironic murder mystery with a tongue-in-cheek tone in a first season episode along with Houston as a kind of Hugh Hefner P.I. sniffing around women and treading his spurs on chic environs. The campiness here even has our hero warding off a potential assailant with a branding iron.
Sitcom casting again too. You have Zsa Zsa who was on many of the most scatterbrained shows in TV history including F-Troop, Gilligan's Island, Supertrain etc and Sonny Bono is playing her martial arts expert bodyguard. You also have Colonel Klink as the murder victim. The scene near the end where the suspects are all assembled looks like Hollywood Squares.
This is one of the goofiest episodes of the entire series. But it lampoons itself, the wealthy and the celebrity class so well it somehow works as a biting satire of detective shows and famous people ripe for a send-up. Numerous episodes during the first season tried the same thing but failed.
There does seem to be this recurring theme of women on the show except for C.J. being presented as flighty morons with loose morals or hapless victims who couldn't tie their own shoelaces. The only ones that might be good enough to rope Houston and marry him aside from C.J. are usually decades older than him.
Houston is also nearly hit by a moving vehicle (both a truck and a car this time) again that tries to run him down. My guess would be that Lee Horsley's stand-in specialized in that kind of stunt but they just did it to death on this show.
Barbie Benton portrays one of the ex-wives - a no-talent singer/actress whose career has been paid for by her rich husband. It is both a thinly-veiled version of Pia Zadora as well as Ms.Benton herself.