A Guide to Once a Thief, Compiled by Carla Jane
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The Characters of Once A Thief
Sandrine Holt - LiAnn Tsei
Sandrine Holt is LiAnn Tsei. Like Mac, LiAnn was adopted by the Godfather of the Hong Kong Mafia because she impressed him in their first meeting: she picked his pocket. She was raised as Mac's sister, but ended up his lover - for awhile, anyway. Li Ann tried to run away from the mob with him but their plan fell apart. LiAnn and Mac were separated during their escape, she was captured by the authorities and soon recruited by the Director, not knowing that Mac was still alive. While working for the Director's special task force, she fell for a fellow agent, Victor Mansfield. Thinking Mac was dead, she became engaged to Victor. When Mac reappears, LiAnn is torn between the two men. She soon calls off the engagement to Victor, realizing that she isn't ready to marry anyone.
Ivan Sergei - Mac Ramsey
Twenty-five-year-old Ivan Sergei is Mac Ramsey. Mac is a streetwise, reckless young man with an attitude. Abandoned by his real parents, he was adopted by the family in charge of the Hong Kong Mafia, the Tangs, and raised to be a master art thief and a martial arts expert. Mac spent most of his life stealing for them.
He became weary of his role in the mob when Tang put him in charge of an arms smuggling operation. With his lover and partner Li Ann (also Tang's adopted daughter), Mac tries to run away from the family. In a foiled attempt to steal money to finance their escape, Mac and Li Ann are separated. After being held secretly for 18 months in Hong Kong, Mac is recruited by the Director. Aside from the standard issue weapon he carries in his side holster, Mac has a P-10 strapped to his left leg.
Nicholas Lea - Victor Mansfield
Thirty-five-year-old Nick Lea is Victor Mansfield. All Victor Mansfield ever wanted to do was to be a cop. But not only does corruption in the force rob him of his dream, he also finds himself framed and thrown in jail. His fellow narcotics officers, fearing his honesty, planted drugs in his locker. In May of 1992, the Director recruits Vic into her shadowy agency. She took him out of the jail with the understanding that she and the agency now owned him.
Before Mac Ramsey is recruited by the Director, Vic and LiAnn are already working together in the agency. Their friendship matured into a romantic relationship and eventually a marriage engagement. He ends up partnered with both reformed thieves. Vic's law enforcement training balances the criminal talents of Mac and LiAnn, the other members of the lead action team. However, after the three work together for several months, LiAnn decides not to marry Vic or return to Mac.
The agency provides vehicles for their lead agents. Vic's choice is a red Dodge Ram. Aside from the standard issue weapon he carries in his side holster, Vic has a Smith and Wesson snubnose in his right boot.
Jennifer Dale - The Director
Forty-two-year-old Jennifer Dale plays The Director, Mac's, Li Ann's, and Victor's "twisted leather freak" of a boss. During one episode a friend's daughter called her Aunt Di and another Director calls her Kid, but she is never properly named. The Director is a mysterious woman, and she likes it that way. Only those at the top ranks of her covert organization really know anything about her. Her role as commander of the team consisting of Mac Ramsey, LiAnn Tsei, and Victor Mansfield sometimes made her seem like the mother (yeah, right, more like a out of control aunt) of the unit.
She regularly manipulates the three agents in various ways in order to achieve the results she wants. She has their apartments bugged and she knows all the sordid details of their lives somehow. (Jennifer Dale's sister Cynthia is also an actor. Cynthia Dale starred in a series called Taking the Falls; Nick Lea played her boyfriend in one episode. And Jennifer also guested on Taking the Falls - as Cynthia's sister!)
Recurring Characters:
Howard Dell is Agent Dobrinsky, the Director's right-hand man. He's big, bad, and not to be messed with. His hobby is collecting cars; he has 20 of them, all of which Mac had to wash in one episode. He plays piano.
Greg Kramer is Agent Murphy, one of the Agency assassins known as "The Cleaners." Partnered with Camier.
Julian Richings is Agent Camier, one of the Agency assassins known as "The Cleaners." Partnered with Murphy.
Vicky Pratt, a Toronto body builder and model, is Jackie Janczyk, the daughter of a mob boss who inherits his position after he dies. Jackie inherited the Janczyk crime family from her father when she was still in college. After an incident with the Tang family, Jackie was arrested and her family dissolved. Several weeks later, she was recruited by the Director to work for the agency. Currently, she is an agent-in-training who sometimes works with Mac, Li Ann, and Victor. Jackie is starting to make goo-goo eyes at Dobrinsky.
Nathan Muckle (James Allodi) is as crazy as anyone who'd work for a shadowy government agency. As the Agency's librarian, Nathan has access to a whole range of information. Nathan always has conspiracy theories to share, usually with Vic.
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Pilot TV Movie - John Woo's Once A Thief
Aired August 24, 1997--Directed by John Woo
Serving as the pilot for a Fox television series and produced by Canada's Alliance Productions, it is a remake of Woo's 1991 godawful caper movie that reeked of commercialism. Mac Ramsey (Ivan Sergei), Li Ann Tsei (Sandrine Holt), and Michael Tang (Hong Kong heartthrob Michael Wong) are the three 'children' of a powerful Hong Kong underworld crime lord (Robert Ito), who took them in and raised them when they were young.
