Decoy (TV series)

Decoy
Beverly Garland as Officer Casey Jones in Decoy (1958)
Also known as	'Decoy Police Woman'
Genre	Crime drama
Written by	Jerome Coopersmith Don Ettlinger Steven Gardner Abram S. Ginnes Leon Tokatyan
Directed by	David Alexander Michael Gordon Stuart Rosenberg Teddy Sills Arthur H. Singer
Starring	Beverly Garland
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	39
Production
Executive producer(s)	Everett Rosenthal
Producer(s)	David Alexander Stuart Rosenberg Arthur H. Singer
Cinematography	Maurice Hartzband
Running time	30 mins.
Distributor	Peter Rodgers Organization
Release
Original network	Syndication
Picture format	Black-and-white
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	October 14, 1957 – July 7, 1958

Decoy (also titled Decoy Police Woman) is a groundbreaking American crime drama television series created for syndication and initially broadcast from October 14, 1957 to July 7, 1958, with thirty-nine 30-minute black-and-white episodes. It was the first American police series with a female protagonist. Many Decoy episodes are in the public domain.

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 cast changed each week with Garland the only main continuing character, although there were several recurring characters, mostly her commanding officer and immediate colleagues.

The series was inspired by Jack Webb's Dragnet, set in Los Angeles, California, and used a similar format to that series, with Jones portrayed as a serious, by-the-book, yet sympathetic cop with no personal life outside of her job. In the episode "The Sound of Tears", she reveals that the man she loved was a police officer who was shot and killed by the man he was sent to apprehend.

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

Many episodes focus 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 mostly in the public domain in the United States, about a dozen episodes of the series have so far seen limited release on DVD issues by several different companies.