Cassie & Co. (1982)

Debuting January 29, 1982. NBC, 10/9pm Central 

Starring Angie Dickinson as ex-cop turned private investigator Cassie Holland, Cassie & Co. debuted as a midseason entry on NBC on Fridays opposite new CBS primetime soap Falcon Crest. Produced by Johnny’s Carson Productions, it was initially conceived as a half-hour sitcom(!) where Dickenson’s character gets a job in a department store. After filming a pilot, it was quickly realized that a bland ‘woman in the workplace’ format just didn’t work for the actress, and the entire original concept was scrapped. As she told the press at the time, “𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝘁. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗜 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗱𝘆. 𝗜𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗻𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗯𝗼𝗱𝘆, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁.”

As you might imagine, changing from a three-camera sitcom to an hour-long filmed drama created a significant production delay, postponing the show from fall to mid-season. It was then thought to have Dickenson reprise her Police Woman character Pepper Anderson, but this idea was also scrapped. Instead, Dickinson’s character Cassie Holland takes over a Los Angeles-based detective agency from Lyman Shackelford (John Ireland), who provides her with advice. The series also featured Meryl Fox as Cassie’s secretary, Mike Holland as her District Attorney ex-husband and Benny Silva (A Martinez) as her part-time legman. The series featured a soft and sultry music theme with strong percussion segments, called “Cassie’s Theme,” which was composed and performed by jazz musician Grover Washington Jr.

Despite the efforts to create a show that would play to Dickinson’s former role and strengths as an actress, Cassie & Co. struggled to find an audience. The series ranked 70th out of 72 shows by its fourth episode. The following week, NBC replaced both it and McClain’s Law with NBC Friday Night at the Movies. Remaining episodes were burned off that summer. The series was rerun in 1986 on Lifetime, and the entire run is viewable on YouTube. 13 episodes in all were produced.

Researching NBC’s 1981 fall season, you could come to the conclusion that the network was cursed that year. In the wake of Fred Silverman leaving, NBC’s pride may have been showing, but no less than 9 shows experienced production problems resulting from various issues: Death? Injuries? Illness? Resignations and contract holdouts? All of the above, please, as James Garner fell off a horse, delaying Bret Maverick a month; Rock Hudson needed sudden open-heart surgery, delaying The Devlin Connection three months; David Brinkley quit NBC after 38 years, jumping ship to ABC; both Erik Estrada and Gary Coleman contract negotiations resulted in their characters missing from eps of CHiPs and Diff’rent Strokes; production on Harper Valley PTA stopped for NETWORK RETOOLING; the overly ambitious drama Chicago Story was still reeling from the 1980 writers’ strike; and the supervising producer of The Powers of Matthew Star dies, delaying the show first to midseason, then an entire year after a serious on-set accident injures both lead actors with Peter Barton put in the hospital for a month with 2nd and 3rd degree burns over 18% of his body.