Decoy (TV series)

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Beverly Garland as Officer Casey Jones in a 1958 episode of Decoy.
Beverly Garland as Officer Casey Jones in a 1958 episode of Decoy.

Decoy (also titled Decoy Police Woman on some DVD releases) was a groundbreaking American police procedural television series which was created for syndication in 1957-1958. The series starred Beverly Garland as Casey Jones, a female police officer who is often assigned to work undercover (hence becoming the "decoy" of the title).

The series was inspired by Jack Webb's Dragnet and used a similar format to that series, with Jones being portrayed as a serious, by-the-book, yet sympathetic cop with no personal life outside her job.

Decoy is of historical significance as it was the first American television series to focus on the work of a female police officer. The series also featured early performances by actors such as Larry Hagman and Peter Falk. Each episode was dedicated to the Bureau of Policewomen of the New York Police Department.

Many episodes focused on females being victims of crime and most episodes ended with Garland breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience about the case just solved. Now in the public domain in the United States, about a dozen episodes of the series have so far seen limited release on DVD.

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