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The Best Episodes of Cagney & Lacey

Every episode of Cagney & Lacey ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Cagney & Lacey!

Binge this in 3d 21h•Peaking at 8.9/10

Mary Beth Lacey and Chris Cagney are teamed up as NYPD police detectives. Their opposing personalities (one is tough and the other sensitive) mesh to make this one of the great crime-fighting duos of all

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Cagney & Lacey Season 4 Episode 17 - Who Says It's Fair (2)
    8.9/10(65 votes)

    #1 - Who Says It's Fair (2)

    S4:E17

    No description available

    Director:Ray Danton
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Cagney & Lacey Season 6 Episode 22 - Turn, Turn, Turn (2)
    8.9/10(94 votes)

    #2 - Turn, Turn, Turn (2)

    S6:E22

    In the B plot, Lacey rescues a child from a burning car and then has to return the child to the proper mother.

    Director:Sharron Miller
    Writers:Jonathan Estrin, Shelley List

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  3. Cagney & Lacey Season 5 Episode 15 - The Gimp
    8.8/10(87 votes)

    #3 - The Gimp

    S5:E15

    Handicapped people are being robbed, and a wheelchair activist wants the NYPD to do something about it. Cagney goes undercover by appearing as a handicapped individual in a wheelchair and falls for the activist.

    Director:Sharron Miller
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Cagney & Lacey Season 7 Episode 19 - Friendly Fire
    8.8/10(59 votes)

    #4 - Friendly Fire

    S7:E19

    In a sequel to episode #112, Cagney's rape case goes to trial. The main story is that Harvey Jr. is missing while doing maneuvers. Fortunately Mary Beth has moral support from both her father and Christine.

    Director:Reza Badiyi
    Writers:Jonathan Estrin, Shelley List

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  5. Cagney & Lacey Season 2 Episode 17 - Burn Out
    8.7/10(97 votes)

    #5 - Burn Out

    S2:E17

    The ""A"" story is that Cagney goes undercover as a nun to investigate the theft of drugs from a hospital. The ""B"" story is that she goes alone because Lacey has gone off AWOL. After her vacation is canceled at the last minute, she just says, ""the hell with it"" and disappears

    Director:Don Weis
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Cagney & Lacey Season 5 Episode 24 - Parting Shots
    8.7/10(67 votes)

    #6 - Parting Shots

    S5:E24

    A labor leader is killed. Once again, the victim seems to have led a blameless life, yet someone wanted him dead. In the B plot, Cagney's niece (who we met in #78) comes for a visit.

    Director:Georg Stanford Brown
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Cagney & Lacey

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  7. Cagney & Lacey Season 6 Episode 1 - Schedule One
    8.7/10(65 votes)

    #7 - Schedule One

    S6:E1

    Detective Newman is just walking down the street, celebrating a successful collar, when he is shot down. A cop killed is always taken very seriously.

    Director:Alexander Singer
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Cagney & Lacey Season 6 Episode 21 - Turn, Turn, Turn (1)
    8.7/10(78 votes)

    #8 - Turn, Turn, Turn (1)

    S6:E21

    Charlie's drinking finally catches up with him and he goes to the Great Bar in the Sky. Chris and brother Brian send him off with a wake at Flannery's. But Chris can't handle it, and winds up dead drunk in her apartment. Only Lacey can save her and get her to AA.

    Director:Sharron Miller
    Writer:Georgia Jeffries

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  9. Cagney & Lacey Season 3 Episode 6 - Partners
    8.6/10(63 votes)

    #9 - Partners

    S3:E6

    Cagney gets show by a bad guy early in the episode. Not to worry, she solves the case from her hospital bed. She has to, because Mary Beth gets stuck with a real dweeb as a replacement. In a role reversal, Mary Beth is the ""hot dog"" and the guy is only interested in getting home on time

    Director:Joel Oliansky
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Cagney & Lacey Season 4 Episode 2 - Heat
    8.6/10(91 votes)

    #10 - Heat

    S4:E2

    Mary Beth is taken hostage by a very dangerous man.

    Director:Karen Arthur
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Cagney & Lacey Season 4 Episode 14 - Rules of the Game
    8.6/10(71 votes)

    #11 - Rules of the Game

    S4:E14

    C&L think it's wonderful to be assigned to a hot case under the hot Captain Hennessey. it seems that his interest in Chris is more personal than professional. Finally, Chris announces that she will file departmental charges against him for sexual harassment.

    Director:Sharron Miller
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Cagney & Lacey Season 4 Episode 16 - Who Says It's Fair (1)
    8.6/10(69 votes)

    #12 - Who Says It's Fair (1)

    S4:E16

    A two parter where Mary Beth discovers that she has a lump in her breast, but she refuses to talk about it or do anything about it. Chris finds out when Harvey gets worried and sneaks out to tell her. Chris finally convinces Mary Beth to see a doctor and then to get a second opinion. Meanwhile the detectives must find a missing child. Cagney thinks the kid ran away because the mother was unfit. The mother thinks that they would look harder for a white child. Finally he turns up in an underground passage and Chris goes in after him. Mary Beth goes in for her surgery, but Chris can't be there because she is taking the sergeant's exam. But she gets back in time to learn that the operation is a success

    Director:Ray Danton
    Writer:Patricia Green

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  13. Cagney & Lacey Season 7 Episode 9 - Do I Know You?
    8.6/10(65 votes)

    #13 - Do I Know You?

