The Commish

The series stars Michael Chiklis as Tony Scali, a former NYPD detective who is now the police commissioner in the small upstate New York town of Eastbridge, and tends to work through problems with humor and creativity more often than with violence or force. Theresa Saldana plays Rachel Scali, Tony's wife, and Kaj-Erik Eriksen plays their young son, David. Also living with the family in the first season was Rachel's freeloading brother, Arnie Metzger, played by David Paymer. A daughter, Sarah, played by twins Justine and Dayna Cornborough, was born to Tony and Rachel in the second season. The show focused on family situations as well as police drama. The series deals with a wide range of topical social issues such as police corruption, racism, homophobia, drug addiction, disabilities, child abuse, illegal immigration, and sexual harassment.

In addition to Commissioner Scali's family, the cast included police working for the town of Eastbridge.

Commissioner Scali had three different lieutenants at his precinct during the run; Lt. Irving Wallerstein (Alex Bruhanski), his longtime buddy and second-in-command, was killed in the line of duty after only a few episodes and was replaced by Lt. 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 cleared of wrongdoing, 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 Cyd Madison (Melinda McGraw). She continued through to the end of season three until jean-wearing Pentageli (John Cygan) returned to the series at the start of season four. Madison left the Eastbridge department to work as a commissioner in another city. Pentangeli returned 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 Stan Kelly (Geoffrey Nauffts), Carmela Pagan (Gina Belafonte), and hot-headed 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 without explanation.

Chiklis's character, Tony Scali, was at least ten years older than Chiklis' age at the time. At one point, the network worried that Chiklis's weight loss would have an effect on the ratings and reportedly asked him to stuff his clothing. He also was encouraged to not shave his head to look still older.

Although set in the fictional town of Eastbridge in the Hudson Valley, New York, the show was filmed in and around 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.[1] 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.”[1] This means of diversion was used in a series one episode and is typical of Scali’s way of working in the series. 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.[1]

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).

Although this series aired on ABC, it was originally slated to be on CBS, but unresolved casting differences with CBS led Stephen J. Cannell to cease pre-production with that network. Eventually, Cannell took the series to ABC and it won the ratings war with CBS for that time slot (Saturday nights at 10pm).

The Commish also screened on KTN (Kenya Television Network) in Kenya, Global Television Network in Canada, Nelonen in Finland, NRK in Norway, ATV World in Hong Kong, TV3 in Spain, Channel 2 (القناة الثانية) in Egypt during the 90's where the show gained a huge following, Radio Philippines Network in the Philippines, RCTI in Indonesia, ProSieben in Germany, METV in Cyprus, TV2 in Malaysia, Sky One in the United Kingdom, France 2 in France, RTÉ One and RTÉ Two in Ireland, WRHM Channel 7 in Guyana, RTB in Brunei, Channel 2 in Jordan, M-Net in South Africa, TV Land in the Middle East and the Nine Network in Australia. It is still broadcast on SBS Net in Denmark, TV4 Guld in Sweden, Canale 5 and La7 in Italy, and on Heroes & Icons in the U.S. Series one to four stream on Prime Video.

Anchor Bay Entertainment released the first two seasons of The Commish on DVD in Region 1 in 2004–2005.[2][3] Because of poor sales, these releases were discontinued and no further seasons were made available.

In 2009, Mill Creek Entertainment acquired the rights to several Stephen J. Cannell series, including The Commish.[4] They have subsequently re-released the first two seasons.[5][6]

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 very first time.[7]

In Region 4, Beyond Home Entertainment has released the first four seasons on DVD in Australia.

Theresa Saldana received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in 1994.

• The Commish at IMDb
• The Commish at AllMovie
• The Commish at TV.com