Since they were children, Mac Ramsey and LiAnn Tsei have worked as thieves for their godfather (Robert Ito), the head of the powerful Tang family mob in Hong Kong. Michael, Tang's true son, also works with the pair. Although Mac and Li Ann are deeply in love, Michael wants Li Ann for himself--not necessarily her love, just her.
During an attempt to rob the Tang family's cash storage to finance their runaway, Michael intercepts Mac and Li Ann. In the ensuing firefight, the lovers are separated. Li Ann believes that Mac is killed in the explosion.
After spending 18 months in a Hong Kong prison, the Director (Jennifer Dale) comes to recruit Mac for her crime-fighting task force. Because Mac has little choice, he agrees to relocate to Vancouver and join the unit. Once he arrives, he finds that Li Ann is also working for the agency. But unfortunately for him, she has moved on and is now engaged to Victor Mansfield (Nicholas Lea), a fellow agent.
To say that Mac and Vic hate each other is putting it mildly. The Director soon informs LiAnn, Mac, and Vic that they will be the unit's lead action team. Their first case involves the protection of wealthy banker Robertson Graves (Alan Scarfe), a behind-the-scenes criminal financier. Apparently, Graves has been scared by someone very powerful, a rare occurrence. The Director wants to her team to find out who that someone is. The trio soon finds that Michael himself has come to secure the Tang's foothold in Vancouver, and that it is something the team must now prevent.
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The series:
None of these episodes seemed to be clearly dated except for the last, which obviously takes place in December. I'm going to assume this whole series occurs throughout the year of 1997, before the actual airing dates. Let's see. Mac was in jail for 18 months. That would put the events at the beginning of the pilot somewhere around late 1995, early 1996. So, LiAnn could have hooked up with Victor in the middle of 1996. So maybe the warehouse blew up in December of 1997. Vic joined the agency in 1992, before LiAnn showed up.
Episode 2 - "The Big Bang Theory"
Aired September 15, 1997--Directed by David Wu
After the Director throws Mac out of the team, he is left without a job and without a purpose. But he soon finds a seductive young Chinese woman who convinces him to steal a computer disk for her. What Mac doesn't know is that the disk contains a list of Chinese dissidents who will be executed if the Chinese government gets it.
Episode 7 - "Rave On"
Aired September 22, 1997--Directed by J. Fawcett
The agents take turn "babysitting" a troublesome young party-girl--who has a personal tie to the Director--to find the people responsible for killing a number of teenagers.
Episode 4 - "Trial Marriage"
Aired September 29, 1997--Directed by Peter D. Marshall
Mac and Li Ann go under cover as a married couple bidding to buy a deadly virus while Vic tracks down the man who created it. After a taste of marriage, Li Ann announces to Victor that she no longer wishes to get married.
Episode 5 - "Art of Death"
Aired October 6, 1997--Directed by S. Dimarco
The team must work with a blood-thirsty Japanese agent, McCoy Matsumoto (George Takei), to track down a woman who sees death (and near-death) as the ultimate art. But Mac and Li Ann are biased against Matsumoto because he had once arrested them when they were younger.
Episode 6 - "Mac Daddy"
Aired October 13, 1997--Directed by J. Woolnough
The trio is assigned to conduct surveillance on a reported arms shipment. But upon inspection of the cargo, they find that it's human organs that are being shipped. Meanwhile, Mac is visited by his father, who has a proposal to make and a secret to keep.
Episode 3 - "Wang Dang Doodle"
Aired October 20, 1997--Directed by T.J. Scott
The team must track down and stop three innocent people who are part of an agency experiment gone wrong. Their time grows shorter when the agency orders Murphy and Camier to eliminate the gang despite the Director's strenuous objections.
Episode 10 - "It Happened One Night"
Aired October 27, 1997--Directed by J. Fawcett
LiAnn is assigned to protect an Arabian prince who is targeted by two kidnappers from his home country. Meanwhile, Mac and Vic are ordered to improve their working relationship. However, they get into a situation that lands Mac in jail and Vic in great peril.
Episode 8 - "Drive, She Said"
Aired November 10, 1997--Directed by David Wu
Rivals Mac and Vic are forced to go into hiding in Mac's apartment under Dobrinsky's guard. LiAnn and the Director, along with Murphy and Camier, try to track down Nicholas Love, the Director's former commander, who has been killing the agency's male operatives.
Episode 9 - "Jaded Love"
Aired November 17, 1997--Directed by Peter D. Marshall
A woman from Vic's past turns up and asks for his help. The trouble centers on a stolen Thai national treasure. Vic finds himself in the middle of a vicious triangle. In one corner is a woman (who claims to have sold it legitimately). In another corner is a ruthless art collector (who claims that it was sold to him first). In the third is a Thai government agency (that will do anything to retrieve it).
