| Genre: | Police drama |
| Developer: | David L. Wolper |
| Creator: | George Kirgo & Peter Nelson |
| Teleplay: | George Kirgo |
| Director: | William A. Graham |
| Starring: | Teresa Graves Charles Cioffi Jack Kelly Michael Pataki |
| Theme Music Composer: | Jack Elliott Allyn Ferguson Glen A. Larson Stu Phillips |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 23 |
| List Episodes: |
|
| Executive Producer: | David L. Wolper Glen A. Larson Lawrence Turman |
| Producer: | Paul Mason Peter Nelson Ron Satlof |
| Location: | Colonial Street, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California |
| Cinematography: | Lester Shorr Stan Lazan Meredith M. Nicholson Duke Callaghan |
| Editor: | Fabien D. Tordjmann Jim Benson Frederic L. Knudtson Anthony Redman Robert F. Shugrue Michael Berman J. Terry Williams |
| Runtime: | 45–48 minutes |
| Company: | David L. Wolper Productions, Inc Universal Television |
| Network: | ABC |
Get Christie Love! is an American crime drama TV series starring Teresa Graves as an undercover female detective which originally aired on ABC from January 22, 1974, until April 5, 1975. The starring television role made Graves the second black female lead in a non-stereotypical role for a U.S. weekly series, after Diahann Carroll in Julia. The series is based on Dorothy Uhnak's crime-thriller novel The Ledger.[1] [2] [3]
Based on the novel The 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.[4] Get Christie Love! was originally broadcast in January 1974 as an ABC Movie of the Week, inspired by the 1970s hero 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. 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 (she had become a Jehovah's Witness since the making of the pilot, and eventually retired from the entertainment industry to focus on her faith), 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."[5]
Charles Cioffi played Christie Love's boss for the first 12 episodes of the series (his character was featured from the season premiere until "The Longest Fall") and Jack Kelly took over for the last 10 (beginning with the episode "The Deadly Sport"). The storyline in the pilot that had Christie having a secret affair with her police captain (played by Harry Guardino) was dropped for the regular series.
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 network TV Land in 1997 and on Centric (now known as BET Her) 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.[6]
In 2017, producers Courtney Kemp and Vin Diesel became attached to a reboot of the series for ABC, entitled Get Christie Love (without the exclamation point), a co-production between Lionsgate Television and Universal Television, which focused on an African American female CIA agent who leads an elite ops unit.[1] [2] [3] However, ABC later announced that it had decided not to pick the pilot up to series.[7]