TV series
If the rules are against you he'll change them. If the odds are against you he'll even them.
Robert McCall is a former agent of a secret government agency who is now running his own private crime fighting operation where he fashions himself as "The Equalizer." It is a service for victims of the system who have exhausted all possible means of seeking justice and have nowhere to go. McCall promises to even out the odds for them.
Watch trailerAvailability
Checked Jul 22, 2026
The Equalizer premiered September 18, 1985. We don't have a confirmed streaming, rental or purchase option yet.
Robert McCall is a former agent of a secret government agency who is now running his own private crime fighting operation where he fashions himself as "The Equalizer." It is a service for victims of the system who have exhausted all possible means of seeking justice and have nowhere to go. McCall promises to even out the odds for them.
Cast, crew and production details
Edward WoodwardRobert McCall
Keith SzarabajkaMickey Kostmayer
Anthony ZerbePhillipe Marcel
Austin PendletonJonah
Saul RubinekJason Masur
Charles CioffiLieutenant Kramer
Melissa Sue AndersonYvette Marcel
Christopher MurneyRudy Bagler
CBSUnited States
Universal TelevisionUnited StatesWatch options above are for the show and may vary by season or episode.
Episode 1
The aide to an ambitious candidate for state senator discovers that her boss is blackmailing the incumbent into endorsing his candidacy.
Directed by Richard ComptonWritten by Lee Batchler, Janet Scott BatchlerGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Laila Robins, Wendell Pierce, Stanley Tucci, E.G. Marshall, Irving Metzman, Maureen Anderman, Jay Patterson
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Episode 2
A desperate high school principal calls on McCall for help in combating the gang responsible for the rape of a girl in the school gymnasium.
Directed by Alan MetzgerWritten by Coleman Luck, Peter McCabeGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, David Strathairn, Keith David, Seret Scott, Reginald VelJohnson, Tito Núñez, Lucy Vargas, Socorro Santiago
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Episode 3
McCall helps a Thai boxer and his girl friend extricate themselves from the clutches of a racketeer with old connections to McCall's former employers.
Directed by Donald PetrieWritten by M.K. LorensGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Elizabeth Sung, Mako, James Hong, Russell Wong, Michael G. Chin, Everett Mendes III, Raymond Moy
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Episode 4
McCall and Mickey try to help a young rock singer escape from her greedy, immoral manager.
Directed by Richard ComptonWritten by Bruce A. TaylorGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Ken Ober, Bruce Payne, Caroline Lagerfelt, Amy Morton, Vitamin C, Terrence Mann, Miles Marek
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Episode 5
Scott learns first hand about the anti-apartheid movement when his girl friend becomes the target of a zealous Afrikaner who believes she's a terrorist.
Directed by James A. ContnerWritten by Robert EiseleGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Kasi Lemmons, Theodore Bikel, Tobin Bell, David Leary, Jihmi Kennedy, Michael Genet, William Zabka
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Episode 6
Mickey Kostmayer is captured when a Company operation fails, and he's turned against McCall using drugs and torture.
Guest stars Keith Szarabajka, Kevin Conway, Richard Bright, Tracy Kolis, Tom Klunis, Christopher Meloni, David Lansbury, David Brisbin
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Episode 7
A gun control advocate whose husband was crippled by a stray bullet seeks McCall's help when she receives threatening phone calls.
Directed by Bradford MayWritten by Wayne Powers, Donna PowersGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Sally Jessy Raphael, Tom Noonan, Barbara Williams, William Converse-Roberts, Stephen James, Bobby Rivers, A.L. Sheppard
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Episode 8
McCall reluctantly agrees to help the wife of a mobster find her kidnapped son, who's a pawn in a game of revenge against his father.
Directed by Paul KrasnyWritten by Tom TowlerGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Austin Pendleton, J. Smith-Cameron, Al Shannon, Randy Danson, Tom Signorelli, Yvonne Wilder, Jordan Gochros
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Episode 9
McCall's reunion with a former lover is interrupted when her medical skills are needed to deal with a deadly virus being carried by a pair of thugs responsible for killing an international arms dealer.
Directed by Bradford MayWritten by Robert EiseleGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Mike Starr, Jenny Agutter, James Tolkan, Randle Mell, Joseph Ragno, Martin Shakar, Harsh Nayyar
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Episode 10
An international crime cartel tries to use a man's estranged son against him when the man refuses to honor their wishes.
