Decoy (also titled Policewoman Decoy) is an American crime drama television series created for syndication and initially broadcast from October 14, 1957, to July 7, 1958, with 39 black-and-white 30-minute episodes. The series was the first American police series with a female protagonist. Many Decoy episodes are in the public domain."Decoy", Festival Films
Synopsis The series featured Beverly Garland as Patricia "Casey" Jones, a female undercover police officer in New York City. The undercover nature of Jones's work had her impersonating women in a variety of roles, including gangster's molls, prostitutes, nurses, and singers. Jones did not have a partner for her police work, and episodes revealed little about her personal life, with occasional exceptions of references to a love affair with a police officer who died on duty.
Garland's Casey Jones was the only regular character in the series, transferring from department to department to work on each case as needed. No other character appeared in more than one episode. Frank Campanella played a police lieutenant who oversaw Jones' case in three episodes, but each of these three lieutenants had different names, and worked in different police divisions.
Popularity Decoy was ranked among the top-10 syndicated programs, not only during its initial release, but also "long after production closed down".
Production Stuart Rosenberg and Don Medford were directors of Decoy, and Steve Gardner was a writer. The show was filmed by Pyramid Productions, partially on location in New York City. Locations included Greenwich Village, the Lower East Side, Randalls Island, and the South Bronx. Studio scenes were filmed in the former Biograph Studios in the Bronx.
Production of the show's pilot began on March 28, 1957, taking seven days for completion. In August 1957, trade publication Billboard reported, "the first-run series is off to one of the fastest sales starts in years, particularly with major station purchases." That sales success included a $600,000 prerelease order from five Westinghouse-owned TV stations and four independent stations.
Production of the series ended on May 29, 1958, because producers lacked the funds to continue. Reruns were broadcast for seven years using the title Police Woman.
Guest stars
Mason Adams Edward Asner Martin Balsam Barbara Barrie Frank Campanella Joseph Campanella Lonny Chapman Albert Dekker Peter Falk Colleen Dewhurst Betty Garde Vincent Gardenia Bruce Gordon Larry Hagman Don Hastings William Hickey Betty Lou Holland Arch Johnson Diane Ladd Zohra Lampert Al Lewis Joanne Linville Ruth McDevitt Kay Medford Lois Nettleton Phyllis Newman Simon Oakland Tom Pedi Leo Penn Suzanne Pleshette Joanna Roos Norman Rose Stefan Schnabel Frank Silvera Lilia Skala Frank Sutton Michael Tolan Betty Walker
Episodes
DVD releases In 2017, Film Chest Media Group released a DVD set containing all 39 episodes.
References
External links
Decoy TV Episodes posted in the Internet Archive's Classic TV collection.