Episode 12 - "Wedding Bell Blues"
Aired January 17, 1998--Directed by David Wu
The director sends Mac undercover to work for a beautiful young woman suspected of stealing the plans for a small nuclear explosive device. But during the investigation, Mac and the woman falls in love and eventually decide to get married. Meanwhile, Vic and Li Ann trace the other side of the deal to a vampire cult.
Episode 11 - "That Old Gang of Mine"
Aired January 24, 1998--Directed by T.J. Scott
Captured during a routine mission to steal information from a local mob, Mac improvises and uses the Tang family name to pave his escape. But when the Tang Godfather (Robert Ito) finds out that someone has been using his name, he personally comes to uncover the impostor. Enter Jackie Janczyk, as the villain in this piece.
Episode 14 - "The Last Temptation of Vic"
Aired January 31, 1998--Directed by T.J. Scott
Vic gets tangled in a mob war after the Director suspends him for dereliction of duty. Meanwhile, Mac and LiAnn find out that someone they recently arrested has come back to the surface. Jackie's back, now she's on the director's team.
Episode 15 - "Mama's Boys"
Aired February 7, 1998--Directed by J. Paizs
Mac falls for a young woman who is part of an off-beat family of jewel thieves. Against the Director's orders, Mac and Vic infiltrate the family. Meanwhile, LiAnn and Jackie try to track down the man behind the scenes. (This one has the revolving handcuff scene. Mac twists Vic around so he's about to take the bullet instead of Victor.)
Episode 17 - "LiAnn's Choice"
Aired February 14, 1998--Directed by Peter D. Marshall
With both Mac and Vic in grave peril, LiAnn chooses to aid Vic first. Even though Mac manages to get out of trouble himself, he questions LiAnn's choice. The Director sends Mac and Vic off on a different assignment while LiAnn is ordered to take a vacation. Mac and Vic guard an old-time crime figure who's about to spill all he knows about the Yorks, a family of illegal arms dealers. Jackie goes undercover as a personal fitness instuctor to get close to the head of the York family.
Episode 18 - "True Blue"
Aired February 21, 1998--Directed by David Wu
Vic crosses paths with the corrupt cops who ruined his police career by framing him for dealing narcotics. Meanwhile, Mac has his hands full protecting a pretty fashion designer.
Episode 19 - "Kangaroo Court"
Aired February 28, 1998
Kangaroo court is in session as a mysterious someone starts using an electric chair to kill off crimnals who have slipped through the justice system. Mac and Vic determine that the twisted Judge Block (David Ferry) is behind the killings. Meanwhile, Jackie tries to get close to the prime candidate for the judge's vigilante justice. But, unknown to all three, they too have been targeted by the judge for escaping their own prison sentences. Valerie Buhagiar appears as the judge's demented sidekick.
Episode 1 - "Little Sister"
Aired March 7, 1998--Directed by Peter D. Marshall
Vic runs into his homeless little sister, Alice (actress-Caterina Scorsone) and is forced to take her in. Meanwhile, the team must find the group responsible for a number of bombings in the city. But things become complicated when Vic's little sister gets herself involved.
Episode 20 - "The Director File"
Aired March 14, 1998--Directed by J. Paizs
The Director becomes the victim of a fellow director who is planning to use her to assassinate the "Head" of the agency. Meanwhile, a pair of Federal agents (Elk Diller and Wanda Clancy) visit Nathan Muckle(the agency's librarian) to investigate an "alien abduction."
Episode 16 - "Shaken Not Stirred"
Aired March 21, 1998--Directed by Steve Dimarco
Mac, Vic and Li Ann team up with a suave, but aging, British agent to capture an elusive Irish terrorist leader who vanished years ago after his group killed several people in a bombing. Tensions rise when Mac and Vic suspect that Li Ann and the agent are getting too closely involved.
Episode 13 - "Politics of Love"
Aired March 28, 1998--Directed by Peter D. Marshall
A love-struck politician (who sits on the government council that funds the Agency) insists that Mac be assigned for his protection after an assassination attempt. Meanwhile, Mac wrestles with his inner desire for LiAnn.
Episode 21 - "Family Reunion" (formerly "Intern Show")
Aired April 25, 1998--Directed by Allan Kroeker
Part 1 of 2. Li Ann and Mac learn that the Tang godfather (Robert Ito) has returned, with plans to sell off the family's illegal enterprises, but they're even more shocked that their foster brother Michael (Michael Wong) is alive. The Tangs' top lieutenant, feeling betrayed, decides to usurp the vacuum of power by killing the Godfather. When he is murdered, Michael is determined to see his father's dream realized. Or is all just a twisted plot to get revenge on his two siblings?
Episode 22 - "Endgame"
Aired May 2, 1998--Directed by David Wu
Part 2 of 2. The Director finds herself stalked by a professional assassin (Gerald Pucci) who once worked for the Agency even before Murphy and Camier. The team finds an unlikely ally when the Director seeks the assistance of Michael Tang to flush out the assassin. But when it all comes down to a mission where the Director voluntarily puts her life in danger, Mac becomes greatly concerned that Michael may have his own agenda. This episode seems to be set in December since the Director is out looking at Christmas trees at one point.
As of May 2, 1998, the series has concluded.
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