For that success and a winning performance, she was rewarded with Emmy nominations for three of its four seasons, and a shiny Golden Globe.
But let’s not raise the flag for feminism: As good as Dickinson was in it, the show was a hit because of her then-incredible hotness. After all, it was spun off from her single episode of “Police Story,” in which she played a vice cop posing as a prostitute.
Look no further than the credit sequence on each of the 24 episodes on Shout! Factory’s six-disc set of “Police Woman”’s 1975-76 sophomore season to see how hard the series sold her considerable sizzle. Here, I’ll wait for you ...
See? It doesn’t stop there. In “Generation of Evil,” she’s having to go undercover as a showgirl in a sparkly outfit; in “The Melting Point of Ice,” as a cheap hooker in a brunette wig and one of those head-to-toe get-ups where the fabric is cut out in geometric shapes down the sides. In “Silence,” she distracts a security guard just by showing a little leg!
Mind you, I’m not complaining. As a fan of Dickinson’s, er, “charms” even then — I was 4, people; talk about early development — this is a solid plus in my book. In Sharpie, even.
In this set, there’s plenty of feasting opportunities for the eyes. Consider, if you will, her:
• super-tight cocktail waitress outfit in “Pawns of Power”;
• trailer-park hussy look in “The Score,” if you’re into that sort of thing;
• falling into a fountain while wearing a see-through pink shirt, in “The Chasers”;
• sparkly tan sweater of “Cold Wind”;
• purple jumpsuit of “Blaze of Glory,” in which she poses as a prostitute ... again;
• shiny silver top and a stunning white dress with a “stunninger” plunging neckline and her birthday suit wrapped in a comfy-looking blue bath towel, all in “Angela”;
• tight orange T-shirt in “The Hit,” whose French saying on the front translates to “will you sleep with me tonight?” (according to Google’s handy language tools); and
• best of all, an OMG black bathing suit split almost to the belly button, in “Pattern for Evil.”
Lest you think that’s all I paid attention to, wrong! There were reliably ’70s storylines about a bank robbery, long-haired rock ’n’ rollers, a deaf woman, a crazy woman, anti-cop graffiti ("Kill the Pigs — They Kill Us") and an obvious Dionne Warwick stand-in crooning Burt Bacharach’s “The Look of Love.” This is amusing because, as with the same song in Angie’s “Police Story” appearance, she was married to Burt at the time.
While we’re dropping famous names, this season’s guest stars include Erik Estrada, a really young Amy Irving, Robert Loggia, Robert Vaughn and Joan Collins in a Jacuzzi. No, no, don’t worry: I never had a thing for Joan Collins. —Rod Lott
