Dog and Cat

Dog and Cat is an American television series that aired on ABC on Saturday night at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time in 1977.

Premise
Sgt. Jack Ramsey (Lou Antonio), an undercover detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, teams up with a partner named J.Z. Kane (Kim Basinger). Together they form a relationship based on friendship and trust (completely platonic) that leads them to capture many of L.A.'s criminals. Lieutenant Arthur Kipling (Matt Clark) is their boss.

"Dog and Cat" is a slang term used by police officers to denote a male-female partnership. The show is especially remembered for the car that Kim Basinger used in the series: a souped-up Volkswagen Beetle with a Porsche engine.

Production history
Lawrence Gordon pitched the show to ABC, who bought it. He took it to Paramount, who produced it. The show was one of the first supervised by Brandon Tartikoff when he was at ABC.

It replaced Most Wanted which moved to Monday night.

Critical
The New York Times described one of the earliest episodes, "Live Bait", about a rapist, as "a particularly repulsive tale" and thought the male lead was a rip-off of Baretta and the female lead too obviously inspired by Charlie's Angels.

The Washington Post said Antonio does "a nice, grumpy job" and Basinger was "a little saltier than Angie Dickinson's Pepper" but liked the fact it was not overly violent and "had a sense of humour. It could be around in the fall".

Ratings
The first episode after the pilot was meant to be "Live Bait" (directed by Steve Stern, written by Rudolph Borchert), about a rapist. However it was changed to be about a corrupt cop. It got a 40% rating and was the 23rd most watched show of the week.

Joel Silver reported that Walter Hill's original pilot script inspired Shane Black to write Lethal Weapon.

Credits
Directed by: Writing credits (in alphabetical order) Credited cast The rest of cast listed alphabetically:
 * Bob Kelljan
 * Heywood Gould
 * Tom Greene
 * Walter Hill
 * William Keys
 * Owen Morgan (also story)
 * Henry Rosenbaum
 * Lou Antonio as Jack Ramsey
 * Kim Basinger as Officer J.Z. Kane
 * Matt Clark as Lt. Arthur Kipling
 * Charles Cioffi as Ralph Travan
 * Richard Lynch	as Shirley
 * Dale Robinette as Nicholas Evans
 * Janit Baldwin	as Roeanne Lee Peters
 * Geoffrey Scott as David Storey
 * Lesley Woods as Velma
 * Matt Bennett as Gonzo
 * Walt Davis as Trog
 * Dick Wesson as Zink Kauffen
 * Lynn Borden as Mavis
 * Richard Forbes as Earl Seagram
 * James Hall as Frank
 * Dianne Kay as Connie
 * Frank McRae as Morgue Attendant
 * Catherane Skillen
 * Jim Storm	as Change Maker
 * Ken Sylk as Doty
 * Betty Thomas as Waitress