The Pageant

"The Pageant" reunites Robert Reed and Maureen McCormick four years after THE BRADY BUNCH came to an end, again cast as father and daughter, but in a much more serious vein. Reed plays ruthless businessman Mike Logan, whose 18 year old daughter Jenny is viciously raped and brutally beaten in a parking lot. Logan hires Dan Tanna to find the attacker, who has struck repeatedly over the previous month, always teenage blondes, all connected to a beauty pageant where Bea (Phyllis Davis) handles the choreography. Reed's initially vengeful father is overcome with emotion as Dan shows him evidence of the rapist's latest crime; the girl's death convinces his daughter to come clean and identify her assailant. Bea herself must help set a trap for the culprit (Michael Swan, who never speaks a word), an electrician recently transferred from another state. Phyllis Davis was joined by her former co-star from 1970's "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls," the equally gorgeous Dolly Read, here billed under her married name, Dolly Martin (she is the widow of LAUGH-IN's Dick Martin). We get to hear Inga Swenson without the accent she used on SOAP and BENSON; there's also a short cameo as a lifeguard from still handsome Peter Brown, former star of LAWMAN and LAREDO.