Pop Culture Roundup for July 4-16: TV’s Female Crimefighters, Old, New, Robotic, and Sue

by Karen A. Romanko

This entry of PCR shines a spotlight on TV’s female crimefighters in their infinite variety, from ultracool 60s PI Honey West to wholesome housewife turned spy Amanda King, from 90s fembot cop Eve Edison to witchblade-wielding detective Sara Pezzini. Let’s get down to business--these ladies aren’t the patient sort.

July 4: Happy Independence Day! In honor of the occasion, last night I watched "A Lovely Little Affair," a 1985 episode of Scarecrow and Mrs King, wherein terrorists try to obtain the original Declaration of Independence. Below guest star Ben Murphy holds part of the Declaration, while Bruce Boxleitner and Kate Jackson hold the other half. (Or do they?) The setting is Washington DC, but this scene was filmed at the Exposition Rose Garden in Los Angeles, where Bob and I were once locked inside by a careless guard. We had to crawl out through a hole in a brick wall! Happy 4th!

July 8: Yancy Butler starred in two TV series that added sf/fantasy elements to the venerable police procedural. The first was Mann & Machine, a short-lived 1992 series, where she portrayed a fembot cop, Eve Edison, whose partner was a human male. In 2001, she played Detective Sara Pezzini, a woman who comes to possess a powerful supernatural weapon in Witchblade (pictured here). I loved “Pez,” a tough (with a capital T), but damaged woman struggling with a hidden heritage, dirty cops, and plain old misogyny. But she is extra special to me now because she will have appeared in all three of my books for McFarland by the time I finish Historical Women on Scripted Television. At this point, I think she will be the only character to make all three books. Thanks, Pez!

July 10: Honey West was a groundbreaking TV series starring Anne Francis that ran for one season in 1965-66. Honey (left) was head of her own detective agency and ahead of her time, never a damsel in distress, always giving the bad guys as good as she got. I was honored to appear in a documentary about Honey and one of her creators, Gloria Fickling, in 2017, Honey West: The Gloria Fickling Story. That’s yours truly bottom right, and Gloria above me. Some free episodes of the series are available on YouTube, and the complete series is available on DVD. The documentary is available for free here. Have a “honey” of a day!

July 13: While writing my book Television's Female Spies and Crimefighters (2016), I became fascinated by short-lived series, those that disappeared in the blink of an eye. Here’s one that lasted only four episodes, running from September 15 to October 3, 1992. Angel Street featured a pair of female detectives a la Cagney & Lacey, with the twist that one was African-American. The setting this time is Chicago, where college-educated, African-American detective Anita King (Robin Givens) teams with working-class, Polish-American rookie Dorothy Paretsky (Pamela Gidley) to solve crimes, overcome their personal differences, and fight the prejudices of their male colleagues. Did anyone actually catch this one?

July 14: Female TV Crimefighter of the Day! Adela Bradley of The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries (1998–2000, 5 episodes, UK). Diana Rigg portrays Adela Bradley, an amateur sleuth in the Miss Marple mold, if Miss Marple wore stunning Jazz Age couture and had a hunky chauffeur (Neil Dudgeon) as a confidant. Available on Amazon BritBox and DVD.

July 15: Female TV Crimefighter of the Day! Teresa Lisbon of The Mentalist (2008-2015, 151 episodes, USA). Robin Tunney stars as Teresa Lisbon, a California Bureau of Investigation lead agent, who must supervise a trouble-making former con man named Patrick Jane (Simon Baker). Agent Lisbon isn’t much of a girly girl—when she tries on a pink bridesmaid’s gown in “Strawberries and Cream: Part 1” (2011), she is so agitated by the experience that Jane says she looks like “an angry little princess.” (My kind of woman!) Available on DVD, Amazon Prime with subscription, and others.

July 16: Female TV Crimefighter of the Day! Sue Thomas of Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye (2002–2005, 56 episodes, Canada/USA). Based on a true story, this inspiring series stars Deanne Bray as title character Sue Thomas, a deaf woman whose lip-reading ability lands her on an FBI surveillance team. Levi (Jesse), a hearing ear dog, is indispensable to Sue, alerting her when there is something she needs to hear. Also stars pre-Murdoch Yannick Bisson. Available for free on Tubi and others by subscription.

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Last, but not least, please check out my books about women and television from McFarland Publishers, available in trade paperback and Kindle editions at Amazon:

Television's Female Spies and Crimefighters and Women of Science Fiction and Fantasy Television
 On sale now!