"When I saw Jack Hauser, he was not holding a gun. Maybe he already dropped it, maybe it was still in his pocket. I am a good police officer. Don't ever talk to me like that again. And don't you ever question my motives for doing my job." - Detective Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly) to her partner, Detective Christine Cagney (Sharon Gless) after Cagney accuses her of becoming a police officer "to help pay the orthodontist"
Cagney & Lacey: Season One with Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
The streets of New York were pretty tough in the early '80s. Things are equally tough inside the 14th Precinct for Christine Cagney (Sharon Gless, Queer as Folk) and Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly, Judging Amy), the station's first female detectives. Not only do they have to fight crime, they have to fight the belief that women belong in the kitchen. Things are slowly changing, though, and their co-workers - including family man Mark Petrie (Carl Lumbly, Alias), womanizer Victor Isbecki (Martin Kove), bowtie-wearing vet Paul La Guardia (Sidney Clute, McCloud), and gruff Lieutenant Samuels (Al Waxman) - are finally beginning to accept their presence in the department.
They've both had to work hard to get to this point in their careers, but the partners couldn't be more different. Mary Beth is serious and methodical while Chris is free and flirtatious. Mary Beth wears outfits that are so schoolmarmish that even the mannequins at the Salvation Army would avoid them. Fashion plate Chris favors tight jeans and leather pants, and is never so busy that she can't pause to window shop and primp at Bergdorf's. Chris takes the fact that they are invited to a precinct strip party as progress, a sign that they are becoming "one of the guys." Mary Beth just finds it insulting and degrading. Mary Beth is happily married while Chris is happily single. For all their differences, the duo has at least one thing in common - the will and the desire to succeed in a world dominated by men.
In many ways, Cagney & Lacey is a standard police drama with episodes featuring armed robberies, kidnappings, hit-and-run accidents, and other staples of the genre. The series rises above becoming a rehash of old themes because of the fact that we are seeing the cases through the eyes of female detectives. It can also tackle women's issues with a relevance that other cop shows could not. When someone in the precinct seems to be tipping off criminals about impending crackdowns, Cagney and Lacey are chosen to head the secret departmental investigation because it is believed that they couldn't possibly be the informants since no criminal would trust information from two new women detectives ("Internal Affairs"). The two are put into an even more uncomfortable position when they are charged with training a new female detective. They are thrilled that women continue to make departmental inroads, but they believe that this new recruit is incompetent ("Affirmative Action"). A case of domestic violence could turn deadly unless Mary Beth and Chris can find the beating victim and the husband - a cop - she intends to kill ("A Cry for Help").
Perhaps the most powerful episode is "Date Rape," in which a rape victim's complaint divides the department and the partners. The men joke about how the woman may have brought it upon herself, and Chris gamely joins their ribbing. Mary Beth, however, will have none of it. When Samuels asks why Rhett Butler throwing Scarlet O'Hara on the bed is romance while what the victim described is considered rape, Mary Beth replies, "With all respect, sir, if you do not know the difference between rape and romance, then you have a serious problem." As soon as she is out of earshot, the men blame her outburst on PMS. This episode is insightful and hard-hitting, and it is hard to imagine that its themes could have been handled with such grace and subtlety on a series featuring a male lead.
Like Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey features fully-formed characters that are allowed to have personal lives that extend beyond the precinct. Chris' loving relationship with her ex-cop father (Dick O'Neill, Prizzi's Honor) becomes strained when she discovers that he was once on the take ("Internal Affairs"). She begins an affair with Sgt. Dory McKenna (Barry Primus) and, against her better judgment, looks the other way when she discovers that he is hooked on coke ("Recreational Use"). Lt. Samuels tries to save his failing marriage in therapy ("Internal Affairs"). When that doesn't work, he delicately re-enters the dating scene ("Date Rape"). After the birth of his daughter ("I'll Be Home For Christmas"), Petrie becomes a doting father, handing out baby pictures to his co-workers. He also works overtime so that he can buy his wife the engagement ring he couldn't afford to give her before their marriage ("The Gang's All There").
The richest personal life, however, is given to Mary Beth Lacey. Her relationship with her contractor husband Harvey (John Karlen, Dark Shadows) is one of the sweetest marriages portrayed on network TV. Harvey is loving, supportive, and concerned, plus he's willing to stay home and take care of the kids while his wife keeps the streets of New York safe. In the aftermath of a bad argument, he vows that they will never fight again. He's too afraid that should something happen to either one of them, an argument could end up being their final conversation ("The Gang's All There"). In that very same episode, he helps Mary Beth come to terms with the fact that her stolen gun was used in a fatal robbery.
Guests in this season include Stephen Bogardus (Another World), Bert Remsen (Dallas), Brian Robbins (Head of the Class), Alan Fudge (The Man from Atlantis), Barbara Cason ( It's Garry Shandling's Show), Conchata Ferrell (L.A. Law), Pat Corley (Murphy Brown), Philip Baker Hall (The Loop), Meshach Taylor (Designing Women), Judith Ivey (Designing Women), Christopher Allport (Dynasty), Tony Plana (Ugly Betty), Richard Masur (One Day at a Time), Lance Henriksen (Millennium), Robert Pastorelli (Murphy Brown), Forest Whitaker (The Shield), Talia Balsam (Without a Trace), Guy Boyd (Black Scorpion), Grace Zabriskie (Twin Peaks), Doris Roberts (Remington Steele), Kathleen Lloyd (Equal Justice), Kenneth Mars (The Producers), Jimmie Walker (Good Times), Dick Anthony Williams (Homefront), and Michael Des Barres (The New WKRP in Cincinnati).
You may have noticed that this set has a somewhat unwieldy title: Cagney & Lacey: Season One with Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly. This is because the episodes included here are actually from the series' second season, which was Cagney & Lacey's third incarnation. The series started out as a TV movie starring Daly and Loretta Swit. When ratings for the movie went through the roof, CBS decided to turn it into a series. Since Loretta Swit was still doing M*A*S*H at the time, Meg Foster (They Live) was cast as Cagney for the series' abbreviated, six-episode first season. That first season drew low ratings, but CBS agreed to renew the series provided that producers recast the role of Cagney. Sharon Gless took over the role at the start of the second season. Since Gless and Daly are the actors most viewers associate with Cagney & Lacey, their first season together is being sold as Season One or, as the packaging's tagline states, "The True Beginning."
The twenty-two episodes that make up Cagney & Lacey: Season One with Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly are divided onto four double-sided discs. Two slim, black keepcases hold two discs apiece. The front of each case features a large photo of the crime fighting duo. The back of each case features a listing of episode titles, airdates, and brief synopses. The keepcases slide into a cardboard outer sleeve which features the same large photo of the show's stars.
The menus are simple and functional. Viewers can choose to play all of a disc's episodes or choose them individually. The episodes are divided into chapters, but there are no scene selection menus.
