Apologies, first of all : this is a post that isn’t about science-fiction or SF fandom or SF writers. It’s about a 1980s cop show/crime drama. And there are clips from it on YouTube under the cut. I promise, I’ll never do anything like this again.
This cop show ran for seven seasons, 125 episodes, 4 made-for-TV movies. Twice the network that ran the show canceled it because it was “unpopular”, and twice a massive grassroots fan campaign brought it back. Every year the series was on the air, one of the two leads won an Emmy for best lead character in a TV Drama series. The last season was broadcast nearly 20 years ago. The company that owns it is bringing out other, less successful series on DVD… but not this one. This one got a single DVD set (part of the first season) released two or three years ago, without any publicity – I’m a long-term fan of the show, have been since it was first broadcast, and I had no idea this DVD was now available.
Why do you suppose that was? Jennifer Kesler (BetaCandy) at the Hathor Legacy notes: writers for TV and film are instructed what will and will not be popular by the teachers in the writing schools, by the buyers of the industry – and this series could not have been popular by those rules, no matter how many people actually liked it.
Because both the leads were women. I’m talking about Cagney and Lacey. Christine Cagney and Marybeth Lacey were tough New York cops who talked to each other about their work, their relationship with each other, about their situation as the first two (the only two) women detectives in their precinct, about their career – also of course about Cagney’s boyfriends and her father, Lacey’s husband and her sons: but each and every episode of that series passed the Bechdel Test.
So, according to MGM/Fox, it just couldn’t be popular. The thousands of fans who wrote to protest the cancellation – each time – who were they? They couldn’t be real. The success was a fluke. No one could want to buy the DVDs. Who would want to watch a series in which each and every episode two women talked to each other about something other than a man? Two women who were attractive, sure (I’ve been a little in love with both of them in entirely different ways since I first watched the series), but not dolled up/sexualised objects: they dress up when it’s appropriate, but when they’re at work they wear clothes a woman can move in, and they move like active, fit women.
There are cheap bootleg copies of the whole series available. Besides the poor quality, those DVDs won’t bring any residuals to Tyne Daly or Sharon Gless or any of the other fine actors in Cagney and Lacey (including Loretta Swit and Meg Foster who played Christine Cagney in the pilot and the first six episodes, respectively). MGM/Fox are convinced that a series that passes the Bechdel Test can’t be popular.
You want to tell them – and the rest of the film/TV industry – that they’re dead wrong about that? Click here. Sign the petition. Tell your friends. We’ve got a year to let them know.
Jennifer Kesler of the Hathor Legacy has more about this, and contact details for MGM/Fox, here.
Opening credits, season 2:
Cagney and Lacey: “You want to be my partner?” – “Yeah.” – “You fixed it.” (from “Partners”).
Or (if you want to see the hospital scene in context) a series of clips starting here of the season 3 episode Partners. Enjoy.
And finally: Cagney and Lacey: “What happened on that roof, happened to both of you.” (from the 6th season episode Happiness is a Warm Gun)
PS Oh, and because I really can’t resist it: Tyne Daley and Sharon Gless reunite in Judging Amy, 1999. It’s good.
5 Responses to “What happens to TV shows that pass the Bechdel Test?”
SisterCoyote on
September 30, 2008 1:02 pm
You know, I was just thinking about Cagney and Lacey yesterday, while watching Burn Notice. (Which I sincerely doubt passes the Bechdel test, but I could be wrong. It’s sexist enough in other ways.) And I was thinking about the fact that it did pass the test, and wondering why twenty years ago we could have a show with two very strong female leads but we can’t have one today.
And what amuses and saddens me most about this is the fact that I never really was a fan of the show.
I’m not sure you’re right about FOX’s reasoning, though, since I’ve seen little evidence that FOX understands how to market shows or that they use any reasoning in their efforts to find good material. They put on random stuff (most of which is crap) and then cancel vast swaths of it (including the stuff that’s really good):
Peter: Well, unfortunately, Lois, there’s just no more room on the schedule. We’ve just got to accept the fact that Fox has to make room for terrific shows like Dark Angel, Titus, Undeclared, Action, That 80’s Show, Wonderfalls, Fastlane, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Skin, Girls Club, Cracking Up, The Pitts, Firefly, Get Real, FreakyLinks, Wanda at Large, Costello, The Lone Gunmen, A Minute With Stan Hooper, “Normal, Ohio”, Pasadena, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddie, The $treet, American Embassy, Cedric The Entertainer, The Tick, Luis, and Greg the Bunny. Lois: Is there no hope? Peter: Well, I suppose if all those shows go down the tubes, we might have a shot.
spiralsheep on
September 30, 2008 5:05 pm
Cagney and Lacey are on my short list of 25 all-time favourite women characters. I love female friendship as a dramatic theme. I wish there was more of it about (and I put my money where my preferences are).
[...] like they thought we’d go away. Yonmei had a better idea. Enter the “Yes, we want Cagney & Lacey DVDs” online petition. Go sign it, and tell [...]
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You know, I was just thinking about Cagney and Lacey yesterday, while watching Burn Notice. (Which I sincerely doubt passes the Bechdel test, but I could be wrong. It’s sexist enough in other ways.) And I was thinking about the fact that it did pass the test, and wondering why twenty years ago we could have a show with two very strong female leads but we can’t have one today.
And what amuses and saddens me most about this is the fact that I never really was a fan of the show.
Guess I need to look into that series.
I’m not sure you’re right about FOX’s reasoning, though, since I’ve seen little evidence that FOX understands how to market shows or that they use any reasoning in their efforts to find good material. They put on random stuff (most of which is crap) and then cancel vast swaths of it (including the stuff that’s really good):
Peter: Well, unfortunately, Lois, there’s just no more room on the schedule. We’ve just got to accept the fact that Fox has to make room for terrific shows like Dark Angel, Titus, Undeclared, Action, That 80’s Show, Wonderfalls, Fastlane, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Skin, Girls Club, Cracking Up, The Pitts, Firefly, Get Real, FreakyLinks, Wanda at Large, Costello, The Lone Gunmen, A Minute With Stan Hooper, “Normal, Ohio”, Pasadena, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddie, The $treet, American Embassy, Cedric The Entertainer, The Tick, Luis, and Greg the Bunny.
Lois: Is there no hope?
Peter: Well, I suppose if all those shows go down the tubes, we might have a shot.
Cagney and Lacey are on my short list of 25 all-time favourite women characters. I love female friendship as a dramatic theme. I wish there was more of it about (and I put my money where my preferences are).
Thank you for the post.
I missed the 80s (alive but no tv) and really want to see this show!
[...] like they thought we’d go away. Yonmei had a better idea. Enter the “Yes, we want Cagney & Lacey DVDs” online petition. Go sign it, and tell [...]