Season 1 (1982)

Episodes are not necessarily listed in the order in which they were filmed or exhibited, but rather (in some cases) in the order the scripts were commissioned.

In these six episodes, Meg Foster portrays Christine Cagney.

At a glance:

Synopses:

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.

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