Former TV cop Tyne Daly can’t seem to get enough of her erstwhile crime-fighting partner Sharon Gless since “Cagney & Lacey” went off the air more than 20 years ago.
On Thursday night (Jan. 21) Daly will re-team with her for a guest role on Gless’ USA Network series “Burn Notice.” It’s the third time they’ve reunited via each other’s post-“Cagney” series forays.
“We fantasize about there being a play at some time, but we’re not quite ready to do ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’,” Daly says with a laugh.
Their groundbreaking 1980s show earned Daly four Emmy Awards as maternal NYPD Det. Mary Beth Lacey to Gless’ feminist Det. Christine Cagney (for which she garnered two Emmys and a Golden Globe).
After her last series, “Judging Amy,” ended in 2005, Daly moved to New York to primarily focus on theatrical and musical forays. To wit, she performed alongside Rosie O’Donnell in the off-Broadway ensemble “Love, Loss and What I Wore” last year, and on Tuesday (Jan. 19) she kicked off a two-week cabaret run at Feinstein’s.
Daly, 63, recently reminisced with The Post to reminisce about location shooting and how she crafted Lacey’s thick New Yawk accent.
NYP: “Cagney & Lacey” had New York grit, yet not much was actually shot here.
TD: “Once a year we came to do exteriors. It was all about artfully fooling the eye. In LA we spent a lot of time avoiding palm trees, I’ll tell you that! We shared the mean streets with ‘LA Law.’ Our companies were always running into each other, rivaling for more horrible alleyways and stuff.”
NYP: Anything memorable from the few New York shoots?
TD: “Once we were supposed to chase and subdue a purse-snatcher while indifferent New Yorkers ignored him and kept on walking. Well, every single time this guy took off somebody would grab him. The citizens were on patrol! (laughs) We couldn’t get them to not pay attention; that was obviously a long time ago!”
NYP: Are you sentimental about any location spots?
TD: “I made my New York debut at the old Helen Hayes Theatre (now home to the Marriott Marquis at 46th and Broadway). One time we were shooting on the construction site where they had torn it down, and Sharon, that dear heart, flirted with some of the old hard hats and got a piece of the theater for me as a souvenir. Because I was in mourning, you know? For years I had a slice of the Helen Hayes on my mantel in LA to keep my company.”
NYP: How did you come up with Lacey’s memorably heavy accent?
TD: “I thought she had been in Boston as a young kid and came to New York, so mostly remembered sounds are where it came from. You know, the sounds that people make in this town are great. (laughs) I mean, people just wouldn’t believe it, but I wasn’t exaggerating at all!
NYP: Has “Cagney & Lacey” held up over time?
TD: “I don’t know how it looks 25 years later; I haven’t seen them. I don’t have a computer or TV! I have a monitor given to me by Rosie O’Donnell. She was appalled that I had no television set, so she sent me this screen that unless I hook it up to cable it’s not a television. But I have a record player. I got one in 2000 to protest the coming century. (laughs) I’m just an antique woman.”