The CBS police procedural Cagney & Lacey ran from March 25, 1982 to May 16, 1988, and was among the first dramatic series to focus exclusively on female protagonists. The series starred Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly as New York City detectives, the former an ambitious, single career woman and the latter an attentive wife and mother.

Cagney & Lacey was canceled by CBS after only one season, in 1983, due to poor ratings. The series was brought back after the producers organized a public letter-writing campaign to save the show, and went on to become one of the most popular shows in America during its second season.

CBS executives had initially wanted the Gless character (Christine Cagney) to be a wealthy heiress rather than a street-wise member of the working class, but the producers refused to make the change.

Several individual episodes would deal with controversial social issues, such as abortion, and would even include racial slurs when needed for dramatic realism.