| Get Christie Love! | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | William A. Graham |
| Produced by | Peter Nelson Lawrence Turman David L. Wolper |
| Written by | Dorothy Uhnak (novel) George Kirgo (teleplay) |
| Starring | Teresa Graves Harry Guardino Louise Sorel |
| Distributed by | ABC (Television) |
| Release date(s) | January 22, 1974 |
| Running time | 74 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | (unknown) |
Get Christie Love! is a 1974 made-for-television film starring Teresa Graves as an undercover female police detective who is determined to overthrow a drug ring. This film is based on Dorothy Uhnak's crime-thriller novel, The Ledger. However, the main character "Christie Opara" -- a white, New York Police detective—was dropped completely and "Christie Love" is who emerged.
Det. Olga Ford of the NYPD served as the series Technical Advisior.[1]
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The film was inspired by the 1970s heroine blaxploitation films such as Tamara Dobson's Cleopatra Jones (1973), and Pam Grier's Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). The title character even had a catchphrase; upon apprehending a criminal, Love would declare, "you're under arrest, Sugah!" The film proved a big success, and consequently spawned a short-lived television series on the ABC network featuring Charles Cioffi as Love's supervisor Matt Reardon and Jack Kelly as Lt. Ryan, the next supervisor. However, the series, financed on a meager budget and heavily sanitized to conform to Graves' religious morals (she had become one of Jehovah's Witnesses since the making of the TV film), was eventually cancelled. One episode featured many of Graves' former Laugh-In co-stars such as Judy Carne, Jo Anne Worley and Arte Johnson in particular playing a mad bomber. Another notable guest star was Jaclyn Smith, who appeared in an episode entitled "A Fashion Heist."[2]