Created by Steven Brown
Intended as a possible spin-off from Cagney & Lacey, Orion Productions had high hopes for “The Bounty Hunter,” an unsold pilot disguised as an episode in the popular show’s third season. BrianDennehy starred as MICHAEL MacGRUDER, a tough guy manhunter from Michigan on the trail of a bail jumper, who’s wanted in New York City by NYPD detective Chris Cagney and Mary Beth Lacey for armed robbery.
But with the bond running out in a few days, MacGruder’s not pussyfooting around, and ends up ticking off Cagney and Lacey.
The spin-off never happened, but big burly Dennehy, who was born to play some sort of cop, had already played a house dick turned casino detective in the short-lived (for good reason) 1979 TV series Big Shamus, Little Shamus, and would go on to play an actual private eye in the 1991 feature film, F/X2.
TELEVISION
- CAGNEY AND LACEY
(1981-88, CBS)
Created by Barbara Avedon and Barbara Corday
STARRING Â Sharon Gless as CHRIS CAGNEY
and Tyne Daly as MARY BETH LACEY- “The Bounty Hunter”
(April 23, 1984)
Aired: April 23, 1984
60 minutes
Written by Steve Brown
Directed by Bill Duke
Starring Brian Dennehy, Â as MICHAEL MacGRUDER
Also starring Laura Prange, Peter Voight, Dennis Pratt
- “The Bounty Hunter”
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
