Created by Nigel McKeand, Abram S. Ginnes & Howard Berk
By the early eighties, most of the Rat Pack and its various hanger-ons were starting to show their age, but they still had enough industrial clout and retro cool to have various projects green-lit on their names alone.
That seems to be the case with Cassie & Co., a  so-so 1982 drama, starring Angie Dickinson, the perpetual Rat Pack “Mascot,” as private eye CASSIE HOLLAND.
Originally intended as a sitcom, the show was transformed into a drama when the powers-that-be decided the premise actually wasn’t funny enough. It followed the adventures of Holland, a hard-nosed cop who had recently traded in her badge for a private ticket following her divorce, taking over Lyman “Shack” Shackelford’s Los Angeles detective agency.
With the help of her ex-con secretary Meryl (Dori Brenner) and her gym instructor Benny (A Martinez), she sets up shop, working all manner of cases. She was also more than willing to count on her looks (she definitely still had it!), her former cop buddies and even a little inside info from her ex, attorney Mike Holland (Alex Cord), who conveniently works in the DA’s office, to get the job done.
Essentially a reboot of Dickinson’s Pepper Anderson character from Police Woman (1974-78), the show never really caught on, despite a slick and promising opening credit sequence that made a big deal of zooming in almost exclusively on Dickinson’s not-unattractive gams, and the jazzy canoodling of a theme song written and performed by Grover Washington Jr.
The show made its debut as a 1982 mid-season replacement, but was soon being re-scheduled and postponed–a sure sign the network wasn’t feeling it. Its run of thirteen episodes finally sputtered out in late August, never to be seen again, although by that November, Dickinson was back in the saddle, costarring in a made-for-TV private eye drama, One Shoe Makes It Murder, alongside Robert Mitchum.
TELEVISION
- CASSIE & CO.
(1982, NBC)
13 60-minute episodes
Created by Nigel McKeand, Abram S. Ginnes & Howard Berk
Developed by Carol Evan McKeand, Burton Armus
Writers: Burton Armus, Will Loren, Mark Rosenthal, Robert Crais, E. Nick Alexander, Howard Berk, Peter Allan Fields, Abram S. Ginnes, Ted Leighton, Will Lorin, Carol Evan McKeand
Directors: Alf Kjellin, Arnold Laven, Alex March, Christian I. Nyby II, Lawrence Doheny, Bob Kelljan, Bernard L. Kowalski, Edward Parone, Alexander Singer
Theme Song: “Cassie’s Theme” performed by Grover Washington, Jr.
Starring Angie Dickinson as CASSIE HOLLAND
With Alex Cord as Mike Holland
Dori Brenner as Meryl Foxx
A Martinez as Benny Silva
and John Ireland as Lyman ‘Shack’ Shackelford
Guest stars Dixie Carter, Henry Darrow, Robert Englund, Ed Harris, Robert Hooks, Scott Hylands, Richard Jaeckel, Sally Kemp, John Larroquette, Donna Pescow, Gregory Sierra, Lesley Woods- SEASON ONE
- “The Golden Silence” (January 29, 1982)
- “Replay” (February 5, 1982)
- “Gorky’s Army” (February 12, 1982)
- “Dark Side of the Moon” (February 19, 1982)
- “One Thief Too Many” (June 15, 1982)
- “Anything for a Friend” (June 22, 1982)
- “Man Overboard” (June 29, 1982)
- “Friend in Need” (July 6, 1982)
- “There Went the Bride” (July 23, 1982)
- “Fade Out” (July 30, 1982)
- “One Less Vote” (August 6 1982)
- “Lover Come Bac” (August 13, 1982)
- “A Ring Ain’t Always a Circle” (August 20, 1982)
-
THE DICK OF THE DAY
- September 5, 2021
THE BOTTOM LINE: Angie Dickinson, the eternal Rat Pack “Mascot,” reboots Pepper Anderson as an LA private eye, but even a great theme  by Grover Washington Jr. and those gams couldn’t save this short-lived series from 1982.
- September 5, 2021
Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
