Cagney & Lacey & Barney Rosenzweig, Part 1

80s TV Ladies

Buckle up, kids - We’re kicking off our series on Cagney & Lacey!
Sharon & Susan begin their look back at the classic 80’s TV series Cagney & Lacey with a conversation with the show’s creator and executive producer, Barney Rosenzweig. Rosenzweig’s career spans five decades and hundreds of hours of television including Charlie’s Angels, Daniel Boone, Christie, Twice in a Lifetime, and The Trials of Rosie O’Neill.
But he made TV history when he approached writers Barbara Avedon and Barbara Corday with a simple yet revolutionary idea: “Write a Robert Redford/Paul Newman buddy movie -- but for women.” They in turn wrote Cagney & Lacey to answer the burning 1980s question: “Can women be buddies under pressure?” Together, they created a legendary television series that Rosenzweig elegantly describes as “a show about two women – who just happen to be cops”.
Cagney & Lacey is a police procedural drama - starring Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless - that premiered in 1982 and ran until 1988. The franchise included 125 episodes and five TV movies. The show has been the recipient of 37 Primetime Emmy nominations with 14 wins, including four wins for a leading actress in a drama for Daly and two wins for Gless.
THE CONVERSATION

• Three Cagneys, Two “pilots”… and One Lacey! - How Tyne Daly’s Mary Beth Lacey went through three Christine Cagneys: Loretta Switt, Meg Foster -- and finally Sharon Gless.
• But what’s a Showrunner? - Barney explains his role in collaborating with writers, directors, actors and artists to bring a singular vision to life.
• A Life-Changing Epiphany – How a night at the movies with future wife Barbara Avedon showed a “50’s guy” what sexism really is.
• How Cagney & Lacey were almost played by… Anne Bancroft & Raquel Welch??
• Working publicity for MGM's Howard Strickling and directors Martin Ritt and Tony Richardson - which one was "the worst experience of my life"?
• How to shoot Toronto for New York – there is a trick…
• How a chance meeting with Suzanne Levine got Cagney & Lacey on the cover of Ms. Magazine – and a 48 share!

So join us as we talk about University of Southern California yell-leaders, 1965 MGM-epic Ben Hur, car bombs – and throwing up over “director’s cuts”!
AUDIOGRAPHY
- Visit the Official Cagney & Lacey website.
- Read Barney Rosenzweig’s Blog!
- Get Barney’s book: “Cagney & Lacey… and me”
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For more information or to download a transcript of this podcast, visit our website - 80sTVLadies.com
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