Authors: Barney Rosenzweig
He has a difficult time dealing with his three children, especially his oldest son, David (Matthew Barry). He is still not resolved about his relationship with Thelma. She dates and they still see each other occasionally. He used to see a psychiatrist. However, his personal life is exactly that. He tries not to bring it into the squad room.
Recently, for health reasons he stopped drinking, a fact he’d like to keep as quiet as possible. Samuel’s son, David marries an older Vietnamese woman who is in the restaurant business. Samuels has begun the long and difficult process of reconciling with his son, realizing that David has the right to his own dreams. David’s wife (Keiu Chinh) gave birth to Samuels’ only grandchild, Nguyen. At least for the time being, Samuels is a workaholic, putting most of his time and energy into his work. Things have changed a lot in twenty years, and Bert Samuels is trying to sort it all out for himself.
As a result of an angina attack which revealed a heart condition, Samuels has changed his eating habits and lost a great deal of weight.
MARCUS PETRIE
(Carl Lumly). Formerly Isbecki’s partner, was finally promoted to Sergeant and left the Fourteenth Precinct. He has a wife, Claudia (Vonetta McGee) and a daughter Lauren.
VICTOR ISBECKI
(Martin Kove) is a maverick cop. Or so he likes to tell everyone. His childhood fantasy was to become a wild-west gunfighter. But, when you grow up in Brooklyn, wild-west gunfighter opportunities are rather limited. So he became a cop. He prides himself on his work.
An affable bear of a man, he’s got a real thing for “broads.” The addition of Cagney and Lacey to the team was a mixed blessing for him. He tries to watch his language, watch Cagney’s legs without getting caught, and maintain his usual barrage of jokes without wandering into the areas that set off Lacey. However, with time, he’s adjusted to the women in the squad room and has developed a bantering relationship with Cagney, one in which he almost gets in the zinger as often as she does.
He is fanatical about sports of all kinds. He is the squadroom’s resident male chauvinist. He is, however, revealing a sensitive side. He recently was caught scooping heroin, to give to his mother who was dying of cancer and in terrible pain. When Cagney, Lacey and Samuels covered for him he became indebted to them all.
He fell in love with an older woman, Ginger (Kelly Jean Peters), who is neither beauty queen nor bimbo, but a college professor and single mother. They married in 1988. He’s in his late thirties. He was the apple of his mother’s eye. She died of cancer last year.
AL CORASSA
(Paul Mantee) is partnered with Manny Esposito. He is a conservative widower and career cop who has reservations about Esposito’s work style. His former partner, Jonah Newman (Dan Shor), died in 1986 from a random gunshot.
MANNY ESPOSITO
(Robert Hegyes) is a street-smart Hispanic cop with a sentimental streak hidden by the desire to make a buck. He loves to get married. Although he’s broken off his engagement to his third wife, he is still close to her as well as his two previous wives. He looks at Corassa as a father figure and rebels against him with his casual dress and even more casual demeanor.
RONALD COLEMAN
(Harvey Atkin)is the Desk Sergeant for the 14th. He has a retarded daughter, and loves to make lame jokes. He’s a gambler, a busybody and a clown.
VERNA DEE JORDAN
(Merry Clayton)is a middle-aged, black female detective who joined the 14th squad at the start of the 1987-88 season to replace Petrie. She is a single parent of four children, mostly grown. She came late to the force from a welfare background. She’s a whiz at the typewriter and a homespun philosopher.
TONY STANTINOPOLIS
(Barry Sattels), Cagney’s gay neighbor. He is a warm, generous and humorous man. Tony and Cagney have developed an open, friendly, non-sexual relationship that offers a non-threatening closeness for both of them.
PAUL LA GUARDIA
(Sid Clute) was the senior detective on the squad before his retirement. He and Samuels went back a long way and it was to LaGuardia that Samuels turned for advice from time to time. LaGuardia lives with a much younger woman in New Jersey. He is enjoying life to the fullest and has not been seen since
SEASON 1 (1982)
Note: In these six episodes, Meg Foster portrays Christine Cagney
POP USED TO WORK CHINATOWN
Director: Georg Stanford Brown
Written by: Brian McKay
Five men, part of a Chinatown gang, rob a bank and get away, but not before Cagney and Lacey manage to shoot at the getaway car. Cagney’s father, Charlie, a retired police officer, involves himself in the accident, as Chinatown was once his beat. Through a series of leads and through Charlie’s former connections, the two detectives solve the case and catch the gang, although the driver of the getaway car dies as a result of the earlier shoot-out. (It was determined that he was killed by a shot fired by Lacey.)
Subplot
: Harvey gets a construction job but is forced to quit because of his inner—ear problem.
STREET SCENE
Director: Ray Danton
Written by: Claudia Adams
An elderly man is accused of murdering a member of a street gang, and Cagney and Lacey eventually prove his innocence through the victim’s brother —— but not before Lacey faces her own prejudice against the Latino gang members.
Subplot
: Petrie and his wife throw a baby shower and do not invite Cagney and Lacey. They crash it anyway, hoping to gain favor with the wives of their fellow detectives.
BETTER THAN EQUAL
Director: Ray Danton
Written by: Bud Freeman
Sparks fly when Cagney and Lacey are assigned to protect Helen Granger, an anti-feminist, Phyllis Schlafly-type who is being harassed by an obscene phone caller bent on killing her.
Subplot
: A popular journalist condemns the two detectives when they strongly disapprove of paroling their first collar -- an Attica inmate who, if freed, could become a successful professional boxer.
