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The Commish is an American comedy-drama television series that aired on ABC in the United States from September 28, 1991, to January 11, 1996. The series focuses on the work and home life of a suburban police commissioner in fictional Eastbridge, New York. The show was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Focusing both on family situations and police drama, the series tackles a wide range of topical social issues such as police corruption, racism, homophobia, addiction, disability, child abuse, illegal immigration, and sexual harassment.
Scali had three different lieutenants at his precinct during the show's run; Lt. Irving "Irv" Wallerstein (Alex Bruhanski), his longtime buddy and second-in-command, was killed in the line of duty in the eleventh episode of Season 1, "The Fourth Man", after appearing in only a few episodes and was replaced by Lt. Paul "Paulie" Pentangeli (John Cygan), his childhood best friend. At the start of the second season, Pentangeli shot an unarmed suspect who was reaching for a cigarette case.
Although Pentangeli was acquitted, Scali nonetheless fired him, suspecting that Pentangeli knowingly shot the suspect on whom they had insufficient evidence to prosecute. Pentangeli had said that it felt like real police work. He was replaced by a female lieutenant, elegant former FBI agent Cydavia "Cyd" Madison (Melinda McGraw), who continued through to the end of season three before leaving the Eastbridge department to work as a commissioner in another city at the start of season four, when jean-wearing Pentangeli returned to the series despite his continuing disagreement with Scali regarding the nature of the shooting in season two.
The star cops who also worked closely with Scali included Stanley Oliver "Stan" Kelly (Geoffrey Nauffts), Carmela Theresa Antonia Pagan (Gina Belafonte), and hot-headed Richard "Ricky" Caruso (Nicholas Lea). Series regular Kelly was killed off at the end of season three, whereas other characters such as Pagan would simply disappear for longer stretches inexplicably.
Although set in the fictional town of Eastbridge in the Hudson Valley, New York, the show was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The character Tony Scali was based on the real-life 30th Commissioner of New York City's Department of Correction, Anthony Schembri, the son of an Italian immigrant, who grew up in Brooklyn. Schembri recalls incidents such as his deflecting a man intent on suicide from wanting to jumping off of a roof: “I asked him if he had a permit to jump off.” This means of diversion, used in the series premiere, characterizes Scali’s modus operandi. Schembri later served as the Secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice under Governor Jeb Bush, as the Citrus County, Florida, County Administrator, and later still as an advisor to India’s Centre for Criminology and Public Policy Committee.
Schembri was "discovered" after being a technical consultant for the TV series (while serving as the Police Commissioner of Rye, New York). The show was unrealistic in that Tony Scali the police commissioner, working as Schembri had done while he was a Brooklyn detective, would do many things a real-life police commissioner doesn't (such as personally chase criminals and investigate crimes).
Though the series was originally slated to air on CBS, unresolved casting differences led Stephen J. Cannell to cease pre-production with that network. Eventually, Cannell took the series to ABC and it won the Nielsen ratings war with CBS for that time slot (Saturday nights at 10pm).
Actor Jason Alexander said he had been offered a role on the show, but turned it down as the TV show he was already cast in — Seinfeld, where he played George Costanza — got picked up for another season and went on to become one of the most successful in history.
In 2009, Mill Creek Entertainment acquired the rights to several Stephen J. Cannell series, including The Commish. They subsequently re-released the first two seasons.
On October 12, 2010, Mill Creek released The Commish: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1. The 17-disc set features all 94 episodes of the series on DVD for the first time.
In August 2022, Visual Entertainment released The Commish: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.
In Region 4, Beyond Home Entertainment has released the first four seasons on DVD in Australia.
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