Get Christie Love!

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	Universal Television
Running time	74 mins. (TV Pilot), 60 min. 45-48 min. (excluding commercials) (TV Series)
Language	English

74 mins. (TV Pilot),

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" emerged.

Det. Olga Ford of the NYPD served as the series Technical Advisor.

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 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 (23 episodes from January 22, 1974-April 5, 1975, featuring Charles Cioffi as Love's supervisor Lt. Matt Reardon, who is later replaced by Jack Kelly as Capt. Arthur Ryan. Financed on a meager budget and heavily sanitized to conform to Graves' religious morals (she had joined Jehovah's Witnesses since the making of the TV film), the series was soon cancelled. One episode featured many of Graves' former Rowan & Martin's 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." The starring TV role made Graves the only African-American female lead in a U.S. network drama until Kerry Washington in Scandal (2012).

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