CODENAME: FOXFIRE (1985) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

CODENAME: FOXFIRE (1985) – The often star-crossed career of Joanna Cassidy hit another bump with this short-lived imitation of Charlie’s Angels. Joanna’s attractiveness and wild laugh had been paying decreasing dividends ever since the demise of her 1970s cult series 240 Robert.     

This program, which lasted just one pilot movie and seven episodes, starred Cassidy as Elizabeth “Foxfire” Towne, a former intelligence agent fresh out of prison for a crime she didn’t commit. The president’s brother – eight years before Roger Clinton and four years after Billy Carter – recruits Foxfire to lead a special espionage team for Top Secret missions.

African American con-woman Maggie Bryan (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and tomboyish stunt driver “Danny” O’Toole (Robin Johnson) were the other two members of Elizabeth’s team. Henry Jones played their butler Phillips. THE Joel Schumacher co-created the series and also wrote a few episodes.

Towne, formerly Thorne, and her subordinate agents worked through presidential brother Larry Hutchins (John McCook) in order to give the president himself plausible deniability. This made Larry both Bosley and Charlie to the team’s “Angels.”

You’d think this was a fail-safe formula for at least a few seasons of spy adventures but execution is everything and nearly every aspect of Codename: Foxfire seemed to be presented by amateurs or low budget schlockmeisters. Hopelessly lame visual effects didn’t help, either. 

The series lasted only from January 27th to April 26th, 1985. Happily for the relentlessly likable Joanna Cassidy, she would go on to many more roles of varying quality on television and the big screen.

THE EPISODES:

SLAY IT AGAIN, SAM (January 27th) – (Pilot Movie) First Brother Larry Hutchins recruits the former intelligence agent Elizabeth Thorne, just out of prison for a crime she didn’t commit, to lead a special missions team. She is renamed Elizabeth Towne and given the codename Foxfire. Liz leads an operation to find and take down the man who framed her, a former romantic partner who has gone renegade and is working for enemy nations. 

TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME (February 8th) – Five bank presidents get taken hostage. Liz and company are assigned to the case. 

LA PALOMA (February 15th) – Our heroines must guard the president of a fictional South American country. Written by David Peckinpah and co-starring Cesare Danova and Dee Dee Pfeiffer.

THAT OLD FAMILIAR FACE (February 22nd) – Liz and company are sent in to investigate when the wife of a prominent American scientist becomes convinced that her husband has been replaced by an imposter. Joanna Kerns played the wife Carol Bachman.

PICK A HERO, ANY HERO (March 8th) – A waitress (Courteney Cox) gets caught up in a covert weapons deal. She goes on the run, so Liz and her team are tasked to find her before the arms dealers do. 

ROBIN’S EGG BLUES (March 15th) – Liz is assigned to romance an international jewel thief in order to snatch a diamond he just stole. That precious gem contains microfilm regarding Soviet secrets. Tim Reid had a supporting role.

GOODBYE, MR. MICROCHIPS (March 22nd) – When a precocious student from the Wendell Academy stumbles on a Top Secret Air Force project, Liz and company are sent into action.

SEND ME NO ORCHIDS (April 26th) – An international assassin codenamed the Black Orchid is trying to kill Liz. 

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