    S7:E9

    Brad Potter seems like the perfect date - tall, handsome, successful. But he's really a date rapist. Cagney must explain to the guys at the precinct why she didn't draw her gun, and of course, the baddy says yes, it happened, but she consented

    Director:Sharron Miller
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Cagney & Lacey Season 2 Episode 6 - Internal Affairs
    8.5/10(83 votes)

    #14 - Internal Affairs

    S2:E6

    The 14th precinct has an informer in its midst. The undercover agents working on a truck hijacking are getting exposed. IAD ""asks"" C&L to investigate, since they're ""outsiders."" When Cagney refuses, the IAD lieutenant smirkily tells her that Charlie was on the take when he was a cop. All they turn up is that LaGuardia has a girlfriend and Samuels is seeing aa psychiatrist because of the effect of his divorce.

    Director:Alexander Singer
    Writer:Joanne Pagliaro

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  15. Cagney & Lacey Season 4 Episode 15 - Stress
    8.5/10(74 votes)

    #15 - Stress

    S4:E15

    Cagney is a witness to a stabbing. The bad guy has the charming habit of erasing people he doesn't like, such as witnesses, and he goes after her

    Director:Alexander Singer
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Cagney & Lacey Season 5 Episode 16 - Family Connections
    8.5/10(70 votes)

    #16 - Family Connections

    S5:E16

    This is sometimes referred to as Cagney & Lacey's ""Lucy and Ethel"" episode for its comedic touches. At last, Lacey has baby Alice. (It did seem like the longest pregnancy on record, didn't it?) Cagney has to drive her to the hospital in the obligatory get-me-to-the-hospital-on-time scene. Chris has another problem - Charlie has a girlfriend, Donna.

    Director:James Frawley
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Cagney & Lacey Season 6 Episode 4 - Disenfranchised (aka Incest)
    8.5/10(60 votes)

    #17 - Disenfranchised (aka Incest)

    S6:E4

    (Also given to me as ""Incest."") A girl says that their father is molesting the younger daughter, who is too young to testify. How does she know? Because she was molested herself. Cagney and Lacey get the children away from their parents, but have to split up the girls to do so.

    Director:James Frawley
    Writer:Daniel Freudenberger

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  18. Cagney & Lacey Season 4 Episode 18 - Lost and Found
    8.4/10(62 votes)

    #18 - Lost and Found

    S4:E18

    Cagney's car (a yellow Corvette) has been stolen and boy is she mad. She doesn't get much help from Mary Beth, who is convalescing at home and considering quitting for good. The good news is that the second half of the sergeants exam has a question about auto theft technique.The episode introduces Hector (El Vengeador). It is later learned that Cagney's nemesis Mansfield had him murdered for his role as a drug informant in the episode ""The Man Who Shot Trotsky

    Director:Al Waxman
    Writer:Georgia Jeffries

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  19. Cagney & Lacey Season 5 Episode 1 - On the Street
    8.4/10(77 votes)

    #19 - On the Street

    S5:E1

    A teenager has run away from her wealthy home, preferring prostitution to Princeton. Cagney and Lacey need her to testify against her pimp

    Director:Alexander Singer
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Cagney & Lacey Season 6 Episode 18 - Right to Remain Silent
    8.4/10(69 votes)

    #20 - Right to Remain Silent

    S6:E18

    A deaf girl is suspected of murder. Could someone with such a severe handicap commit a crime like that? Also, a drunken David Keeler appears on Cagney's door step begging her forgiveness. She hadn't seen him since ""the Cost of Living"" although he left numerous messages on her answering machine.

    Director:Sharron Miller
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Cagney & Lacey Season 6 Episode 20 - Happiness is a Warm Gun
    8.4/10(56 votes)

    #21 - Happiness is a Warm Gun

    S6:E20

    This time it's Lacey's turn to get shot. She isn't hurt as badly as Cagney was, but the trauma sends them to the police psychiatrist. Lacey is saved from certain death by her bullet-proof vest.

    Director:James Frawley
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Cagney & Lacey Season 7 Episode 22 - A Fair Shake (2)
    8.4/10(63 votes)

    #22 - A Fair Shake (2)

    S7:E22

    A bank is missing some money - not much, only $100,000. The baddy offers a plea bargain - she knows who stole $100 million. Now that's worth sending Cagney and Lacey to upstate New York to hunt down the bank president. But when they find him, they discover that the real bank president is gone, and that this is an FBI agent. Our heroines narrowly escape a shootout and get offered a promotion to Major Case Squad as the series ends

    Director:Reza Badiyi
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Cagney & Lacey Season 2 Episode 4 - High Steel
    8.3/10(87 votes)

    #23 - High Steel

    S2:E4

    A construction worker falls to his death, and everyone thinks it's an accident, including Isbecki, who lets the ladies take over the case. You see, Harvey knew the fellow, and he thinks there's something funny. It turns out that the victim was on the take, and Harvey and Mary Beth go out to the construction site to inspect first hand.

    Director:Reza Badiyi
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Cagney & Lacey Season 2 Episode 5 - Hot Line
    8.3/10(90 votes)

    #24 - Hot Line

    S2:E5

    A group of unrelated stranglings has the NYPD very worried. Turns out all the women work for telephone erotic hotlines. There's a very funny scene where C&L go to investigate and the hotline manager thinks they're looking for work.

    Director:Leo Penn
    Writer:Frank Abatemarco

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  25. Cagney & Lacey Season 5 Episode 10 - Power
    8.3/10(59 votes)

    #25 - Power

    S5:E10

    Samuels' absence gives Cagney a chance to shine as temporary commander. Inspector Knelman gives her her orders - put Lacey on maternity leave. This is considered a classic episode because it is the one in which Cagney takes her turn as watch commande

    Director:James Frawley
    Writer:Patricia Green

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Best Episodes Summary

"Who Says It's Fair (2)" is the best rated episode of "Cagney & Lacey". It scored 8.9/10 based on 65 votes. Directed by Ray Danton and written by Unknown, it aired on 2/18/1985. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Turn, Turn, Turn (2)".