Get Christie Love! is a one-hour American crime drama TV series starring Teresa Graves as an undercover female detective which originally aired on ABC from January 22, 1974, until April 4, 1975. Reruns then ran on Friday nights at 10:00 p.m. from April 11, 1975 to July 18, 1975. The starring television role made Graves the second black female lead in a non-stereotypical role for an American weekly series, after Diahann Carroll in Julia. The series is based on Dorothy Uhnak's crime-thriller novel The Ledger.
Contents
Synopsis
Based on the novel The Ledger, the main character "Christie Opara"—a white, New York City police detective—was dropped completely and "Christie Love" emerged. Det. Olga Ford of the NYPD served as the series' technical advisor and sometime writer. Get Christie Love! was originally broadcast in January 1974 as an ABC Movie of the Week, inspired by the 1970s blaxploitation films such as Tamara Dobson's Cleopatra Jones (1973), and Pam Grier's Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). The title character had a catchphrase; upon apprehending a criminal, Love would declare, "You're under arrest, Sugah!" The film proved a success, and consequently spawned a short-lived television series on the ABC network. Twenty-two episodes were shown from September 11, 1974 to April 5, 1975, featuring Charles Cioffi as Love's supervisor Lt. Matt Reardon, who was later replaced by Jack Kelly as Capt. Arthur Ryan.
Financed on a meager budget and heavily sanitized to conform to Graves' religious morals (she had become a Jehovah's Witness since the making of the pilot, and eventually retired from the entertainment industry to focus on her faith), the series was cancelled after one year. One episode featured many of Graves' former Laugh-In co-stars such as Judy Carne, Jo Anne Worley, and Arte Johnson in particular playing a mad bomber. Another notable guest star was Jaclyn Smith, who appeared in an episode entitled "A Fashion Heist".
Cast
Charles Cioffi played Christie Love's boss for the first 12 episodes of the series (his character was featured from the season premiere until "The Longest Fall") and Jack Kelly took over for the last 10 (beginning with the episode "The Deadly Sport"). The storyline in the pilot that had Christie having a secret affair with her police captain (played by Harry Guardino) was dropped for the regular series.
Teresa Graves as Christie Love
Charles Cioffi as Lieutenant Matt Reardon (12 episodes)
Jack Kelly as Captain Arthur Ryan (10 episodes)
Michael Pataki as Sergeant Pete Gallagher, Christie's partner
Dennis Rucker as Lieutenant Steve Belmont
Andy Romano as Lieutenant Joe Caruso (Romano played a different character in the pilot for the series).
This list is for the ABC Movie of the Week of January 22, 1974, which served as the pilot for the series:
Harry Guardino as Captain Casey Reardon
Louise Sorel as Helena Varga
Paul Stevens as Enzo Cortino
Ron Rifkin as Normand
Lynne Holmes as Celia Jackson
Lee Paul as Max Loomis
Titos Vandis as Spiliolis
Tracey Roberts as Gwen Fenley
William Hansen as Dr. Shepard
Episodes
Syndication/reception
The series has aired in the U.S. on the cable network TV Land in 1997 and on Centric (now known as BET Her) in 2014 as part of the show's 40th anniversary. The show gave the first black woman to serve in a State Police force in the United States, Louise Smith, critical motivation to continue with her chosen career when she faced significant discrimination both in the barracks and on the streets.
Cultural references
In a scene in Quentin Tarantino's film, Reservoir Dogs (1992), the characters Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), and "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot (Chris Penn), engage in a brief discussion regarding Get Christie Love!.
In the 2002 Austin Powers movie Austin Powers in Goldmember, the character Foxxy Cleopatra (portrayed by Beyoncé) uses the famous phrase, "You're under arrest, Sugah!"
Reboot
In 2017, producers Courtney Kemp and Vin Diesel became attached to a reboot of the series for ABC, entitled Get Christie Love (without the exclamation point), a co-production between Lionsgate Television and Universal Television, which focused on an African American female CIA agent who leads an elite ops unit. However, ABC later announced that it had decided not to pick the pilot up to series.