Staying Fit
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Edie Falco, 56, who played a mob wife on The Sopranos and an addict on Nurse Jackie, debuts this week as the Los Angeles Police Department's first female chief on Tommy (CBS, Thursdays starting Feb. 6, 10 p.m.). She joins a corps of TV women crime solvers that goes back to the 1960s and gave grownup actresses far greater visibility and impact on our culture.
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Angie Dickinson, Police Woman (1974-78)
The phrase “police woman” sounded bizarre to people in 1974, but Dickinson, now 88, made her tough yet feminine crime buster, Sgt. “Pepper” Anderson, a big hit and changed the sexist way America thinks. Yes, Pepper solved crimes by impersonating women trapped in traditional roles: nurse, teacher, flight attendant, prostitute. But when she yelled, “Freeze, turkey!” at a perp — they listened.
Available on: DVD.
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Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless, Cagney & Lacey (1982-88)
TV had seen crime-fighting females before, but the idea of a female-buddies cop show was revolutionary. Cagney was a working-class mom, Lacey single, gruff and ambitious, but they both knew how to kick crook butt on the street and then laugh about it together in the john (which they called “the jane"). Cagney helped Lacey get through breast cancer; Lacey helped Cagney battle alcoholism. They seemed like real people. Even if they once had to go undercover dressed as a pineapple and a tomato, they got respect.
Streaming on: Amazon, iTunes. Also on DVD, and the four post-series Cagney & Lacey tele-films are on a DVD called The Menopause Years.
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Angela Lansbury, Murder, She Wrote (1984-96)
Lansbury, 94, won worldwide fame at 59 as Agatha Christie-like Jessica Fletcher, a smart and successful mystery writer who put all that skill to work for real when her small town, Cabot Cove, became infested by murderers and she had to solve a case a week. Older widow characters used to be demeaned on TV, but Fletcher was sharper, wittier, and more independent and well-traveled than the youngsters. So what if she couldn't drive? She got around.
Streaming on: Amazon, Philo.
