Review: Cagney & Lacey: The Menopause Years

I must admit to at first finding “The Menopause Years” a rather annoying title for this boxed set of the four post-series movies (1994-6) of those ground-breaking detectives: Cagney and Lacey. But lo and behold, the first movie “The Return” - the highest rated TV movie of 1994 - actually deals with the onset of Christine Cagney’s (Sharon Gless) hot flashes, shortly after she marries, at 49, a rich businessman. And not just that. It looks at ageing, as Harvey, Mary Beth Lacey’s (Tyne Daly) sweet husband, has a major heart-attack and becomes afraid to have sex.  Because of his incapacity for employment, Lacey returns from retirement to work with Cagney again.

In “Together Again,” the friends are trying to solve a case and save an innocent drunk’s life. Cagney, still prickly after all these years, chases a homeless man who has stolen her take-away across the city. She’s a bit on edge because her new married life isn’t really working out. And with its characteristic social awareness, Harvey (John Karlen), Lacey’s sick husband, notes that they are one more health crisis away from bankruptcy.

“The View Through the Glass Ceiling” contrasts Lacey’s principled approach to life with Cagney’s self-centered ambition. Dealing with a case about a possible dirty cop brings out the worst in Cagney. “True Convictions” puts Cagney into another man’s arms, this time the married father of a murdered young woman. Her new attachment gives her yet another opportunity to demonstrate her lack of principles, as she places her affair above her legal responsibilities.

If you’re happy to walk down memory’s lane with the ever-empathetic Tyne Daly (Lacey) and the nearly-butch Sharon Gless (Cagney), you’ll find these four 90-minute films a treat. But it is in the accompanying four interviews that the precious treasure of this set resides. First is Barney Rosenzweig, the driving force behind the series, explaining that he was motivated by his friendships with early feminists. He built this first television model that privileged character over action. Rosenweig’s recitation of what it took for the series to make it to the screen is riveting. It was an international success “I was backstage when Paul McCartney asked Sharon Gless for her autograph,” he reveals.

His now-wife Barbara Corday and her friend Barbara Avedon co-created the original series and these later films. In her interview she points to how their feminism impacted on both the process and the content of their work.  

Gless herself had to fight her corner at the start. “I was the blond with the tits, and I wasn’t going to have it.” Her criticism of these movies is accurate: “The worst move was having Cagney get married.” She points out that theirs was the first cop series in which cases were actually lost.

Daly, a more political observer, comments about her character’s married life: “We weren’t beautiful and we weren’t invested in being beautiful. We were sexy. And we were blue collar. We weren’t the couple on the hill. We were the couple on the couch.”

Overall, the Cagney & Lacey franchise garnered 36 Emmy nominations and won 14 Emmy Awards in their seven seasons and when the network tried to cancel them, a successful letter-writing campaign kept them on air from 1982-88. In these later films, while we may find their personalities more pronounced and their fitness a bit eroded, they continue to be unapologetically engaging.

This review first appeared on www.EdgeBoston.com

DETAILS
4 DVD box set
$39.95 SRP

BOX SET CONTENTS:
•    Disc 1. Cagney & Lacey: The Return (November 6, 1994)
•    Disc 2. Cagney & Lacey: Together Again (May 2, 1995)
•    Disc 3. Cagney & Lacey: The View Through the Glass Ceiling (October 25, 1995)
•    Disc 4. Cagney & Lacey: True Convictions (January 29, 1996)

 

Comments

[Allen Young]

I was very pleased and amused to see this review of the Cagney and Lacey videos. I enjoyed the program very much when it was on TV, and I did not even know there were feature-length movies afterwards, so I am going to look for them on Netflix. I'm not sure it's included in these films, but Cagney's struggle with alcoholism and recovery -- something fairly new for TV -- was important in the original TV show and I wonder how that was dealt with in the follow-up series. I was tickled by Katz's use of the term "nearly butch" for Sharon Gless. I would like to add that many, many viewers were pleased to see Sharon Glass play the very interesting and "over the top" role of Debbie, the PFLAG mom, in the series "Queer as Folk." I thought she was very brave to say "yes" to that part, and I hope she had a blast working on the series. Also, I am among many gay men who are grateful because she added not only talent but prestige to the controversial series.

[Laura Tillem]

Gless is wonderful in Burn Notice, so adorable that they had to increase her part after the first season.

[Sue Katz]

Allen, I totally agree that C&L broke a lot of ground - not only on substance, but also on the whole form of cop shows. The interviews were particularly revealing about that.
Laura, how great to see you turn up on my blog! I haven't seen Burn Notice - where is it shown?

[Laura Tillem]

http://www.usanetwork.com/series/burnnotice/ It's not great but I find it quite enjoyable.

[eleanor roffman]

thanks for posting this. it brings back fond memories of having a show i watched weekly. the fact that they are menopausal seems background to the actual issues. they are women in menopause rather than menopausal women (this stage of life not being all that defines them).

[Sue Katz]

The title is very annoying and there are other things one learns from the interviews about the obstacles put in their way when they were doing rather revolutionary things on the series. You put it very well, though, Eleanor - as always.

[Gema Gray]

Being a young teenager in the Cagney & Lacey years these women were my role models for modern, professional, strong, women. But they were human and "real" too. I had loved Charlie's Angels as a younger child but I always knew they lived a fantasy world. These two lived in the real world with real problems and real dilemmas, arguments and disagreements. The cases they were working were simply a foil to explore their personalities. Many shows do this now, but back then they were among the first to go beyond the good guys getting the bad guys.

Thanks for the nostalgia Katz.

[Jacqueline]

Sue, your readers may be interested to know that Cagney & Lacey now has an official website at www.cagneyandlacey.com and that Sharon also has an official website (www.sharongless.com) linking to some of her other projects - such as a new play, based on Jane Juska's book of the same name, which opens in San Francisco in Jan 2010 with a limited run. For further details please see www.aroundheeledwoman.com

[Mia]

I felt I grew up with so many strong female tv characters which included Cagney and Lacey. I loved the fact that Cagney lived in a kewl loft apt and had different dates and spoke her mind. I always felt like Lacey life seemed claustrophobic but they made such a great pair.

[Samanta shilly]

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[Chris Parker]

I already read that on EdgeBoston pages and I enjoyed reading it now.
I like your words;
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