Cagney and Lacey



Two female cops, Christine Cagney and Mary Beth Lacey, fight crime in New York City. It was groundbreaking in its time (The Eighties); for that matter, you don't see many series like it today, either.


 * Buddy Cop Show
 * Cop Show
 * Chase Scene
 * Dirty Harriet
 * The Eighties
 * Eighties Hair: Especially obvious in the first season opening, when they go undercover as hookers.
 * Emmy Award: For six years running, one of the two lead actresses won the Emmy for Best Lead Actress in a Drama (four wins for Daly, two for Gless).
 * Hide Your Lesbians: A constant worry of CBS was that the two female characters would be perceived as lesbians -- as a result Mary Beth Lacey was married, and actress Meg Foster (playing Cagney) was replaced by Sharon Gless because she was "too aggressive and likely to be perceived as a lesbian by viewers". CBS hoped Sharon would be a more 'high-class' and 'feminine' Cagney, but fortunately the producers resisted this Executive Meddling and kept Cagney's tough working-class character.
 * Lovely Angels
 * Made for TV Movie: The pilot and four sequels (aired in the mid-1990s).
 * Meaningful Names: See Tomboy and Girly Girl below.
 * Name and Name
 * Police Procedural
 * Pretty in Mink: Cagney wears a fox fur coat in the second opening.
 * Shirtless Scene: Given this show was for the ladies, Fan Service for them was only fair. Plus it was the best kind that TV standards at the time would allow.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Less extreme than other examples, but deliberately invoked by the show's creative team -- and Lampshaded with reversed/ironic Meaningful Names -- the tough one is named "Lacey" and the feminine one is named "Cagney".