50 Fun Facts About Cagney & Lacey

Cagney & Lacey began as a female buddy film script titled after which pair of male movie stars?

Newman & Redford was the comedy's working title until legal worries forced a change. No film studio wanted the script, so the story went to television instead.

In which sitcom does Terry Jeffords have twin daughters named Cagney and Lacey?

Brooklyn Nine-Nine gives squad leader Terry, played by Terry Crews, twins named for the two detectives, plus a third daughter called Ava.

Which actress played Christine Cagney in the 1981 Cagney & Lacey pilot movie but was unavailable for the series?

Loretta Swit was still Major Houlihan on M*A*S*H, whose producers refused to release her from her contract for the new series.

Which fan protest, organized by the producer of Cagney & Lacey, helped reverse the show's 1983 cancellation?

A letter-writing campaign, a summer time-slot change that lifted the ratings and an Emmy for its Mary Beth Lacey persuaded the network to bring the series back in March 1984.

Which illness makes Mary Beth Lacey miss a promotion exam in the fourth season of Cagney & Lacey?

Breast cancer is a fear Mary Beth at first refuses to take to a doctor, and the operation that follows keeps her away from the exam her colleagues sit.

What joking nickname did the two stars of Cagney & Lacey give their four 1990s reunion television movies?

The Menopause Years stuck so well that it became the official title of the DVD set collecting all four films.

Which series' four-year hold on the Outstanding Drama Series Emmy did Cagney & Lacey end in 1985?

Hill Street Blues had won the award every year from 1981 to 1984 before the two women detectives took it in 1985 and again in 1986.

Which actress took over as Christine Cagney in the second season of Cagney & Lacey and won two Emmys?

Sharon Gless had been the creators' first choice from the start, but a studio contract kept her out of the pilot movie and the short first season.

Which actress won four Emmys as working mother Mary Beth Lacey in Cagney & Lacey?

Tyne Daly was the one lead who stayed from the pilot movie to the final season, while three different actresses played her partner.

Which actor, a detective in Cagney & Lacey, went on to play ruthless sensei John Kreese in The Karate Kid?

Martin Kove made the 1984 film while playing Detective Victor Isbecki, and returned to the villain decades later in the series Cobra Kai.

Which American network aired Cagney & Lacey, canceling the series twice in two years before reviving it?

CBS dropped the show after six episodes in 1982 and again in 1983, by which time the sets had been destroyed and the cast released before the network changed its mind.

Cagney & Lacey follows two women detectives at the 14th Precinct in which American city?

New York is the setting: the show's fictional 14th Precinct sits in Manhattan and goes by the name Midtown South.

Which addiction does Christine Cagney share with her ex-policeman father Charlie in Cagney & Lacey?

Alcohol takes hold of Christine after Charlie's death in the sixth season, until Mary Beth steers her partner back to Alcoholics Anonymous.

What is the first name of Mary Beth Lacey's husband, a construction worker, in Cagney & Lacey?

Harvey is also the name of the couple's elder son, Harvey Jr., and the loyal husband returns in all four of the reunion movies.

Cagney & Lacey held its own for years in the same time slot as ABC's weekly broadcast of which sport?

Football filled ABC's Monday nights, and the detectives shared that 10 p.m. slot with it until the network moved them to Tuesdays midway through the final season.

Which spy series cast Cagney & Lacey's Christine Cagney actress as chain-smoking mother Madeline Westen?

Burn Notice reunited the two leads in 2010, when her former screen partner guest-starred in an episode as a different character.

Which Rocky composer wrote the instrumental theme that Cagney & Lacey used from its second season?

Bill Conti's instrumental replaced the first season's vocal theme song, and played over a collage of action and comic scenes from the series.

Which Dirty Harry film cast Cagney & Lacey's Mary Beth Lacey actress as Clint Eastwood's first female partner?

The Enforcer cast her as Inspector Kate Moore opposite Harry Callahan in 1976, six years before the television series began.

For which Broadway musical revival did Cagney & Lacey's Mary Beth Lacey actress win a Tony Award?

Gypsy was revived for her after a Broadway producer saw her sing a duet with Dolly Parton on a television variety show and cast her as Rose.

Which actress played Christine Cagney for only six episodes in the first season of Cagney & Lacey?

Meg Foster was replaced after the network judged her Cagney too aggressive, a dismissal one columnist suggested cost her other roles.

Which actor won a 1986 Emmy for playing Mary Beth Lacey's husband in Cagney & Lacey?

John Karlen had earlier played Willie Loomis, the man who releases the vampire Barnabas Collins from his coffin in the gothic soap Dark Shadows.

Which Canadian star of King of Kensington played Lt. Bert Samuels, the detectives' boss in Cagney & Lacey?

Al Waxman became such a Canadian icon that a statue of him was erected in Toronto's Kensington Market after his death.

Which actor, Detective Marcus Petrie in Cagney & Lacey, later played super soldier Isaiah Bradley for Marvel?

Carl Lumbly began as a journalist in Minnesota and was cast in his first play while on assignment to write about a workshop theatre.

Which rank does Christine Cagney earn by promotion during the fourth season of Cagney & Lacey?

Sergeant was only a step on the way: by the 1990s reunion movies Christine has been promoted again and works as a special investigator.

What is the profession of David Keeler, Christine Cagney's steady boyfriend late in Cagney & Lacey?

