Hunter (1977 TV Series)

Hunter was a 1977 American television series that aired on the CBS television network. It was a secret agent series about James Hunter, a former spy for the U.S. government, who is pulled out retirement and recruited to work for a covert counter-espionage team. The series also starred Linda Evans and and Ralph Bellamy. A midseason replacement for the cancelled Executive Suite, the show failed to find an audience and was cancelled after just 9 episodes.

Lysenko Syndrome (Season 1, Episode 3)
A mad scientist has developed a way to brainwash people into becoming sleeper assassins. He plans to murder both Hunter and Admiral Young, an influential U.S. Navy official who is the uncle of Marty (Evans). Knowing that Marty can get close to the Admiral without suspicion, the scientist and his goons cause her car to crash and then whisk her off in an ambulance to the hospital- instead, she is taken to their lab and brainwashed to kill her uncle after Hunter is killed.

In TV-detective fashion, Hunter quickly realizes that strange things are going on, especially after the bad guys test out Marty's programming- placing her into a trance and sending her off to the Hollywood Bowl. Before Hunter and Marty can get to the bottom of things, another brainwashed assassin shoots and wounds Hunter, triggering Marty and sending her off to shoot the Admiral. Luckily Hunter recovers and is able to stop the assassination by tricking Marty into shooting a mirror instead of her uncle.