Okay, Now I am Happy!

Oh how I loved this show.... a long time ago, I registered at Amazon to be notified when this series was finally released on DVD! I am thrilled that it will soon be in my hot (okay, none of me is very warm today! Brrrr) little (and, to be truthful, none of me is exactly little...) hands. (Hey...I DO have hands you know!)

Saturday, February 17, 2007 Groundbreaking 'Cagney & Lacey'

is headed for DVD

By ERIN CARLSON

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

It has been a long while since Tyne Daly has seen an episode of "Cagney & Lacey," her 1980s police drama about a female detective duo fighting crime in a man's world. "I haven't seen it for 17 years or whatever it's been," Daly, who played Mary Beth Lacey, told The Associated Press this week. "Eighteen years? Twenty-five years? ... So, you know, I haven't seen them in a very, very long time, but walking down the street in New York City I still get 'Cagney and Lacey' instead of, you know, other stuff I've done." The series, which featured Sharon Gless as Chris Cagney, will mark its 25th anniversary on May 8 with the DVD release of the show's first season. The four-disc package, from MGM Home Entertainment, also contains a two-part documentary and commentary from Gloria Steinem, who championed the show for featuring women in roles that typically went to men. "I'll be really interested to see if anybody wants to see them again," said Daly, 60. "Cagney & Lacey," which ran on CBS from 1982 to 1988, had a "dramatic" start, she recalled. The show was canceled at the end of its first season, only to be recalled by CBS after devoted fans flooded the network with letters. The show went on to win 14 Emmys, including four for Daly and two for Gless. "It changed the history of television for women," Gless said. "Absolutely changed it." Gless, 63, said she has "never seen a better female character" than Cagney, who struggled with alcoholism and man troubles. "She was ambitious, very strong," she said. "She was very complicated. She was kind of screwed up. Had a lousy attitude, hated authority. She was not what one would ever consider a hero, and that's why I love her. But she was. She was just very, very real." People connected with the show, Daly said, because "they weren't getting told stories that were primarily about women. ... We didn't tell stories that were about them as much, unless they were the victims."

Now content as a "lady of leisure," Daly, the daughter of the late actor James Daly and the sister of actor Tim Daly, looks back on the show as "a good job." Gless, who recently starred on Showtime's "Queer as Folk," was lured by "the best material." "I took the part because I thought it was a great script," said Gless. "I didn't take it because I wanted to be a role model for the '80s, you know, which is what happened. "I mean, I think I can speak for Tyne, if anybody had come up to us and said, 'How would you two women like to be role models for the '80s?' (then), I would have run in the other direction," she said.