Directed by Russ MayberryWritten by Gail Morgan HickmanGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Héctor Elizondo, Katherine Cortez, Mark Margolis, Brad Sullivan, Rudolph Willrich, Jose Edwin Soto, Kenneth McGregor
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Episode 11
McCall becomes the defense counsel when a Company tribunal on charges of treason tries Control.
Directed by Marc LaubWritten by Coleman LuckGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Sylvia Sidney, Roy Dotrice, Sully Boyar, Robert Trumbull, Virginia Sandifur, Kaiulani Lee, Jerome Dempsey
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Episode 12
McCall tries to help a young woman who is one of the victims of a series of robberies directed against the deaf community.
Directed by Russ MayberryWritten by Wayne Powers, Donna PowersGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Mark Boone Junior, Cynthia Nixon, Paul McCrane, Howie Seago, Jon Polito, Jeff Weiss, Beth Ann Bull
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Episode 13
McCall tries to help a woman and her daughter escape from her abusive husband.
Directed by David JacksonWritten by Coleman LuckGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Stephen Lang, Ellen Hamilton Latzen, Gwyllum Evans, Mary-Joan Negro, Jacqueline Brookes, Robert Modica, Kate Dezina
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Episode 14
McCall investigates when a mission worker tells him about several winos who have died from heart attacks enroute to the hospital in paramedic ambulances.
Directed by Alan MetzgerWritten by Jacqueline ZambranoGuest stars Joe Seneca, Robert Joy, Cordelia González, Leonardo Cimino, William Atherton, P.J. Brown, Stephen Payne, Socorro Santiago
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Episode 15
McCall tries to help a girl and her friend, a confused man who claims to an extraterrestrial being hunted by killers.
Directed by Bradford MayWritten by Robert EiseleGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Angela Goethals, Wendell Pierce, George Plimpton, Deborah Hedwall, Michael Moriarty, Bryan Michael McGuire, Alan Brooks
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Episode 16
Scott is kidnapped along with a former Bulgarian agent McCall helped to defect ten years earlier, and later undergoes his baptism into his father's world when he accompanies a team trying to rescue the man.
Directed by Gordon HesslerWritten by Tom TowlerGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Shirley Knight, Brian Bedford, William Zabka, Dennis Boutsikaris, Joe Morton, Robert Lansing, Tom Mardirosian
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Episode 17
McCall's search for a kidnapped Chilean poet gets very intense when he learns the kidnapper killed his father many years ago.
Directed by Marc LaubWritten by Robert EiseleGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Tony Plana, Tim Woodward, Dan O'Herlihy, Pat Hingle, Robert Lansing, Tom Mardirosian, George McGrath
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Episode 18
A cleaning woman works at cross-purposes to McCall as she tries to solve a murder she witnessed.
Directed by Alan MetzgerWritten by Tom TowlerGuest stars Maureen Stapleton, Laura San Giacomo, Richard Hamilton, Chad Redding, Alberta Watson, Michael Wincott, Lewis J. Stadlen, Zach Grenier
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Episode 19
A bitter man tries to get revenge on the men who brutalized his wife but he calls McCall when someone else gets them first.
Directed by Bradford MayWritten by Gail Morgan HickmanGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Robert Joy, Vincent Gallo, John Shepherd, Paul Guilfoyle, Joseph Hindy, Margaret Klenck, Eddie Jones
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Episode 20
McCall answers a call for help from Kostmayer's old neighborhood, where a racist group is harassing a black family.
Guest stars Keith Szarabajka, Michael Cerveris, Laurence Fishburne, Robert Joy, Caroline Kava, Sheila Stainback, Bruce Hubbard, Aleta Mitchell
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Episode 21
McCall helps two sisters whom are the victims of a revenge that has been plotted by a master strategy game player.
Directed by Alan MetzgerGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Elizabeth Berridge, Josef Sommer, Chad Redding, A.L. Sheppard, Lewis van Bergen, Philip Kraus, Nick Bakay
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Episode 22
McCall comes to the aid of a college student who's lost his athletic scholarship and fears disappointing his parents, and turns to drug dealing as a way to make the big money they expect.
Written by Jacqueline ZambranoGuest stars Keith Szarabajka, Ving Rhames, Adam Coleman Howard, Leo Burmester, Joe Morton, Robert Swan, David Harris, Alyson Kirk
Where to watch The EqualizerEpisode information updated Jul 22, 2026
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