As any
Cagney & Lacey fan knows, the series has had a rather unusual broadcast history! The original 1981 pilot telefilm included the show's staple star, Tyne Daly as "Lacey", but instead of Sharon Gless in the "Cagney" role we instead saw Loretta Swit (
M*A*S*H). When the regular series debuted as a mid-season replacement in early 1982, Swit had been replaced with Meg Foster. Then by the fall of the same year Foster had been replaced by Sharon Gless. After that season, though, the series was actually canceled...then it was brought back after a letter-writing campaign and a big notice at the Emmy Awards (4 nominations plus a win for Daly). When the show ended in 1988, it wasn't final either. In the mid-90s there were 4 post-series telefilm specials that aired:
- Cagney & Lacey - The Return (November 1994)
- Cagney & Lacey - Together Again (May 1995)
- Cagney & Lacey - The View Through the Glass Ceiling (October 1995)
- Cagney & Lacey - True Convictions (January 1996)
Barney Rosenzweig, the executive producer of
Cagney & Lacey (and who eventually married Gless!), has been
blogging earlier this week and, in answer to questions from fans, is dropping hints that the 4 post-series telefilms from the classic cop show will be heading to DVD soon:
The quartet of movies that we lovingly refer to as "The Menopause Years" should be available before 2009 reaches the mid-way point. I am hoping for "by Mother's Day" but have little control beyond delivering the various elements that are needed in as timely a fashion as I can.
Say what? Well, way back in January we
reported that a deal had been signed to bring those 4 telefilms out, but not on standard DVD. Instead they were licensed via SFM Entertainment for release on the "third hi-def format", the HD VMD system from New Medium Enterprises. However, as we all know, the HD VMD hi-def format hasn't exactly caught fire, and has largely been forgotten in the wake of Blu-ray's victory over HD DVD in the hi-def format media wars.
More recently, the rights to these telefilms for standard DVD have come under the control of the folks at S'More Entertainment, the California-based indie company which has put out DVD releases for
Mister Peepers, Make Room for Daddy, The Littles, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special and most recently
A Shari Lewis Christmas. A week and a half ago there was a
press release issued to announce that S'More, which had previously been distributed at retail by Image Entertainment, had struck a new deal with Ryko Distribution. In it, they reveal that we can look forward to "
a deluxe DVD box set “Cagney & Lacey: The Menopause Years” made up of the four feature length TV movies based on the long running series."
We contacted Arny Schorr, founder of S'More Entertainment, who was gracious enough to talk to us just before taking some time off this weekend to attend his daughter's wedding (congratulations to the lucky couple, from all of us at TVShowsOnDVD.com and TVGuide.com!). We asked him for more details about the DVD release of
Cagney & Lacey - The Menopause Years box set, whether they would also be available as individual titles, and whether there would be an opportunity for S'More to also begin releasing more season sets of the regular weekly series that MGM and Fox have let languish since May 2007. Here's what he told us:
We have signed the deal for the 4 "Cagney & Lacey" movies, and will be releasing them in a deluxe 4 DVD box set at $39.95. The box set will be called "Cagney & Lacey: The Menopause Years". We have not set a release date but I anticipate somewhere around May-June, 2009.
Ideally, we'd like to continue where Fox left off, but that's down the line. For now, we're focused on the 4 films, which will also be offered separately over time.
That's all we have for now, but we'll keep you updated with more information as S'More continues to finalize everything connected with this project. Our thanks to longtime reader Bob Huggins for helping to bring this to our attention. Stay tuned!
