AllMovie

First telecast September 14, 1971, "The Priest Killer" was originally identified as the two-hour opening episode of Ironside's fifth season. In truth, it is the second pilot film for the TV cop series Sarge, starring George Kennedy as cop-turned-priest Father Samuel "Sarge" Kavanaugh. Though based in San Diego, Sarge teams with wheelchair-bound San Francisco detective Robert Ironside (Raymond Burr) to track down an unknown serial killer who has murdered two priests. Though the motive for the murders is at first unknown, given the presence of Anthony Zerbe in the supporting cast it isn't difficult to ascertain the identity of the killer. The weekly, hour-long series version of Sarge would premiere one week after "The Priest Killer", on September 21, 1971.