The Rhetorics of Popular Culture: Advertising, Advocacy, and Entertainment
by Robert L. Root Jr.; Greenwood Press, 1987
To further demonstrate the ways in which the ethos of a series is defined in the
opening credits, consider two rather different dramatic series on CBS: Cagney and
Lacey and Scarecrow and Mrs. King.
opening credits of Cagney and Lacey feature the standard montage revolving
around the central characters. Bouncy music in the background underscores their
constant movement, beginning with a shot of them walking down the street
together, side by side, talking. The subsequent series of images divides its attention
between the two women and occasionally gives them equal space on screen or
parallel time. We see them talking, laughing, speaking on the phone, working with
others, bustling about police headquarters. The other cast members who are
introduced are also shown in the work environment, usually in both serious and
relaxed poses. The attention on the title characters switches to an emphasis on the
dangerous side of their profession only toward the end of the credits, when we see
them running down the street, running through a subway, racing up and down
stairs, pointing their service revolvers and mouthing commands, and escorting an
arrest past a flasher. In the final shot Mary Beth Lacey ( Tyne Daly) in a bowling
shirt and Christine Cagney ( Sharon Gless) in a fur coat are prevented from leaving
their office by their lieutenant who points them in the opposite direction, and the
freeze frame on their annoyed, dismayed expressions leaves us with the impression
of them as overworked cops.
The opening credits establish this show as a series about the relationship
between two women as co-workers and as police officers, emphasizing their
friendship, their constant interaction, their roles as friends, workers, and
individuals. Each episode further enlarges upon these elements, by balancing Mary
Beth's professional responsibilities with her obligations to her husband and
children and Chris' dedication to her career with her difficulties as a single working
woman, and by continually emphasizing conflicts between the two women and
between them and their work environment. The identity of the show revolves
around our sense of Cagney and Lacey as friends, as working women, and police
officers, in that order.
In Cagney and Lacey , as well, the pathetic appeal is mixed, between a concern
for these characters' domestic lives--the problem of mixing family and career, the
tension of divided loyalties, the conflicts, of working closely with another person--
and a concern for these characters' professional lives-the interest in police
procedures, the excitement over the danger and adventure of detective work. The
particular identity of the show as a series about working women also adds unique
concerns in the dangers to the characters as women in traditionally male-oriented
roles, as well as the conflicts of moral and social dilemmas.
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