Rating: - The True Beginning - NOT!
Ironically, this CAGNEY & LACEY set has the words, "The True Beginning" on it. But it is neither the beginning, nor is it true. C&L began as a TV-movie with Tyne Daly and Loretta Swit. When it was optioned as a series Swit was still committed to M*A*S*H, so the first six episodes had Meg Foster playing Cagney. The show did not catch on, with critics complaining the two characters were too similar. So, they brought in Sharon Gless, who looked different than Tyne and more like Loretta Swit. The chemistry worked and, after a slow start, the show became a success.

But this set, allegedly calling itself "The First Season" completely ignores the genesis of the show, starting it off with the second season episodes with Sharon Gless. The first episode makes you feel like you've been dumped into the middle of something already in progress, because that's exactly what's been done. The whole idea with DVD sets is to get the complete story - not a "best of" set, nor the edited versions you see on daily or weekly TV. By sweeping the pilot and the entire first season under the rug as if they never happened, the creators have robbed us of the very "True Beginning" of the show that they falsely claim this to be. I realize many people don't remember the Meg Foster episodes, or are even aware that they exist. But this set uses double-sided discs. It would have taken exactly one more disc to include the pilot and all six Meg Foster episodes. They could have called it "The First and Second seasons" as they did successfully with "Quincy" - which also had a limited first season run with episodes that differed from the version of the show that people eventually came to know. And if a fan had wanted to ignore the pilot and first season episodes, he or she could simply have started with Disc 2.

Other DVD sets include thing like unaired pilots and deleted scenes to show you more about the beginnings of a series. Here, whole episodes have instead become deleted and unaired. What a sad precedent. What next? Skipping the first season of MANNIX where he worked for Intertect? Starting THE AVENGERS with the Diana Rigg shows? Thank goodness this didn't do only the Jim Phelps episodes of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, or skip the early HAPPY DAYS where Richie had an older brother. Shame on all those who made the decision to ignore a portion of this show's history and then had the nerve to label this travesty "The True Beginning!"

Television Show Collectibles

Movie Searches