Based on the novelThe Ledger, the main character "Christie Opara"—a white, New York City police detective—was dropped completely and "Christie Love" emerged. Det. Olga Ford of the NYPD served as the series' Technical Advisor. Get Christie Love! was originally broadcast in January 1974 as an ABC Movie of the Week, inspired by the 1970s heroineblaxploitation films such as Tamara Dobson's Cleopatra Jones, and Pam Grier's Coffy and Foxy Brown . The title character had a catchphrase; upon apprehending a criminal, Love would declare, "You're under arrest, Sugah!" The film proved a success, and consequently spawned a short-lived television series on the ABC network. 22 episodes were shown from September 11, 1974 – April 5, 1975, featuring Charles Cioffi as Love's supervisor Lt. Matt Reardon, who was later replaced by Jack Kelly as Capt. Arthur Ryan. Financed on a meager budget and heavily sanitized to conform to Graves' religious morals, the series was cancelled after one year. 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."
Cast and characters
Charles Cioffi played Christie Love's boss for the first 12 episodes of the series and Jack Kelly took over for the last 10. The storyline in the pilot that had Christie having a secret affair with her police captain was dropped for the regular series.
Teresa Graves as Christie Love
Charles Cioffi as Lieutenant Matt Reardon
Jack Kelly as Captain Arthur Ryan
Michael Pataki as Sgt. Pete Gallagher, Christie's partner
Dennis Rucker as Lt. Steve Belmont
Andy Romano as Lt. Joe Caruso.
This list is for the ABC Movie of the Week of January 22, 1974 which served as the pilot for the series:
The series has aired in the U.S. on the cable networkTV Land in 1997 and on Centric in 2014 as part of the show's 40th anniversary. The show gave the first black woman to serve in a State Police force in the United States, Louise Smith, critical motivation to continue with her chosen career when she faced significant discrimination both in the barracks and on the streets.
Cultural references
In a scene in Quentin Tarantino's film, Reservoir Dogs, the characters Mr. Pink, Mr. White, Mr. Orange, and "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot, engage in a brief discussion regarding Get Christie Love!.
In the 2002 Austin Powers movie Austin Powers in Goldmember, the character Foxxy Cleopatra uses the famous phrase, "You're under arrest, Sugah!"
Reboot
In 2017, producers Courtney Kemp and Vin Diesel became attached to a reboot of the series for ABC, entitled Get Christie Love, a co-production between Lionsgate Television and Universal Television, which focused on an African American female CIA agent who leads an elite ops unit. However, ABC later announced that it had decided not to pick the pilot up to series.
