I believe there was one episode of this show which dealt with racism in the department and the use of racial slurs. It caused quite a stir because it was very confrontational and uncensored. I am interested to know if anyone recalls the title of that episode. Thank you.
"You're not right in the head/
and nor am I/ and this is why/
This is why I like you"
Hi,
I just saw this episode back in December (we have C&L on "ME TV" at 4 am) it is from, I am pretty sure, the early to mid-2nd season. I couldn't quite pinpoint the title from reading the list on this site, but I know it was around the episodes with the jewel thief that taunts Cagney and the cop who posed nude in a gay magazine...
Is it the one in which Carl Lumbly shoots the kid in Harlem and everyone tries to tell him that he's racist? it was a very interesting episode and yes, harsh words were bandied about...
It might even be the episdoe entitled "Affirmative Action" in which C&L dislike the female rookie assigned to them, because she's a sucky cop. I know it's before "Chop Shop", which is 2.18 (the one where Isbecki gets kidnapped by the car thieves.
You know what, it's not the one Called "Affirmative Action" it might even be 2.6 "internal Affairs"...I do think it was before the xmas episode where I think carl lumbly's wife is having her baby.
I know I haven't really helped, but I have tried to narrow it down. Definitely in the first 9 or so episodes of the 2nd season...
good luck
Thanks, I appreciate your help. That does narrow it down a bit.
I remember we had to watch it and write about it for school. It was uncomfortable to watch at the time, but you had to admire them for being honest about such a rough subject. I like a show that can deal intelligently with real problems.
"You're not right in the head/
and nor am I/ and this is why/
This is why I like you"
Yes!
I have only really been watching this show for a few months and I am in amazement at how intelligently this show is written. And the acting is mindblowing, too. It makes me sad to think how TV doesn't have this kind of integrity. Not that "fun" TV isn't great at times, but it's shocking how subtly and incredibly this show deals with 'issues'.
I have never once watched an episode and felt like "I saw that coming." Nothing is so pat in C&L's world and that is much appreciated.
Anyway, just babbling on about this show because I love it so much (and it's on right now!)
[deleted]
HI
I know this is months later, but I came across this bit of information:
"Perhaps the most shocking and controversial episode was in 1987, "The City is Burning", based on the December 1986 racial incident in Queens, New York's Howard Beach neighborhood. The explosive episode included racial slurs that were taboo in primetime."
Now I remember an episode with a lot of racial slurs involving Petrie that seemed to be much earlier than a last season episode.
Perhaps this one you watched...
And even a few more months later again....
"The City is Burning" recently re-ran and the n-word, among other slurs, were quite prominent in the episode.
I do remember the earlier episode with Petrie killing the kid in Harlem having some charged words, too, but this one really really did! Explosive stuff
and of course our gals solved the case....inadvertantly at first, but they did!
saved the day....and Cagney comes into the precinct and calls everyone in the room by their "culturally appropriate" slur...to make a point about how the crime was not racially motivated...
who knew?
Hi,
New here and just read that you have channel 23 that was airing Cagney & Lacey.. good for taping.
I've searched the station, and cannot find it. I've scanned through the early hours and hope I missed it. If you know if or when it's on, I'd appreciate any help. I see the talk about the DVD coming out, had I known it may not have been replayed .. I would have saved the entire shows on VHS.
I recall the episode you are talking about, &.. never payed attention to the titles unfortunately.. but it was when Marcus was accused of shooting the boy... and very intense at the end as well.
Thank you ..
It might even be the episdoe entitled "Affirmative Action" in which C&L dislike the female rookie assigned to them, because she's a sucky cop.
The one where Chris and Mary Beth have to deal with that Diane Turner rookie beanbrain is titled Affirmative Action; it's not the one where Marcus is accused of being a racist.
On Affirmative Action, I really felt for both Chris and Mary Beth; I get the feeling from re-seeing this episode that it might have been a set-up from the higher management to try to make Chris and Mary Beth look bad no matter what they did or didn't do. Remember this was the anti-feminist backlash 1980's and women were generally unwelcome in the police force.
I hated that stupid, arrogant Diane Turner; I hated how she badmouthed Chris and Mary Beth behind their backs, then had the nerve to accuse them of being jealous of her! As if!
I could see why esp. poor Chris got so frusterated with her; I suspect Diane might have even been an imposter like Working Girl's Tess McGill; she seemed totally ignorant of several things that even a rookie cop has been trained in, despite all her bragging about her so-called exploits and her screaming at Chris that she'd worked the streets.
I kind of laugh, but also feel sympathy for Chris when Chris is trying to interview a frightened witness about a baby's kidnapping and stupid Diane shrieks out threats to the witness, scares the witness into near madness and in the process, ruptures Chris' eardrum. I could tell Chris was getting a headache in addition to being very frustrated by the time they got out to the car; I really felt for Chris there. I like how Chris, in her usual no-nonsense way, angrily tells Diane, Just...follow my lead! This was something Chris actually should not have had to spell out; when in training, anyone knows that a new person's job is to follow the trainer's lead and watch and observe what the training person does.
I was so proud of both Chris and Mary Beth for keeping their dignity in the face of Diane's nastiness and attitude problems; I loved how when they discovered Diane unconcious with a fractured skull (due to Diane's own stupidity there), both Chris and Mary Beth made it their priority to make sure she was going to be all right; I liked how Mary Beth cradled her in her arms and talked softly to her (I think I even saw tears in Mary Beth's eyes for a second there).
Then the ungrateful rookie brat had the gall to send back the flowers Chris had so kindly sent her in the hospital! I could see poor Chris was hurt by this and I could tell how Chris was feeling grateful to have someone as wonderful as Mary Beth for a partner and friend.
Yeah, I think the Petrie deal was another eppie, not Affirmative Action.
Christine + Mary Beth forever
I'm watching Episode 1 from the first series, and a comment was just made about Asian (Chinese possibly) men 'all looking the same'. I was quite shocked at that kind of thing being allowed. If thats not he comment you are talking about then I'm disappointed that there are more comments like this.
Having said all that....the real police force is full of a lot more stuff than that (allegedly!)
It depends on who made the comment; I'll have to check back and see. If it was someone like Isbecki or maybe even Samuels, then I'd have to say consider the source since those two often make such stupid comments, esp. blatantly sexist remarks that would not be tolerated today. But I cannot imagine anyone as intelligent as either of the women or Marcus or LaGuardia saying anything so stupid.
Christine + Mary Beth forever
Wasn't there also an episode where an abortion clinic was bombed that caused quite a stir?
shareI can't think of the name, but I remember the episode when it first aired. I was in high school at the time.
It's probably more shocking now than it was then, because people really did just toss around racial epithets then, in real life, even though they weren't allowed on TV.
What was great about the episode was the fact that it was acknowledging this. When Chris calls each person in the squad room by a racial epithet, and then says that's the last time those words will be used, then Petrie says it's nice to pretend, but Cagney didn't have to explain to his little daughter what the word "n******" meant last night, there's a subtext there that entertainment media has been pretending a problem doesn't exist, as though that will wish it away, and that really isn't the correct way to address it.
TV had gone fairly abruptly from being all white men in important jobs the 50s, 60s, and early 70s, to having token women and minorities who never had any problems or issues fitting in, and never addressed the tension and very real difficulties the first minorities to cross color and gender lines faced in the real world.
A lot in Cagney and Lacey is dated, but when it was new, it was one of the most raw and real shows there was. It's probably impossible to recreate that for people now.