Tom Skerritt plays Dude Donaldson: dressed as rodeo clowns, he and an accomplice rob a rodeo (rather brutally, killing half-a-dozen people). Cannon is summoned to figure out what's going on, after authorites spend 6 weeks and come up with nothing. There's a home movie taken at the time of the robbery, in the vicinity of the buliding... Cannon and the others watch this film over and over, like the Zapruder film, and eventually it dawns on Cannon that the clowns may be involved. He tracks a clown suit to a Texan who died in Vietnam the previous winter... the man's widow (Sharon Acker) is less than forthcoming... though her young son (Vincent Van Patten) gives Cannon some leads... Skerritt took the suit from the widow's barn and used it in the robbery. Skerritt goes to Acker's house and threatens her and her son against saying anything to Cannon...Cannon senses what's going on, and after almost being snipered by Skerritt...finally subdues him with a bear hug.

If it isn't one thing, it's another: a bank manager's mistress is killed, and Cannon finds that's not the end of it.

Unexpected overhead in the trucking business as costly loads are hijacked, and private detectives murdered.

A wry tale with a twang and a twist: was the country singer's plane crash accidental or not?

The son of a gubernatorial candidate is kidnapped.

A deceptive premise: small town citizens harbor a thief on the promise of a cut.

The latest thing is a runaway on the lam.

A perfect frame for a cop.

A murder is witnessed, but the body disappears.

A newly-discovered heir comes home, and finds you can't get blood from a stone, and you can't take it with you.

A closed case gets reopened and leads to further consequences.

A bridegroom's father-in-law suspects him.

Should the weapons manufacturer be judged by its bookeeper?

Cannon helps a supposed political refugee.

A policeman injured in a payroll robbery asks Cannon for help.

A bad day at the track leaves a race car driver with a taste for vengeance.

Mike Tampa owns a vineyard in northern California... his land alone is worth $2 million, but he loves wine-making and is not considering selling. His father started the vineyards, handed them down to him, and he hopes that his son Johnny Tampa will be the third generation. Mike Tampa, however, has been the victim of three murder attempts—in the last one, his brakes were tampered with, and he barely survived when he took his car down a mountain road. At this point, his secretary calls on Cannon—secretly, because the stubborn Mike has refused to do anything. Cannon is brought in to investigate. We learn that Johnny Tampa had only been re-united with Mike two years ago... after not having seen him for 20 years (Mike and his wife went through a bitter divorce 22 years prior and she took their son down to San Francisco). Cannon suspects that Johnny may be pulling a con and that he is not really Mike's son. The winery accountant says that they had Johnny checked out by a PI down in SF n

Prison doctor and experimental pressures.

An ex-con is blackmailed into crime.

Larry Bolinger, a charismatic young man, cons the youth of a quiet town into his cult.

A pilot's apparent suicide leads to plans for a military putsch by a predatory flock.

Heat and light: a textile manufacturer is suspected of arson and murder in the death of his wife and the destruction of his factory.

Murder will out; an under-the-counter arms merchant is unmasked.

A young prisoner is forced to do the bidding of a gang boss.