Cagney & Lacey is an American police procedural drama television series that aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons from March 25, 1982, to May 16, 1988. The show is about two New York City police detectives who lead very different lives: Christine Cagney (Sharon Gless) is a career-minded single woman, while Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly) is a married working mother. The series is set in a fictionalized version of Manhattan's 14th Precinct (known as "Midtown South").
The pilot movie had Loretta Swit in the role of Cagney, while the first six episodes had Meg Foster in the role. When the show was revived for a full-season run, Gless took over the role and remained in the part for the rest of the show's run and later television movies. Each year during that time, one of the two lead actresses won the Emmy for Best Lead Actress in a Drama (four wins for Daly in 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1988; and two wins for Gless in 1986 and 1987), a winning streak matched only once since in any major category by a show. John Karlen also won the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama in 1986 for his role as Harvey Lacey Sr., and the Cagney & Lacey series itself won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama in 1985 and 1986.
Development Producer Barney Rosenzweig was influenced by the feminist movement through his then-girlfriend Barbara Corday, who recommended to him Molly Haskell's book From Reverence to Rape which analyses depictions of women in film. Haskell's book claimed there had never been a female buddy film, and Rosenzweig sought to make one, a comedy initially titled Newman & Redford (before changing the title for legal reasons). Corday and Barbara Avedon wrote the script. No studio wanted to make the film, so Corday considered taking it to television. Rosenzweig took the script, removed the main plot (leaving only the character development), and took it to all networks, but only CBS was interested.Abramson, Stephen J. Interview with Barney Rosenzweig. Archive of American Television (October 15, 2008).
Cast Actress Loretta Swit played the role of Christine Cagney in the original television movie (October 1981), but was forced to decline the role in the series when the producers of M*A*S*H refused to let her out of her contract. When the movie was picked up as a series, first airing with six episodes as a midseason replacement in the spring of 1982, Meg Foster portrayed the character. When the show was picked up for a regular season in 1982, Foster was replaced with Sharon Gless because CBS deemed Foster too aggressive and too likely to be perceived as a lesbian by the viewers.In 1984, The New York Times reported that "The show lost one of its original leads when, according to various reports, the actress playing Christine Cagney wasn't 'feminine' enough to suit audience researchers." O'Connor, John J. "'Cagney and Lacey': Police Series on CBS." New York Times, 2 July 1984, C14.
CBS executives hoped Gless would portray Cagney as more feminine and attempted to pressure the producers to remake Christine into a more "high-class", snobbish woman from wealthy parents. The pilot had portrayed Cagney as an ex-glamour model. Barney Rosenzweig and Barbara Corday initially refused to change Cagney from a tough, witty, working-class woman. Shortly into Gless's tenure on the program, Rosenzweig and Corday compromised with network leadership. They further developed Cagney's background, explaining gradually in a loose storyline that she may have been born to a somewhat well-to-do professional mother, Maureen, who had a relationship with police officer Charles Cagney (Dick O'Neill), who came from working-class roots. They separated soon after Christine and her brother Brian (David Ackroyd) were born. She was partially raised in an uptown Westchester world, which she appreciated; however, the trappings of the upper-middle social strata sometimes drove her to miss her father's lifestyle, and she and her father therefore established a special bond.
Cagney was a bit quieter and more reserved than her more vivacious and talkative partner Lacey, but could still relate to the world, often with attitudes that could be shared by many.
Character Portrayed by Series TV Movies Detective Mary Beth Lacey Tyne Daly colspan="8" colspan="4" Detective/Sergeant Christine Cagney Sharon Gless colspan="8" colspan="4" Lieutenant Albert Samuels Al Waxman colspan="8" colspan="1" colspan="3" Harvey Lacey, Sr. John Karlen colspan="8" colspan="4" Detective/Sergeant Marcus Petrie Carl Lumbly colspan="1" colspan="7" colspan="1" colspan="3" Detective Victor Isbecki Martin Kove colspan="2" colspan="6" colspan="1" colspan="3" Detective Paul LaGuardia Sidney Clute colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="3" colspan="3" colspan="4" Sergeant Dory McKenna Barry Primus colspan="2" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="7" Desk Sergeant Ronald Coleman Harvey Atkin colspan="5" colspan="3" colspan="4" Detective Jonah Newman Dan Shor colspan="5" colspan="1" colspan="6" Detective Manny Esposito Robert Hegyes colspan="6" colspan="2" colspan="1" colspan="3" Mrs. Friedlander Joan Copeland colspan="1" colspan="11" Female Hudson Yvette Hawkins colspan="1" colspan="11" James Burton James Naughton colspan="8" colspan="2" colspan="2" D.A. Feldberg David Paymer colspan="8" colspan="2" colspan="2" Deborah Nelson Susan Anspach colspan="8" colspan="1" colspan="3" Douglas Trayne Chip Zien colspan="10" colspan="2" Dan Broadbent George Coe colspan="10" colspan="1" colspan="1" Gigi Cardenas Lynne Thigpen colspan="10" colspan="1" colspan="1" Angela Lum Sandra Oh colspan="10" colspan="1" colspan="1" Tom Cornell Mark Melymick colspan="10" colspan="1" colspan="1" Martin Zibiski Richard Bradford colspan="5" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="2" colspan="1" colspan="1" Matthew Wylie Michael Moriarty colspan="11" colspan="1" Jan Kaplovitz Sam Coppola colspan="11" colspan="1" Mike Foy Beau Starr colspan="2" colspan="1" colspan="8" colspan="1" Lee Moyer Darryl Theirse colspan="11" colspan="1" Darcy Wylie Natalie Radford colspan="11" colspan="1"
Synopsis
Al Waxman co-starred as Cagney and Lacey's good-natured and sometimes blustery supervisor, Lt. Bert Samuels. Carl Lumbly and Martin Kove played fellow detectives Marcus Petrie and Victor Isbecki. Sidney Clute played veteran detective Paul LaGuardia. John Karlen co-starred as Mary Beth's husband, Harvey Lacey, and Tony La Torre and Troy Slaten played their sons Harvey Lacey Jr. and Michael Lacey. Harvey Atkin played desk sergeant Ronald Coleman. Jason Bernard had the recurring role of Deputy Inspector Marquette during the first two seasons. When the show was brought back in March 1984, Marquette had been replaced by Dep. Inspector Knelman (Michael Fairman), who lasted the rest of the series. In the fourth season, Christine entered a relationship with Sgt. Dory McKenna (Barry Primus), who battled drug addiction. After a tumultuous courtship, Christine left him and soon after took up with a more stable suitor, attorney David Keeler (Stephen Macht).
