Silk Stalkings: Season one

One of Cannell's Best Shows
Silk Stalkings was yet another show from the fertive mind and studio of Stephen J. Cannell, and was one of (if not the) longest running of his hour long shows. Silk Stalkings originally debuted on CBS as part of the late Friday night Crime Time After Primetime slot but that was soon cancelled and it became a cable only show airing on USA Network as they had entered into a co-production deal with CBS originally.

The show lasted eight years in all and, as so many shows do, ended on a never resolved cliffhanger. But that's a long way into the future and with the ex-husband and wife team of Tom and Cassie. This first season is pure gold as we are introduced to Rita Lee Lance and Chris Lorenzo of the Palm Beach Police Department's Homicide division.

In the first few episodes Rita is a much harder character than she is for most of the rest of her run. It seems that she has an inoperable brain tumour that makes her take risks no normal cop would take. This little...

Chris & Rita: Great dramatic chemistry and Capital "S" Style
1991 represented a unique opportunity for U.S. TV show creators. Unlike today, when cable networks make up much of the original programming, there were few markets for new shows. The fledgling Fox network was only four years old, and the triumvirate of broadcasting giants (ABC, CBS, and NBC) had the power of dinosaurs. But there was a hiccup in late-night scheduling: David Letterman had signed a new contract to host a talk show on CBS, but his NBC contract still had two years to run. So CBS decided to run a slate of dramatic fare -- five new shows to keep the seat warm for Letterman -- which they called "Crime Time After Primetime". Stephen J. Cannell, creator of literally dozens of TV shows, had something called "Silk Stalkings" that he'd been working on for a few years; he pitched it, got the go-ahead, and quickly went into production.

This was a cop show featuring a pair of Palm Beach (Florida) police detectives who specialized in crimes of passion in that enclave...

A pioneer in the cable drama series genre...
Nominated for only one Emmy, the entertainment quality of Silk Stalkings is nevertheless evidenced by its nine season run which is one of the most enduring ever for an original cable TV series. Partly responsible for this lack of critical acclaim is that Silk Stalkings was a trailblazer in the cable genre, and handing out Emmys to original cable series didn't become fashionable until the late-1990s when Sex And The City and The Sopranos broke the cable barrier for good. Another contributing factor to the lack of peer recognition is that Silk Stalkings lasted about four seasons longer than it should have, given that nearly the entire cast and crew were replaced after the first five seasons. Regardless, this hour-long drama series set in Palm Beach, Florida contains all the necessary ingredients for a hit show - beautiful people in a beautiful setting with lots of murder, violence, and intrigue. Silk Stalkings offers everything one could ask for in a TV drama, and the show's success...

Click to Editorial Reviews