Decoy (TV series)

Decoy
Beverly Garland as Officer Casey Jones in a 1958 episode of Decoy
Also known as	Decoy Police Woman
Genre	Crime drama
Written by	Jerome Coopersmith Don Ettlinger Steven Gardner Abram S. Ginnes Leon Tokatyan
Directed by	David Alexander Michael Gordon Stuart Rosenberg Teddy Sills Arthur H. Singer
Starring	Beverly Garland
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	39
Production
Executive producer(s)	Everett Rosenthal
Producer(s)	David Alexander Stuart Rosenberg Arthur H. Singer
Cinematography	Maurice Hartzband
Running time	30 mins.
Broadcast
Original channel	Syndication
Picture format	Black-and-white
Audio format	Monaural
Original run	October 14, 1957 – July 7, 1958

Decoy (also titled Decoy Police Woman) is a groundbreaking American crime drama television series which was created for syndication and initially broadcast from October 14, 1957 to July 7, 1958, lasting for thirty nine 30-minute black-and-white episodes. It was the first American police series with a female protagonist.[1]

Synopsis

The series starred Beverly Garland as Casey Jones, a female police officer who is often assigned to work undercover (hence becoming the "decoy" of the title). The cast changed each week with Garland the only main continuing character, although there were several recurring characters, mostly her commanding officer and immediate colleagues.

The series was inspired by Jack Webb's Dragnet and used a similar format to that series, with Jones being portrayed as a serious, by-the-book, yet sympathetic cop with no personal life outside of her job. In the episode "The Sound of Tears", she reveals that the man she loved was a police officer who was shot and killed by the man he was sent to bring in.

Decoy is of historical significance as it was the first American television series to focus on the work of a female police officer. The series also featured early performances by actors such as Larry Hagman, Peter Falk, Al Lewis and Martin Balsam. Each episode was dedicated to the Bureau of Policewomen of the New York Police Department.

Many episodes focused on females being victims of crime and most episodes ended with Garland breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience about the case just solved.

Guest stars

Notable guest stars include:

• Edward Asner
• Martin Balsam
• Barbara Barrie
• Albert Dekker
• Peter Falk
• Colleen Dewhurst
• Larry Hagman
• Don Hastings
• Diane Ladd
• Al Lewis
• Kay Medford
• Lois Nettleton
• Suzanne Pleshette

DVD releases

Now mostly in the public domain in the United States, about a dozen episodes of the series have so far seen limited release on DVD issues by several different companies.

Episode list

Episode #	Episode Title	Airdate
1	"Stranglehold"	October 14, 1957
2	"The Little Red Clown"	October 21, 1957
3	"The Phoner"	October 28, 1957
4	"To Trap a Thief"	November 4, 1957
5	"Dream Fix"	November 11, 1957
6	"The Savage Payoff"	November 18, 1957
7	"Deadly Corridor"	November 25, 1957
8	"Escape into Danger"	December 2, 1957
9	"The Glass Necklace"	December 9, 1957
10	"The Scapegoat"	December 16, 1957
11	"Two Days to Kill"	December 23, 1957
12	"Queen of Diamonds"	December 30, 1957
13	"My Brother's Killer"	January 6, 1958
14	"Bullet of Hate"	January 13, 1958
15	"Death Watch"	January 20, 1958
16	"Odds Against the Jockey"	January 27, 1958
17	"Dressed for the Kill"	February 3, 1958
18	"An Eye for an Eye"	February 10, 1958
19	"The Challenger"	February 17, 1958
20	"Across the World"	February 24, 1958
21	"The Showplace"	March 3, 1958
22	"Reasonable Doubt"	March 10, 1958
23	"Night of Fire"	March 17, 1958
24	"Saturday was Lost"	March 24, 1958
25	"High Swing"	March 31, 1958
26	"Earthbound Satellite"	April 7, 1958
27	"The Sound of Tears"	April 14, 1958
28	"Ladies' Man"	April 21, 1958
29	"Cry Revenge"	April 28, 1958
30	"The Gentle Gunman"	May 5, 1958
31	"Night Light"	May 12, 1958
32	"Fiesta at Midnight"	May 19, 1958
33	"The Lieutenant Had a Son"	May 26, 1958
34	"Shadow of Van Gogh"	June 2, 1958
35	"Tin Pan Payoff"	June 9, 1958
36	"Blind Date"	June 16, 1958
37	"The Comeback"	June 23, 1958
38	"First Arrest"	June 30, 1958
39	"The Lost Ones"	July 7, 1958

External links

• Decoy at the Internet Movie Database
• Decoy at TV.com
• Decoy TV Episodes posted in the Internet Archive's Classic TV collection.