Lawyer David Keeler, played by Stephen Macht, angers Christine in the sixth season by agreeing to represent a drug dealer on trial.

In the 1990s Cagney & Lacey reunion movies, the partners work as investigators for which official?

The District Attorney employs Christine as a special investigator, and Mary Beth, retired from the force, joins her partly because money is tight.

Which legal drama won Cagney & Lacey's Mary Beth Lacey actress another Emmy as caseworker Maxine Gray?

Judging Amy cast her as the title character's widowed mother, and her old precinct partner guest-starred in a 2003 episode.

Which Showtime series cast Cagney & Lacey's Christine Cagney actress as Debbie Novotny from 2000 to 2005?

Queer as Folk cast her as the mother of Hal Sparks's character, and in 2009 she took her first leading lesbian role in the film Hannah Free.

On which British channel was Cagney & Lacey originally shown, regularly making the national top 10?

BBC1 audiences kept the series in the British top 10, and London's British Film Institute later staged a 30th anniversary event for it.

Which executive producer of Cagney & Lacey later married the actress who played Christine Cagney?

Barney Rosenzweig fought two cancellations to keep the series on air, wrote a memoir about making it, and married his leading lady in 1991.

Which co-creator of Cagney & Lacey was the girlfriend, and later wife, of the show's producer?

Barbara Corday wrote the original script with Barbara Avedon, a writing partner she met at an anti-war group, and later became president of Columbia/Embassy Television.

Which film critic's book From Reverence to Rape inspired the creators of Cagney & Lacey?

Molly Haskell wrote that Hollywood had never made a female buddy film, a gap the two creators set out to fill.

Which Hollywood studio's last contract player became Christine Cagney in Cagney & Lacey's second season?

Universal signed her in 1972 and held her until 1982, a year after it ended its other talent contracts, making her the last contract player in Hollywood.

Which studio behind Amadeus and RoboCop counted Cagney & Lacey as its biggest television hit?

Orion was named after the constellation, which its founding executives claimed had five main stars when it has seven or eight.

Which Grey's Anatomy actress was cast as Cagney in the rejected 2018 Cagney & Lacey reboot pilot?

Sarah Drew won the part shortly after her exit from the hospital drama was announced, but the network passed on the pilot that May.

Which drug's dealer do the two officers expose to earn detective rank in the Cagney & Lacey pilot movie?

Heroin earned them the promotion, but their reward was a patronizing assignment as undercover decoys on a prostitution detail.

Which future Reservoir Dogs actor played Mary Beth Lacey's abductor in the Cagney & Lacey episode Heat?

Michael Madsen keeps her locked in a railroad car in the 1984 episode, which went on to win its director an Emmy.

Which Welcome Back, Kotter star joined Cagney & Lacey in its sixth season as detective Manny Esposito?

Robert Hegyes had played high school student Juan Epstein; his freewheeling Esposito, with three ex-wives, clashes with a conservative older partner.

Which Masters of the Universe character was played by Cagney & Lacey's first-season Cagney actress?

Evil-Lyn was the film's villainess, and some producers made the actress wear contact lenses because they found her pale blue eyes distracting.

Which Cagney & Lacey squad-room regular did Sidney Clute play, staying in the opening credits after his death in 1985?

Paul LaGuardia was written out as retiring to New Jersey with a much younger companion, while the producers kept the late actor's name on screen as a tribute.

Which singer on the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter played a detective in Cagney & Lacey's final season?

Merry Clayton played Verna Dee Jordan, who had raised four children alone on welfare before joining the police force in middle age.

What first name does Mary Beth Lacey give the baby daughter born during the fifth season of Cagney & Lacey?

Alice takes the middle name Christine, and it is her mother's partner who races the laboring Mary Beth to the hospital for the birth.

Which Cagney & Lacey director became the first woman to win the Emmy for directing a drama series?

Karen Arthur won in 1985 for Heat, an episode in which one of the two detectives is abducted and held in a railroad car.

Which star of The Rookies won a 1986 Emmy for directing Cagney & Lacey, the series his wife starred in?

Georg Stanford Brown won for Parting Shots, the fifth-season finale in which the precinct loses one of its own detectives to a gunman.

Which advocacy group did Dorothy Swanson found in 1984 to save Cagney & Lacey from cancellation?

Viewers for Quality Television handed out annual Q Awards voted by its members, and the two detectives' series won one four years running.

Which ABC drama lured audiences away after Cagney & Lacey moved to Tuesday nights in its final season?

Thirtysomething won the Tuesday slot in its first year, and the detectives' ratings slide that season led to the final cancellation.

On which sitcom had Cagney & Lacey's second-season Christine Cagney actress just replaced Lynn Redgrave?

House Calls made her hesitate over the detective role: she said she had no wish to make a career of replacing other actresses.

Which public defender drama did the producer of Cagney & Lacey create for its Christine Cagney actress?

The Trials of Rosie O'Neill won her a second Golden Globe, and the producer himself appeared uncredited as a psychiatrist seen only partly on screen.

Which First Blood sheriff actor guest-starred in Cagney & Lacey as MacGruder, a rival bounty hunter?

Brian Dennehy turns up in the third season hunting the same bail jumper as the two detectives, two years after playing Sheriff Will Teasle.

Which Pulp Fiction actor was cast as a police captain in the 2018 reboot pilot of Cagney & Lacey?

Ving Rhames, that film's Marsellus Wallace, signed on as Captain Stark before the network turned the pilot down.