cagney and lacey
Breast Cancer Awareness Month: TV Characters Who Fought the Disease
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and this year marks the 25th anniversary of the international campaign. All month long, breast cancer charities will hold events (like the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure ®) to increase awareness of the disease and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention and cure. (Learn more about breast cancer at AOL Health.)
TV shows have done their part to help increase awareness through characters either fighting breast cancer, or dealing with the possibility they might have it. Check out these five programs with characters who tackled the issue of breast cancer ...
Review: Burn Notice - A Dark Road (mid-season premiere)

(S03E10) "People get hurt and things get complicated no matter what you do." - Fiona
Welcome back, Burn Notice. We've missed you. The story picked up a day or two after the resolution of the Strickler thing, with Fiona still on the mend and Michael more than a little miffed by the missed opportunity to get back in the spy game. And if sore feelings and healing wounds weren't painful enough, there's a new threat for Michael.
Cagney and Lacey reunite on first Burn Notice of 2010
Have you received all your Christmas gifts? Would you like one more? Okay, here it is, when Burn Notice returns for the winter season on January 21, the first episode will include guest star Tyne Daly. That's right, Tyne will be reuniting with her Cagney & Lacey co-star Sharon Gless. This is will be the first of seven new Burn Notices till next summer.There's another Cagney & Lacey story in the news. CSI creator Anthony Zuiker wants to revive the show for CBS. For those who don't recall, Cagney & Lacey was the top female cop drama of the 1980's -- actually of all time. It was a serious police drama, unlike something jiggly like Charlie's Angels or safe and pedestrian like Police Woman.
Burn Notice reuniting Cagney and Lacey this week - UPDATE

Based on the previews showing Strickler asking Michael to turn on Fiona, the summer season finale of Burn Notice promises to be a bang-up episode. Especially after Fiona walked out on Michael last week because of his obsession with getting back in the intelligence community, i.e. getting the burn notice lifted. However, amid all those hijinks will be a reunion that many, many fans will be tuning in to see -- Cagney and Lacey. That's right, Tyne Daly is guesting on Burn Notice with her former partner Sharon Gless, a.k.a. Michael's mom.
It's taken more than a year for the powers that be to swing this casting coup, and not surprisingly, they've saved it for the season finale. I'm just hoping that they've found a way to weave it into the main story and not make it just a silly subplot, because Daly and Gless deserve a showcase.
Best '80s TV Shows
It may have been the Me Decade.But in TV land, the sisters were doin' it for themselves and finally getting respect as cops, war nurses and working moms; iconic shows like 'Hill Street Blues,' 'St. Elsewhere' and 'L.A. Law' would forever change (for the better) cop, medical and legal dramas; and no idea was too high concept to fill a primetime spot (time-travelling physicist? check; housewife-turned-CIA op? check; New York City beauty in love with a subterranean monster? check).
The bottom line: They all add up to 10 years of fine channel surfing -- and our awesome list of the 40 best series of the 1980s.
50 Best TV Dramas Ever
It's not easy winnowing more than 50 years of small-screen gems into a list of 50.But AOL TV's picks of the top TV dramas include the most brilliant doctors and lawyers, the angst-iest teens, sci-fi series that transcend their genre molds, family dramas that both warm and break your heart, terrorist- and mobster-fighting heroes ... and a show that combined the best of family and gangster drama into one unforgettable series.
Click through to see all 50 of the best TV dramas of all time.
In the Limelight: Tyne Daly as McDreamy's Mom - VIDEO
I've been a fan of Tyne Daly going back to her Cagney & Lacey days. I loved that show! It kind of made me want to be a cop - for about three minutes anyway. So I was ultra excited when I heard she would be playing McDreamy's mom on Grey's Anatomy. Isabelle posted a spoiler about it last week. Apparently, Tyne will be playing Derek's mom, Carolyn, who travels to Seattle to meet Meredith for the first time. You know, I can really see her as Derek's mom. That's good casting.
I've got a little clip below from Access Hollywood, but first, let me sing Tyne's praises for a minute. Here's a woman who never really fit into the Hollywood "mold" (i.e. blonde and/or thin and/or a party animal), and that's probably why she's been working steadily in the entertainment industry for some 50 years. Yes, on her IMDB page, her first credit was "girl" in a TV show called Foreign Intrigue in 1954. She went on to do bit parts in dozens of TV shows until landing the role of Detective Mary Beth Lacey in Cagney & Lacey from 1982 to 1988.
Life on Mars gets female cop, played by Gretchen Mol
I was really excited about the prospect of Life on Mars coming to ABC television. I speak in the past tense because everything that has happened since that initial announcement has me doubting that ABC's Americanized Life on Mars will ever make it out of the first season. It may not even air six episodes. There have been production changes, the first pilot was trashed, they've inserted new characters, they've remade the mythology of the show (with the approval of the British creators), and now more news. The character of Annie Norris on Life on Mars will be played by Gretchen Mol. Yes, the beautiful, sexy and very blond Gretchen Mol. (Okay, she can dye her hair.)
I have the ultimate respect for Ms. Mol. She was excellent in 3:10 to Yuma (a really amazing Western that should have gotten some Oscar consideration). I just think she's the wrong choice for the role of Annie.
Cagney & Lacey Season One - DVD review
Before you get a copy of this DVD you have to do two things: Watch the TV movie with Loretta Swit as Chris Cagney, and completely forget that Meg Foster ever played the part at all.
The DVD collection of the first season of Cagney & Lacey contains no episodes featuring Meg Foster. This comes as little surprise considering all the drama that accompanied getting C&L on the air in the first place.
As with most DVD collections, this one is really only for original fans of the show. The picture quality has been improved very little, if at all, and the episodes are dripping with '80s cop drama earmarks, but still you can't ignore the groundbreaking plot lines. Aside from the daily struggle Christine & Mary Beth face as female detectives, there are also episodes about drug abuse, date rape and struggles with alcoholism that, for the time, were incredibly ground breaking.
New TV on DVD releases this week
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.
- The 4400 - Season 3
- Cagney & Lacey - Season 1
- Daniel Boone - Season 3
- Everybody Loves Raymond - Season 8
- Jason of Star Command - Complete Series
- McLeod's Daughters - Season 2
- That 70s Show - Season 6
- Voltron: Defender of the Universe: Collection 3: Green Lion
- The Waltons - Season 5
Cagney and Lacey coming to DVD
Are you a fan of Cagney and Lacey, or do you just enjoy collecting things that have the words "Cagney" and "Lacey" on them for reasons you can't really explain? If so, I have good news: Cagney and Lacey is coming to DVD. TVShowsOnDVD linked to this USA Today story that reads the DVDs will be out soon, though what exactly those sets will consist of is still unknown.
Cagney and Lacey starred Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless as two female police officers working in a male-dominated profession. Gless replaced actress Meg Foster as Cagney after the first six episodes. The series ran from 1982 to 1988 and was almost canceled after the first season, but was brought back when ratings improved during the summer reruns and fans wrote to CBS in protest. The series actually began in1981 as a made-for-TV movie with Loretta Swit playing the role of Cagney.
The Five: Tough broads
With Helen Mirren's Detective Tennison bowing out on Sunday's Prime Suspect finale, television is losing one of its finest tough broads. Tough broads have feelings and faults, but they're nobody's baby. They also don't give a crap what you think of them. They dress for utility not for style, and they work -- usually in domains stereotypically belonging to men.
We'll miss you, Detective Tennison. You are the inspiration for this list of tough TV broads - the ones little girls and little boys can look up to.
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