Authors: Barney Rosenzweig
Subplot
: Isbecki and Petrie try to figure out Sergeant Coleman’s first name -— from Reginald to Rumpelstiltskin till Lacey, fondly remembering the movie,
A Tale of Two Cities
, hits on it:... Ronald Coleman.
RULES OF THE GAME
Director: Sharron Miller
Written by: Georgia Jeffries
Cagney and Lacey are assigned to a special task force investigating the murder of a Hungarian diplomat. Captain Hennessey (Edward Winter) the attractive officer in command, retains Cagney as his investigative partner while relegating Lacey to desk duty. Hennessey’s interest in Cagney becomes obviously more personal than professional, and when she refuses to trade sexual favors for professional ones, he threatens her with a poor job evaluation. Lacey breaks the case; she and Cagney solve the murder while Cagney agonizes over the consequences of bringing a sexual harassment suit against a fellow officer. With Lacey’s encouragement, she decides to press charges.
Subplot
: Harvey thinks he and Lacey should draw up a will, but Mary Beth doesn’t want to think about dying.
Subplot
: Coleman conducts an aggravating quarterly inventory of office supplies.
STRESS
Director: Alexander Singer
Written by: Debra Frank & Scott Rubenstein
Cagney witnesses a stabbing and successfully apprehends the vicious perp, who then threatens her life. He has a long list of arrests but no convictions because he intimidates witnesses. Eight witnesses “saw nothing”. Only Cagney and the victim will testify. When the victim is found murdered and the perp begins to stalk Cagney, she maintains a brave posture until she begins to crack under the pressure.
Subplot
: A mandate is issued that all detectives must participate in Stress Reduction Seminars, and Cagney attempts to hide her fear.
Subplot
: A stray dog attaches himself to Samuels.
WHO SAID IT’S FAIR? PARTS I AND II
Note: Multiple
Emmy
Award winner: Tyne Daly for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Patricia Green for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series and Jim Gross for Outstanding Film Editing for a Series
PART I:
Director: Ray Danton
Teleplay by: Patricia Green
Story by: Barbara Avedon & Barbara Corday & Claudia Adams and Patricia Green
PART II:
Director: Ray Danton
Written by: Patricia Green
Cagney and Lacey respond to a call from a worried mother, who fears her young son is missing. Happily, the boy turns out to be late. When the mother, a young black woman (Lynn Whitfield) struggling to stay off welfare, reports her son missing again, Cagney is judgmental about what she perceives as evidence of neglect in the home. After discovering money in the child’s locker, Cagney and Lacey suspect drug involvement. They eventually find the child trapped in a partially demolished house where he had been en route as a drug runner and Cagney makes a dramatic rescue. Juvenile authorities, acting on Cagney’s initial report, remove the child from his mother’s custody. When the boy, with his mother’s encouragement, helps them to arrest the pusher, Cagney changes her mind and proves instrumental in reuniting mother and child.
Subplot
: Lacey may have breast cancer, but is unwilling to go to a doctor. When, with the persistence of Cagney and Harvey, she is finally examined and diagnosed as having a malignant tumor, the doctor recommends a mastectomy. Mary Beth, terrified, must confront her own mortality with Harvey and the kids. Again at Cagney’s urging, Lacey is persuaded to go for a second opinion. She discovers that with the malignancy, a lumpectomy will probably be sufficient. The operation is a success.
Subplot
: The 14th Precinct is psyching up for the Sergeant’s exam, and Lacey is forced to miss it because of her operation.
LOST AND FOUND
Director: Al Waxman
Teleplay by: Georgia Jeffries
Story by: Georgia Jeffries and Les Carter
Cagney’s beloved yellow Corvette convertible is stolen, and the only clue is a graffiti “signature.” Obsessed with recovering her car, Cagney learns about street graffiti, which leads her to “El Vengador,” the gang member who stole her car. She then intimidates him into helping her bust the car theft operation.
Subplot
: Lacey is fully recovered from her breast operation, but does not want to return to work. She feels that she should spend more time with her family, and, over Cagney’s protestations, seriously considers leaving the force.
Subplot
: The video portion of the Sergeant’s exam occupies Isbecki’s thoughts of how he’ll look. Petrie thinks about the academic considerations. Cagney’s fear of the potential loss of her partner almost overshadows the exam, until when facing the video tape she is relieved to learn she is to discuss Grand Theft Auto, a subject on which, thanks to the recent experience with her own Corvette, she has recently become exceptionally knowledgeable.
TWO GRAND
Director: Alexander Singer
Written by: Steve Johnson
Albert Grand, jewel thief extraordinaire and past nemesis of Christine Cagney, reappears on the scene when the clues from a major jewel theft lead to members of the 14th Precinct. Cagney is confronted with a series of Grand’s wild goose chases, coupled with his persistent charm and complicated by a major diamond heist. She discovers the real reason for his crime: a gesture of both triumph and generosity because he is dying. He surrenders to Christine Cagney, the best police officer he’s known on seven continents.
Subplot
: Isbecki is absent from the precinct under the pretext that he’s gone to the Bahamas with his girlfriend. When she suddenly appears, worried about Victor’s disappearance, Petrie covers for his partner. His private investigation turns up Isbecki in a hospital where he was having an “embarrassing” operation for hemorrhoids.
CON GAMES
Director: Alexander Singer
Written by Terry Louise Fisher & Steve Brown
Cagney, despite pressure from the department and even her father, is going through with her complaint against Captain Hennessey (from “Rules of the Game”) for sexual harassment. Paula Eastman, the last of Cagney’s possible witnesses against Hennessey, admits he offered her a promotion in return for sex, but because he’s following through on his promise, she refuses to testify for Cagney. As the hearing goes on, Cagney becomes angrier and more frustrated —— Hennessey’s lawyer is doing a good job of making her look like a slut. On the last day of trial, Paula changes her mind, and appears at the trial, ready and willing to testify.
