Hour long series based on the real life exploits of Neward, N.J., Detective David Toma. Starring in the title role is Tony Musante as the plainclothes detective in the vice squad of a big city police force. Co-starring is Simon Oakland as Inspector Spooner, to whom Toma reports. Despite massive evidence pointing to ex convict Eddie Siatti as the killer of a city councilman, Toma continues to investigate after learning of the victim’s ties with organized crime.
Dave Toma is about to begin a dangerous investigation of a gangland killing in which two citizens were killed by mistake when Inspector Spooner informs him he will be joined on the case by a university student observing police procedures. Student Larry Tapscott qualifies as a volunteer for the police departments field experience program and his request to observe Toma in action is approved by Spooner. Despite initial annoyance with the added responsibility Toma soon takes a liking to the youth whose interest in the case proves to be far more than academic.
Despite the protests of the victim's wealthy neurotic mother, Toma investigates the kidnapping of an 18-year-old boy he once picked up for possession of marijuana.
Despite a warning from his superior, Toma takes on a partner for his stakeout of a young woman who may lead him to a fortune in cocaine.
Drama about a novelist who tries to cash in on an accidentally-acquired shipment of syndicate heroin. Cain is the novelist who finds that dealing with drug pushers can be hazardous to the health.
Dave Toma poses as a cop hating misfit to get close to a young sniper barricaded atop a building in the crowded section of the city. Armed with guns and grenades, Billy Haskell is taking shots at citizens from his fortress in a downtown section. As Inspector Spooner is about to order police in a helicopter to dispose of the sniper, Toma persuades the inspector to let him join Billy in the guise of an ally. The plan backfires when Toma, pretending to be a hate-ridden social rebel, is dismissed as a freak by Billy, who ties him up to keep him out of the way.
Dave is suspected of beating a hoodlum after being set up by the head of a crime syndicate.
Toma travels abroad, posing as a professor of archaeology, to track down the source of a ring smuggling narcotics into the United States in artifacts purchased by American tourists. The series is based on the exploits of real-life Detective David Toma. In Madrid, Dave acquires a figurine of a fertility goddess known as the Bambara bust, which he soon discovers has been filled with bags of heroin. When he meets Marian Dalton, an attractive widow whose little girl is carrying a huge toy clown, the detective befriends the woman, whom he believes is linked with the smugglers. He arranges to return to the States aboard the same ocean liner with her.
Toma poses as a priest in order to obtain information from female victims about an attacker whose trademark is a ski mask. Toma moves to a new day and time. Tony Musante plays the cop (based on a real-life cop) and he and his wife, using pen names, wrote this original story. It's about a rapist and Toma's friend (Steven Keats), changed since Vietnam duty. Is the friend also the rapist?
Dave infiltrates a baby selling racket after he and Patty are offered a new-born infant with an enormous price tag.
Toma infiltrates a gang planning a multimillion-dollar bank robbery by posing as a crooked stunt driver, only to face a life-and-death challenge of proving his fake identity to increasingly suspicious gang members. When hoodlum stunt driver Jim Androtti is killed and Inspector Spooner succeed in keeping his death a secret, hoping that the gang leader, Ralph Connell, who has lost his driver, will attempt to enlist Androtti. The plot works. After spending weeks in the hospital, recuperating as Androtti, Dave is recruited by Connell on the day of his release. But Connell and his gang later become suspicious when the undercover cop pushes too hard for details of the caper. One of a two-part drama
Having assumed the identity of a crooked stunt driver in order to infiltrate a gang planning a multimillion-dollar burglary of go along with the entire caper when a change of plans thwarts all possibilities of his communicating with Inspector Spooner. Gang leader Ralph Connell has worked out every detail of a weekend break-in of a bank in the town of Stillwater. As driver-mechanic, Dave has been able to send in the license number and a description of the car to be used, but Connell makes a last-minute switch in vehicles. With Toma at the wheel, the gang shakes the police, leaving Spooner and Patty Toma in the dark as to the whereabouts of Dave.
Dave Toma poses as a stevedore on the East Coast docks to investigate corruption and a murder rising out of strife between rival factions of a union local. During a union election one of the supporters of Max Fabian, an honest man, is killed. Toma's investigation proves a mysterious powerful syndicate ruler will stop at nothing to halt Max Fabian from being elected.
Outraged by his nephew's addiction, Toma uses various disguises to reach a major narcotic czar.
Toma agrees to give protection to an underworld chieftain whose execution could trigger a gangland war and endanger innocent citizens. A powerful mobster, who is believed to have ordered the execution of a rival syndicate leader, seeks Toma's help to save his own life and prevent a major gangland war. Things have been relatively peaceful between competing "families," when underworld patriarch Gustav Petroan is suddenly machine-gunned to death by four unknown assassins, all of whom escape. Shortly after, Toma, is contacted by Petroan's long-time enemy, Alex Cordeen, who asks for police protection from those who believe he ordered the execution. Dave is persuaded to cooperate when Cordeen explains that contract on himself could trigger an all-out gangland war in which many innocent citizens might be victims.
Distraught over the apparent gangstyle killing of his pal Joey, Dave Toma joins forces with a newsman to find out who actually killed their mutual friend. Joel Horowitz is a sentimental, small-time bookie known on the streets as "Joey the Weep." He is moved to tears when Dave tells him about the drug deaths caused by syndicate heads dealing in dope. Shortly afterward, Joey is murdered and Toma allows a newspaperman named Windy to work on the investigation with him. As Toma gets deeper into, the case, he grows increasingly suspicious of Windy's motives, especially when he learns that Windy is in trouble at home and at work.
Toma impersonates the former cellmate of a young ex-con suspected of murdering a policeman who accidentally killed the youth's girlfriend during a raid.
Toma poses as a wealthy Italian businessman to nab the woman owner of a ring of young drug addicted prostitutes
Toma's marriage is threatened when his wife Patty refuses to reveal information about a shakedown operation in which her one-time boyfriend is involved.
Discovery of an eyewitness to a recent murder prompts a reaction from the prosecutor that sends Toma on his own search for the truth. Toma is working on a murder case and discovers a real estate fraud which leads to a grand jury investigation of a corrupt politician.
A ghetto vice kingpin plans to wipe out his competition by making a deal with the deranged leader of a crime syndicate; guest Abe Vigoda. Toma enlists the aid of a powerful pimp to stop a mob takeover of prostitution and avert a potential race war.
While patrolling a riot-ridden neighborhood, a heavily armed police officer (Claude Akins) opens fire on a seemingly harmless looting suspect.