SUFFER THE CHILDREN
Director: Ray Danton
Written by: Paul Ehrmann
In rescuing a four—year—old girl from a seventh—floor window ledge, Cagney and Lacey discover she’s a victim of parental abuse in a family whose older daughter has disappeared -- possibly raped and murdered by the father two years before. Cagney and Lacey search for evidence pertaining to the missing daughter’s murder and are later able to arrest the father via the mother’s confession of his abuse toward all the members of the family.
Subplot
: Cagney’s interest in a suave, handsome lawyer ends when she discovers he’s married. Isbecki, Petrie, La Guardia, Cagney, and Lacey go undercover at a fashionable hotel in order to flush out a pickpocket purse-snatching ring.
BEYOND THE GOLDEN DOOR
Director: Reza Badiyi
Written by: Marshall Goldberg
Cagney and Lacey help an illegal alien from Guatemala locate her sister who disappeared while being smuggled into New York by boat. When the sister turns up dead, the two detectives go undercover in the garment industry in order to track down her murderers.
Subplot
: Cagney is unable to accept the fact that her father has a girlfriend. Harvey refuses to acknowledge his inner—ear balance problem by climbing out on a window ledge in order to prove he’s still a man.
BANG. BANG. YOU’RE DEAD
Director: Georg Stanford Brown
Written by: Barbara Avedon & Barbara Corday
Adaptation by Barney Rosenzweig
A series of prostitute murders brings Cagney and Lacey to the rescue as undercover decoys. In stalking their prey, they hook up with “Cleo,” a real prostitute, who, they hope, will help them flush out their target. Under Cleo’s lead they work the Times Square area, meeting all the relevant riff raff: a drunk, a priest, a cigar-chomping fat man, et al. ... When Cleo is killed by the maniac, the case gets a lot more personal. Shortly thereafter the murderer appears at the window (they’re all staying at the local fleabag as an undercover set—up) and crashes through. Cagney bags him, along with lots of help from her chums, and all ends well.
SEASON 2 (1982-3)
NOTE: the so-called “True Beginning” of the series, referring to the advent of Sharon Gless playing the role of Christine Cagney
INTERNAL AFFAIRS
Director: Alexander Singer
Teleplay by: Aubrey Soloman & Steven Greenberg
Story by: Joanne Pagiaro
The Internal Affairs Department suspects there is a leak in the 14th Precinct; Cagney and Lacey have been assigned to find out who it is. The suspicion causes stress on the whole department and places Isbecki in danger while he is on an undercover hijacking assignment.
Subplot
: Cagney finds out that thirty—odd years ago her father was “on the take,” and it becomes a major stumbling block in their relationship.
ONE OF OUR OWN
Director: Reza Badiyi
Written by: Robert Crais & April Smith
An officer is shot in a restaurant and it turns out to be a “wrong shoot.” The hired gun was supposed to kill the accountant, who was doing books for a crook who is now under investigation by the FBI. The accountant had no idea he was working for crooks. He hides out, but the assassin kidnaps his wife. She leads him to her husband, and Cagney and Lacey arrive in time to prevent a killing and arrest the gun-man.
Subplot
: The guys try to keep Cagney off the intramural baseball team. They want it all guys until they find out they can’t play unless the team is coed.
BEAUTY BURGLARS
Director: Ray Danton
Teleplay by April Smith & Robert Crais
Story by: Patt Shea and Harriet Weiss
Some guys posing as uniformed police invade very posh beauty shops, lock the doors, and rob the patrons. They are finally caught because one of the stolen items shows up at a jewelers and is purchased by the husband of the woman from whom it was stolen.
Subplot:
Lacey’s best friend is getting married and Lacey, matron of honor, can’t afford the dress the friend wants her to wear. Harvey becomes insecure, thinking Lacey wants to have that kind of money, too.
MR. LONELYHEARTS
NOTE: features an all-too-brief appearance by
Tony
Award winning actress, Judith Ivey
Director: James Sheldon
Written by: Jeffrey Lane
Cagney and Lacey investigate a marriage scam. A man poses as a preacher and marries his wife off to lonely men they find in the personal columns of magazines. The wife then says she’s got a serious illness, and the husband sends money to keep her in the hospital and pay her bills while she’s in New York getting treatments. One husband comes to New York to find her and that’s how the truth comes out.
Subplot
: Cagney meets a guy after she’s decided to try celibacy for a while. They’re very attached to each other, but she won’t let him near, saying they should get to know each other first. She finally relents.
HIGH STEEL
Director: Reza Badiyi
Written by: Rogers Turrentine
When Cagney and Lacey investigate an apparent accident on a construction site, they uncover the builder’s scheme to use defective material.
Subplot
: Harvey Lacey has to face his inability to handle heights in order to save Lacey from a high fall.
WITNESS TO AN INCIDENT
Director: Alexander Singer
Teleplay by Paul L. Erhmann and April Smith and Robert Crais & Jeffrey Lane and Frank Abatemarco
A Neighborhood Watch guy gets killed chasing a perp who robbed a neighborhood pharmacy. Did the cop (who was also chasing) kill him with a “throw—down” or was there another gun on the scene? The Cop is suspended pending investigation, because he claimed he shot in self-defense. Cagney saw the gun and confirms the uniformed cops story; Lacey didn’t see the gun and cannot confirm the rush to an “official version.” They can’t agree on a story. Turns out the guy did have a gun, which was against the Neighborhood Watch rules. His partner on the watch had secreted it before the cop got to the body.
Subplot
: The tension between Cagney and Lacey over Lacey not trusting Cagney’s story and going with her own.