Subplot
: Cagney and Lacey are working with the bunco squad undercover at a series of banks. Lacey, acting as the perfect pigeon, is responsible for bringing in an entirely different set of con artists than those they were trying to uncover.
VIOLATION
Director: Allen Baron
Written by Les Carter
Cagney and Lacey search for a missing teenager who disappeared the night of his prom. Investigation shows he was last seen at a liquor store. When the store owner refused to sell him a bottle based on his fake ID, he tried to steal a bottle. Because of the age on his phony ID, he is booked into the adult prison at Rikers Island where he is viciously raped by several of the inmates. Faced with not only bureaucratic reluctance by the NYPD, but also a multi-million dollar lawsuit against New York City, Cagney and Lacey are finally successful at identifying the rapist —— but only after they pressure a successful businessman who had been arrested as a “john” and was a witness to the rape.
Subplot
: Isbecki bets that a lost money clip found by the local “used garment dealer” lady will be claimed before the deadline. As the time grows short, Isbecki has printed a newspaper story headlined “The Last Honest Person in New York City,” thereby alerting the owner. Isbecki wins the bet, but peer pressure forces him to turn over his winnings in partial restitution to the bag lady.
ORGANIZED CRIME
Director: Ralph Singleton
Written by Terry Louise Fisher & Steve Brown
When Cagney and Lacey investigate a poorbox robbery, they find a murdered nun and an offer of help from an unexpected source, Quinones, an organized crime boss who, incensed by the killing of a holy woman, offers Cagney and Lacey mob cooperation in their investigation. Exerting pressure, Quinones offers to sweeten Cagney and Lacey’s professional careers and at the same time offers Harvey a construction job he “can’t refuse”. Morality versus practicality creates conflict between the detectives and Laceys. Meanwhile, the killer turns himself in rather than face mob retribution.
Subplot
: Tension is high as the precinct awaits the Sergeant’s exam results. In spite of Isbecki’s superstitious prediction, Cagney gets the promotion.
SEASON 5 (1985-6)
ON THE STREET
Director: Alexander Singer
Written by: Cynthia Darnell
Cagney and Lacey investigate the beating of a teenage hooker and learn that her pimp had been suspected previously of the bludgeon killing of another young prostitute. When the detectives try to question the young girl she is totally uncooperative. After a change of mind (more to spite her parents than anything else),she accuses her pimp of beating her and states that she saw him kill the other hooker. That’s enough for Cagney and Lacey until their star witness runs away allowing the pimp to get out on bail. Now Cagney and Lacey have to find the girl before he does and that is made easier for the duo when the girl is promptly picked up for hustling. The parents, giving up on the girl, decide to have her put away in an institution. Cagney, unwilling to give up on the girl, works out a legal way to keep her out of the institution and out of the custody of her parents. All she has to do is get the girl not to give up on herself.
Subplot
: Cagney is going out with a man with great teeth she believes to be a dentist, but he turns out to be an ACLU lawyer. He is, eventually, the key to helping Cagney’s young charge.
ORDINARY HERO
Note: Winner of Humanitas Award for writer Eisele.
Director: Reza Badiyi
Written by: Robert Eisele
Cagney and Lacey, working a sting on the street, witness Eduardo Carrera heroically bring down a mugger who’s just robbed an old lady. At Lacey’s urging, Eduardo is awarded a medal for bravery by the Mayor, but is spotted by the Immigration Department as being an illegal alien and picked up for deportation to Chile. Cagney and Lacey persuade the I.N.S. to let Eddie stay in the U.S. long enough to testify in the mugger’s trial while they try to find a way for him to permanently stay in the U.S. Carrera is so effective as a witness that the case is wrapped up almost immediately and long before Cagney and Lacey can do anything about his status as an illegal alien. He escapes while being taken back into the custody of the I.N.S., and he and his family disappear from an illegal refugee safe house. Cagney and Lacey go along with the I.N.S. and F.B.I. to check out an address where the Carrera family might be hidden. While checking out the attic, Cagney spots Eddie and his family crouched in an attic crawl—space. After a tense moment, Cagney yells to the F.B.I. “nothing here” and moves on, sparing the Carrera family for at least another day.
THE PSYCHIC
Director: Ray Danton
Written by: Debra Frank & Scott Rubenstein
Cagney and Lacey are investigating a woman’s disappearance while the woman’s husband and mother, not willing to rely on the police, have hired a well—known psychic, to find her. All clues point to Nora being a runaway wife, but then the case becomes a homicide when the woman’s body is found, seemingly from causes predicted by the psychic. The psychic’s reading, combined with their own detective work, lead Cagney and Lacey to the murderer, the woman’s husband, who had tried to throw suspicion off himself by making the psychic’s prediction come true.
Subplot
: Lacey feels insecure about her appearance since her cancer operation.
THE LOTTERY
Director: James Frawley
Written by: Steve Johnson
Almost a year after a lottery drawing, one two million dollar prize remains unclaimed. Then two people suddenly show up with winning tickets. Cagney and Lacey are assigned to investigate and, after some dispute over another suspect (a disreputable bartender once arrested as a con man) they finally discover that one of the tickets had been forged by a retired master engraver for the Post Office. Case is closed, right? Wrong. Yet another winning ticket is brought in. Although the computer data on the lottery had been “accidentally” dumped, one of the original tickets was verified, but the other “winner” happens to own a cocker spaniel not unlike one owned by the arrested engraver. This guy “happens” to be a computer expert. After a chase through the Dog Show at Madison Square Garden, Cagney and Lacey bring in the culprit behind it all.