Winter Kill

Winter Kill is a 1974 American made-for-television mystery-thriller film directed by Jud Taylor and written by John Michael Hayes and David Karp. It stars Andy Griffith as Sam McNeill, the police chief in a small resort town in the mountains of northern California. The film is mystery-suspense drama about McNeill's attempts to solve a string of local serial killings linked by messages left at the scenes of the crimes. Nick Nolte played the role of Dave Michaels.

The movie (which aired on April 15, 1974 as an ABC Movie of the Week) was the second attempt by writer/propducer Lane Slate to adapt the 1972 movie They Only Kill Their Masters into a TV series. The movie starred James Garner as Abel Marsh, a Police Chief in a small, beachside community.

The first adaptation attempt was 1973's Isn't It Shocking?, starring Alan Alda as police chief Dan Barnes and the setting relocated to Oregon. Next, Griffith stepped in as the now-renamed Sam McNeill (Andy Griffith) in Winter Kill and then again in 1975 with two episodes of Adams of Eagle Lake (this time, the character was renamed Sam Adams). Two more reworkings followed in 1976 and 1977 starring Griffith, with the character's name restored to Abel Marsh: The Girl in the Empty Grave and Deadly Game.