Dalton's Code of Vengeance (1985)

Overview

Code of Vengeance is the umbrella title for a series of American television programs, produced by Universal Television, that aired on NBC in 1985 and 1986. Charles Taylor stars as David Dalton, a Vietnam veteran who has become a drifter, travelling across the United States in a camper van with only his dog for company. Dalton gets involved in the personal lives of the people he meets and uses his fighting skills to help them win justice. The Dalton character was created for All That Glitters, a planned spin-off series from Knight Rider, and a backdoor pilot aired as a second-season episode of that series in 1984. The character, originally a suave government agent, was retooled as a lone drifter for a new pilot, which aired as the television movie Code of Vengeance, to surprise ratings success in June 1985. A subsequent series, to be called Dalton, was ordered by NBC for midseason, then production was cancelled after just four episodes were completed. These aired in the summer of 1986 as a television movie titled Dalton: Code of Vengeance II and as a part of a fill-in series called Dalton's Code of Vengeance.