Juvenile film star Robby Benson, just turned 30 but still saddled with a kid’s image (one unkind critic called him “cute as Bambi and twice as smarmy”), tried to establish an adult image by playing a tough cop in this 1986 series. It didn’t work.
Plainclothes detective Cliff Brady (Benson) was on home turf, assigned to the precinct in a tough Southside Chicago neighbourhood where he had grown up.
He lived nearby, kept in touch with old friends, and tried to keep the area from deteriorating still further.
His favoured hangout was The Windbreaker, a local saloon run by outspoken Rita (Lainie Kazan), a sort of surrogate mother. Boyhood friend Richie (Matt Craven) worked there as a bartender and another buddy, smooth-talking bookmaker Danny (Adam Arkin), hung out.
Lt. Iverson (Art Metrano) was Cliff’s even-tougher superior, Father McCaskey (Alan North) the understanding police chaplain, and Connie (Elizabeth Pena) a fellow officer who couldn’t have been more concerned about his welfare if she had been his sister.
Detective Cliff Brady
Robby Benson Rita
Lainie Kazan Danny Polchek
Adam Arkin Richie Messina
Matt Craven Lieutenant Iverson
Art Metrano Officer Connie Rivera
Elizabeth Pena Father McCaskey
Alan North
Plainclothes detective Cliff Brady (Benson) was on home turf, assigned to the precinct in a tough Southside Chicago neighbourhood where he had grown up.
