BEAT, THE: AND THE BEAT GOES ON {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The premiere in this series of police dramas focusing on two young police-beat partners whose personal lives are almost as volatile as their professional ones.
In this episode, Officer Mike Dorigan tells his best friend and partner, Officer Zane Marinelli, that he is finally going to marry his longtime girlfriend Elizabeth. Marinelli is thrilled for his friend, but the news only serves to put him in a gloomy and contemplative mood. Marinelli's own girlfriend, Beatrice, is mentally ill and must take medicine constantly in order to avoid outbursts of erratic and irrational behavior.
Marinelli begins to take his frustration out on his partner; after the two respond to a call at a motorcycle accident, Marinelli tells Dorigan he's gone soft in his newfound domesticity. The pair argue all the way over toward what should be a routine call: a fashion photographer is complaining about the peeping tom who refuses to stop peering through his window. When the officers show up at the voyeur's house to issue the man a warning, he pulls a shotgun on them. They are only able to subdue the man after Dorigan demonstrates extreme bravery, foiling Marinelli's theory in the process.
Back at the precinct, protesters have gathered to demonstrate outside the Police Department in protest of the perceived excessive force used against an African-American man while he was in custody. Marinelli and Dorigan don't think much about the scandal until they are accosted by a group of African-Americans who confront them on a playground basketball court later.
Dorigan's fiancee begins to complain that Dorigan drinks too much, and she leaves him in the apartment alone to clean up his act. Meanwhile, Beatrice has an episode and destroys some of Marinelli's prized possessions. Panicked, he leaves and moves in with Dorigan. Later, when Marinelli runs into Beatrice at a local grocery store, she berates him for abandoning her. "It's not my fault your father killed your mother!" she screams at the top of her lungs. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: UPN
- DATE: March 21, 2000 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:45:03
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:60934
- GENRE: Drama, police
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police
- SERIES RUN: UPN - TV series, 2000
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Tom Fontana … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Barry Levinson … Executive Producer, Director
- Jim Finnerty … Executive Producer
- Julie Martin … Co-Executive Producer
- Anya Epstein … Producer
- Irene Burns … Associate Producer
- Tomandandy and Evolution … Music by
- Derek Cecil … Cast, Officer Mike Dorigan
- Mark Ruffalo … Cast, Officer Zane Marinelli
- Heather Burns … Cast, Beatrice
- Poppy Montgomery … Cast, Elizabeth
- Tom Noonan … Cast, Captain Howard Schmidt
- Lea DeLaria … Cast, Officer Kathy Speck
- Vincent Guastaferro … Cast, Officer Jack Nicorella
- David LaChapelle … Cast, Stoddart
- David Zayas … Cast, Officer Ray Morales
- Domenick Lombardozzi … Cast, Joey Kilmer
- Orlando Abdo … Cast, Fruit Stand Man
- Lori Tan Chinn … Cast, Lilly Chen
- Ranjit Chowdhry … Cast, Cabbie
- Victor Colicchio … Cast, Super
- Avery Glymph … Cast, Paramedic
- Joseph Latimore … Cast, Bruce Taylor
- Madeline Lee … Cast, Sarina Hayes
- Pat McNamara … Cast, Connie Dorigan
- Ellen Muth … Cast, Jaqueline Hutchinson
- Wass M. Stevens … Cast, Man in Bar
- Henry Strozier … Cast, Father Ed Raine
- Don Wallace … Cast, Black Man