Back in the 1990s, one show that my family often watched together was The Commish,
starring Michael Chiklis as a hands-on police commissioner in a small
New York town. Knowing my mom would soon be laid up after surgery, my
friend lent us the boxed set of the series, which we’ve enjoyed
revisiting. The first season of the quirky cop show created by Stephen
J. Cannell and Stephen Kronish quickly establishes the tone, which is
dramatic but often light-hearted as 38-year-old Commissioner Tony Scali
uses his empathy and ingenuity to keep things in the city running as
smoothly as possible.
The primary focus of each episode is
usually on one or two cases currently vexing the police department,
though at times Tony’s home life moves out of subplot territory and into
the spotlight. Theresa Saldana plays his supportive wife Rachel, while
Kaj-Erik Eriksen is 10-year-old David, a pretty typical kid. While the
series is mostly episodic, with little in the way of overarching
storylines, there are a few that weave their way through the first
season. On the home front, Rachel wants another baby badly, and the
season deals with their heartache over her difficulty in conceiving and
later their turmoil when she succeeds but learns that the baby may be
born with defects. Additionally, David tries to get used to the
possibility of no longer being an only child and struggles with the
conflict between Tony and Rachel’s live-in brother Arnie (David Paymer),
an eccentric entrepreneur who mostly serves as comic relief.
At
the department, several characters stand out. Kimberly Scott is cool
and unruffled as Tony’s sassy secretary Lucille, and Gina Belafonte
brings a tough, street-smart presence to Carmela, arguably the toughest
cop under Tony’s watch. Other distinctive side characters include Ricky
(Nicholas Lea), a hotshot officer; Irv (Alex Bruhanski), Tony’s
nearing-retirement right-hand man; and Paulie (John Cygan), a detective
and childhood chum of Tony’s who joins his team midway through the
season.
The clear standout, however, is Stan Kelly, played with
jittery charm by Geoffrey Nauffts. He comes across as very green, an
eager young man who brings 110 percent to everything he does but often
bungles the job. Shy and nervous, he flourishes under the mentorship of
Tony, who often entrusts him with special assignments. Sometimes the
main purpose of this is to boost his confidence; at other times, the
task truly is important, and it’s Stan’s dedication to the job that
makes him the go-to guy. He is intimately involved in many of the
investigations, but his most centric role is in a late-season episode in
which he kills a woman after responding to a heated domestic dispute
and must deal with both his own crippling guilt and the threats leveled
against him by the angry widower.
The show is a drama, but the
fun lies in Tony’s creative approach to his job. The kind-hearted
commissioner has a true gift for diffusing tense situations, and no one
on the force can match his finesse for talking down the deranged by
playing along with their delusions. He often baits and confronts
criminals directly, while also dealing with victims himself and putting
them at ease, often distracting them with requests for common courtesies
like coffee and cookies. He’s a man adept at getting into the heads of
those he wishes to influence or apprehend, and he doesn’t mind
sacrificing a bit to do it. In the pilot, he forgoes food for several
days to help him deal with some prisoners on a hunger strike, knowing
that when he is ravenous, they’ll be even hungrier and will find it hard
to resist the deluxe sandwich he eats in front of them. If this seems a
little mean-spirited, the meeting concludes with his ordering the
warden to eat in the prison cafeteria at least three times a week and
improve the menu if the food is as bad as the prisoners say it is.
Tony’s
cleverness often springs from his compassion, but sometimes his desire
to do the right thing leaves him in a true quandary. Never is that more
apparent this season than in The Greatest Gift, an episode that
finds him deeply troubled over two ethical dilemmas in which the law and
his sense of ethics are in fundamental conflict. The Christmastime
setting adds to his sense of malaise. This is probably my favorite
episode of season one. This episode also delves into the fact that Tony
grew up Catholic but agreed to raise David in Rachel’s Jewish tradition.
In some ways it’s a more somber episode than most, but the conclusion
is particularly satisfying.
The Commish lasted for five
seasons. Some were better than others, but this first season is one of
the best. If you haven’t had the pleasure of witnessing the distinct way
in which Tony Scali upholds the law, this is the place to get
acquainted.
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