Cagney & Lacey

Unlike most cop show on TV, "Cagney and Lacey" did not try and dazzle us with car chases, mind-bending mysteries to be solved or sex kittens posing as police officers (mind the nails!) . It was always about the characters. It was their experiences and reactions to the case and the crime around them, the pressures of the job, the conflicts with each other, that was the focus of the show. And the "Perps", or criminals, had their story, too. At its best, the crime-of-the-week drew you into an issue, a POV , a social problem, whose solution was dramatically argued through the reactions of the police officers involved - primarily the leads, of course.

Besides the writing, what made this work was that we cared about the leads, and we cared what they thought. We especially cared what happened to them. Outstanding, often stunningly realistic, acting from Sharon Gless (Christine Cagney) and Tyne Daly (Mary Beth Lacey) made us feel like we knew these 2 people, and they made us root for them. Their acting rapport was such a lucky happenstance; they complimented each other's styles and characters beautifully. You can't buy that kind of performing chemistry.

Can you tell I'm a fan? Yes, if you want your crime drama with a large dose of humanity, wit, and intelligence thrown in with the obligatory car chases, check it out where you can!

Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly redefined female relationships. No, they were never lovers and the thought had never occurred back in the 1980s. They were partners, allies, friends, and comrades in a man's profession. They were unlikely heroines. Mary Beth was married to Harvey with two sons and a daughter. Christine was the troubled single woman. Partnered together, they formed a dynamic duo with the likes of Starsky and Hutch and Miami Vice but with estrogen and a women's touch. As Cagney and Lacey, the audience realized that women can be more serious and intelligent than the other female duo of Laverne and Shirley. No, this show was serious, thought-provoking, and entertaining. We loved Cagney and Lacey and it was a show that it's audience fought to bring back to the airwaves with passion. Unfortunately, shows like Cagney and Lacey probably wouldn't come back. The idea of having mature, plain women like Daly and Gless is gone. Although the show garnered plenty of honors including Emmys for both Daly and Gless, it is hard to imagine that nowadays a show like Cagney and Lacey wouldn't be more Police Woman and less serious. On screen, Daly and Gless proved to be a dynamic duo. You knew you had two strong actresses giving the performance of their lives as female cops. Gone was the glamor and present was the seriousness that women should be taken more seriously. Unfortunately, actresses like Daly and Gless who are terrific American actresses of the highest caliber who can turn any guest appearance into an Emmy nomination should not be forgotten and discarded like yesterday's garbage. Daly and Gless proved that audiences didn't always go for glamorous, attractive, but a realistic portrayal of women in a man's department. It's still a man's world but Cagney and Lacey proved that they had what it took to make it there after all.

Tyne Daly (Christy) played Detective Mary Beth Lacey. Sharon Gless, (The trials of Rosie O"Neill) was Detective Christine Cagney. This was a show about two women who worked together and became good friends outside their job. Harvey Lacey,Tony LaTorre, was a nice and understanding husband.This show was really well done and we enjoyed watching it. It is always good to see women playing that type of role. There is one episode that stuck with me. It was about Hispanic illegal aliens in the United States living in horrible conditions, even in the attic of a building. They were chasing them and purposefully missed them, by saying: "there is nobody here." That was a nice episode where they showed a lot of compassion.

Most from the 80's will throw out Hill Street Blues as the greatest but to me there were others that were equally good but just never got the recognition. This was one of those shows.

This show really hit hard with issues like drug addiction to killers to the gay issue and even teenage prostitution. It ran the gamut. And it was no white-washed make everything rosy by the end of the show typical of usual TV shows of the day.

From Dt. Cagney, the single can never find the right guy who happens to be beautiful and hard nosed to Dt. Lacey, who was a wife, mother and housewife...on the side. Both characters gelled together. Couldn't have been a better yin and yang type duo. Both were women but both were totally different in personality.

I think my biggest complaint about the show is that it got to "political" towards the end of its run. Too many shows where the topic was preachy. You know, where they'll deal with a topic where it's pretty clear what their agenda was. I don't care for those types of shows as I can make up my mind on issues without any help.

To me, this was a great cop show of the 80's. Don't be off-put by the show having 2 female leads. If you are, you'll miss out because this was a really good show in it's day.

Cagney and Lacey was one of the best acted, best written, best conceived police shows in TV history. Ranking alongside Hill Street Blues and Morse in terms of its quality, I would suggest it is one of the finest television series ever made, greatly surpassing most TV made today. Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless kept this series going so beautifully, with never a dull moment, and never anything less than perfect performances. So instinctive, so moving, so engaging and so charming - the two are among the great television partnerships. The gritty, honest dynamic those two wonderful actors generated is a beautiful achievement. It is actors like this that make television occasionally magnificent. What a shame we don't have anything to compare these days to this.