Cagney et Lacey

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.

I enjoyed this show from the pilot movie with Loretta Swit of MASH fame as Chris Cagney,single and hungry to carve a career in the police force and Tyne Daly,as the sensitive,married mother of two,Mary Beth Lacey,both women recently promoted from uniform to plain clothes and dealing with highly chauvinistic male colleagues. When the TV series started,Tyne Daly was back but an actress with striking blue eyes,Meg Foster was now playing Chris Cagney. Apparently there was a feeling that the two women were now too alike,now,I haven't seen any of the Meg Foster episodes for 20 years,so can't really remember them but always felt Foster got a bit of a raw deal,when she was axed after just six episodes. Anyway,the series came with a catchy new theme tune and Sharon Gless now as Chris Cagney,who funnily enough,was always the production team's first choice for Cagney and the matching of Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless was excellent and according to Miss Gless the secret of playing Cagney was "talking tough and wearing pink!" The writing and acting was always first rate,one of my favourite episodes was "Burn Out" when Lacey,all set for a much needed vacation has her leave cancelled at the last minute and goes AWOL and ends up on a beach and after spending time with a woman of a similar age,who has drifted all her life,Lacey realises although she sometimes has to juggle so many things,she loves her life. Cagney and Lacey were not best friends,they could argue very forcibly,like the time when a member of the public was shot by accident,Cagney said he had a gun,Lacey didn't see it,leading to Cagney saying Lacey was just a cop for the money,not like her for a career,she later had to apologise for that one. I hope this entire series comes out on DVD soon,including the Meg Foster episodes too,I highly recommend it.

This show was unique in that it was the first time that two basically average looking women played the leads in a TV show that was not about the fact that they were just average looking women. The show was also ground-breaking in that both detectives in the partnership were women - smart, capable women. Women had gradually been integrated into TV police forces over the 15 years prior to this series, but they were usually part of a crime-solving team such as on "Ironside". The balance in this show was not through the well-known old cop/young cop formula. Instead, both detectives were 30-something women. The contrast came in the form of their marital status and their personal situations. Lacey was married and a mother, and Cagney was single.

There was a pilot and six episodes during the 1981-1982 season starring an actress other than Sharon Gless as Detective Christine Cagney. In the 1982-1983 season the show settled into the dynamic that made it so popular and which most people remember.

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 and Sharon Gless did a great job with Cagney and Lacey in the 1980's. Not only did Cagney and Lacey have a great theme tune but it has great plots and dialogue throughout.

Like a lot of great cop shows, this series presented it's characters as real people with real emotions. Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless were aided by a brilliant supporting cast throughout.

The show wasn't just about police work. Both Cagney and Lacey had their fair share of personal problems outside their job ranging from alcoholism to conflicts of interest with their job. We got to seem them convey a whole range of emotions throughout but we still got to see them do some wonderful detective work. I actually think they were both convincing as detectives.

All in all, this was a great series, possibly the greatest buddy cop series of the 80's.