The one surviving main actors from the 1974 movie Police Girl

Crime dramas have been thriving within the Seventies (and later parodied in the 1980s) because of “Dragnet,” when tv screenwriter Robert L. Collins found what counted as a superb concept on the finish of the Richard M. Nixon administration: what if as a substitute of “cop,” “policeman”ladies” NBC mentioned, “Present us,” and Collins responded with the buzzy “Police Girl” starring Angie Dickinson as Sergeant Suzanne “Pepper” Anderson.

“Police Girl” was about as progressive as could possibly be anticipated from an hour-long tv collection within the ’70s, whereas it was uncommon for a any style led by a girl. As soon as per week, Dickinson introduced himself as a quasi-feminist determine as an ultra-competent officer of the regulation with a penchant for dressing in fitted shirts and slacks. At the very least as soon as, she snuck out in a swimsuit. And as she complained to the press years later, the writers favored to have her character put into motion whereas he was taking a shower.

Regardless of these concessions to excited viewers, the collection nonetheless had a constructive affect on regulation enforcement to the extent that it led to a rise within the variety of feminine candidates for police departments nationwide (though it’s acceptable to notice that, according to the Legal Aid Officein 2023, ladies will make up solely 12% of all sworn officers). And whereas it was by no means a Nielsen rankings success exterior of its first season, it carried out fairly effectively till it was moved to an unfavorable timeslot for its fourth and remaining season.

“Police Girl” may have been a star automobile for Dickinson, but it surely labored due to the camaraderie of her ensemble. Dickinson’s Pepper had terrific chemistry with the just lately deceased Earl Holliman as his superior, Sergeant Invoice Crowley, in addition to the undercover duo of Charles Dierkop’s Pete Royster and Ed Bernard’s Joe Types.

Provided that the present has been off the air for 46 years, it ought to come as no shock that we have misplaced extra than simply Holliman. However you may be completely happy to know that two collection regulars are nonetheless with us!

Should you’ve by no means seen “Police Girl,” essentially the most correct description I can provide is that it was a extra subdued “Charlie’s Angels.” The undercover investigations launched in opposition to Pepper and the fellows have been normally critical stuff, however you’d by no means confuse the present with “Dragnet,” a lot much less “Serpico.” It was stress-free viewing when it initially aired on NBC and performs as camp right now. That is my approach of claiming that Ed Bernard’s Joe Types was nobody’s concept of ​​a badass detective like, say, John Shaft by Richard Roundtree.

When “Police Girl” ended its run in 1978, Bernard went straight to the function of Principal Jim Willis in Bruce Paltrow’s briefly well-liked highschool basketball collection “The White Shadow.” A couple of years later, he landed a collection common function as Lt. Invoice Giles on “Hardcastle and McCormick.” After that, he settled into one-off appearances as a police officer or choose in movies and exhibits like “Doogie Howser, MD,” “Homeward Certain: The Unbelievable Journey” and “NYPD Blue.” His final credit score was as Moody Brown in 2005’s “Chilly Case,” so it seems Bernard, now 85, has retired from performing.

Angie Dickinson is, with out hyperbole, a Hollywood legend. The previous magnificence queen first broke onto tv in her early 20s with appearances on exhibits like “Dying Valley Days,” “Gunsmoke” and “Wagon Practice.” She made her movie debut in “Fortunate Me” in 1954 and obtained her first starring function alongside James Arness in “Gun the Man Down” in 1956. Enjoying the plucky gambler Feathers reverse John Wayne in Howard Hawks’ western masterpiece, “Rio Bravo” in a single day, she turned a full-fledged film star. She then appeared as Frank Sinatra’s spouse Beatrice in “Ocean’s 11,” the femme fatale in Don Siegel’s noir traditional “The Killers,” and a distinct kind of harmful lady in John’s villainous “Level Clean.” Boorman.

After a rocky begin to the Seventies, Dickinson was on the lookout for one thing each prestigious and steady. This undertaking turned out to be “Police Girl”. As famous, his Sgt. Suzanne “Pepper” Anderson was each a intercourse image and an aspirational determine at a time when the American feminist motion was booming. Dickinson additionally acquired three Primetime Emmy nominations for her portrayal of Pepper, which might, infuriatingly, be the final time she obtained critical accolades (we’d have nominated her for outdoing Janet Leigh-ing Janet Leigh within the Brian De Palma’s crackling erotic thriller “Dressed to Kill”).

Dickinson continued to behave in movie and tv all through the Nineteen Eighties and 2000s. Her notable tv appearances included collection like “The Larry Sanders Present,” “Ellen” and “Saturday Evening Dwell” (which she hosted in 1987), whereas in movies she was memorable in “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,” “Sabrina” and “Pay It Ahead.” Her final efficiency was within the Hallmark film “Mending Fences” in 2009. Since then, the 93-year-old has been having fun with life and sometimes giving interviews to fortunate folks like me.