On October 2, 1985, Clute died of cancer at age 69. He had completed filming a few episodes of the 1985–86 season. Det. LaGuardia's disappearance from the show was explained by saying he had retired from the 14th Precinct and moved to New Jersey with a new female companion less than half his age. To honor Clute, the producers kept his name in the opening credits for the rest of the series.
LaGuardia was replaced in the fifth season with Det. Jonah Newman (Dan Shor), a boyish ingenu with an elevated sense of himself. Newman, while popular with the guys, was not above stepping on anyone in order to get the coveted promotion of Detective Second Grade. As a result, Chris and Mary Beth had a strained relationship with him. Newman developed a crush on Chris but she never knew. Eventually, Newman was partnered with veteran Al Corassa (Paul Mantee), who became a regular midway through season five (Mantee had made three guest appearances in late 1985, in which his character's name was Det. Thomas in the first two episodes, and Corassa in the third) and took up the role of experienced cop that LaGuardia had vacated. Their partnership met a sad end in May 1986, when Newman was killed by a random gunshot outside of the local district court, just after receiving his promotion to Second Grade.
The beginning of the sixth season saw the arrival of Manny Esposito (Robert Hegyes), a young, street-savvy detective who became Corassa's new partner. There was quite a clash between the two, as Esposito's freewheeling lifestyle (represented by his casual dress on the job, the desire to make a quick buck, and three ex-wives) put him in contrast with Corassa, the older, more conservative family man with a heightened sense of professionalism. Supporting characters added to the precinct at this time were rookie Officer Tom Basil (Barry Laws) and Officer Beverley Faverty (Beverley Faverty). The following year, Petrie was promoted to sergeant and then departed the 14th Precinct (Carl Lumbly had decided to leave the series). In his place, singer Merry Clayton joined the cast as Verna Dee Jordan, the first new female detective at the precinct since the additions of Cagney and Lacey. Jordan had joined law enforcement in middle age to better herself, after having been a single mother raising four children (now grown) on welfare.
Dick O'Neill played a recurring role as Cagney's alcoholic father, Charlie Cagney, a former NYPD officer who regaled her with stories of the old days; Christine later fought alcoholism as well.Charlie Cagney profile, TVAcres.com; accessed June 6, 2014. In the fourth season, Mary Beth becomes pregnant; she and Harvey welcome in a baby daughter, Alice Christine, in the fall of 1985. Alice Lacey was played by alternating twins Dana & Paige Bardolph from 1985 to 1987, with toddler Michelle Sepe taking over for the seventh season.
Cancellation and return
Cagney & Lacey premiered in March 1982 with high hopes from the industry, in the wake of the TV movie. Reviews of the series, however, with Meg Foster in place of Loretta Swit, were mixed. Critics praised the level of storytelling, but put emphasis on the aggressiveness that both Daly and Foster expressed with their characters. As soon as the six-episode order was finished in late April, CBS canceled the program due to poor ratings. Executive producer Barney Rosenzweig was determined to reverse the network's decision. Sharon Gless had been initially unavailable for the movie and series, which were produced by Orion, because of her long-running contract to Universal Television (she was the last actress ever to be signed to a long-term contract with a studio, in 1972). Gless was even actively utilizing her Universal contract at the time the series went into production, having taken over as female lead (from Lynn Redgrave who left the series in a dispute with producers) on the CBS sitcom House Calls. Rumors were also rampant that House Calls was getting the axe that spring.
Before the unveiling of that year's network upfronts, a CBS executive told the press that the network had cancelled Cagney & Lacey because of low ratings but also the jarringly tough nature of the female leads, saying, "We've perceived them as dykes". This remark drew wide protest, and put Rosenzweig into high gear in his dealings with CBS. The cancellation of House Calls was announced among insider circles just before upfronts, and Rosenzweig pressured CBS executives to relaunch Cagney & Lacey in the fall with Gless replacing Foster. Gless met with Cagney & Lacey producers again to consider the role, but while always having taken to the character, had doubts about joining for the fall of 1982 because, after House Calls, she "didn't want to make a career of replacing actresses".