Flowers of Evil (Police Woman)
Encyclopedia
"Flowers of Evil" is a 1974 episode of the American police procedural
television series Police Woman
. The episode features Sgt. Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson (Angie Dickinson
) going undercover at a nursing home to investigate a murder. She uncovers a trio of lesbians who are robbing and murdering their elderly residents. The episode, the 8th of the first season, originally aired on November 8, 1974.
Gay
and lesbian
organizations protested "Flowers of Evil", which producers said was based on a real case, for its portrayal of the killers as lesbians and for the stereotypical presentation of lesbianism. The episode aired a month after a similarly controversial episode
of Marcus Welby, M.D.
on ABC
garnered national protests. Mindful of that recent controversy, NBC
delayed the episode and ordered some changes but they were not enough to allay gay and lesbian concern over network television's negative portrayal of homosexuality. After negotiations, NBC agreed not to rerun the episode.
Mame Dorn, Gladys Conway and Gladys's femme lover, Janet Richards. Police Sergeant "Pepper" Anderson goes undercover in the home as a nurse and discovers that the women are robbing their elderly residents and one of them murdered the woman, Kathleen O'Shaunessy. Under Pepper's questioning Janet confesses to the murder, but when Pepper reveals that her college roommate was in love with her so Pepper understands "what a love like yours can do to a person", Janet admits that she confessed to protect Gladys, who actually committed the murder.
, "Flowers of Evil" was based on a real case in which three lesbians ran a nursing home and stole from their residents. "The characters just happen to be lesbians. It has nothing to do with the crime, it's simply what was true in the factual case." The intention was to focus on the issue of elder abuse
. Fay Spain, who played the butch
Mame, reported that producers advised her to cut her hair very short, bind her breasts, speak with a harsh, raspy voice and change her walk and mannerisms to appear masculine.
The episode was originally scheduled to air on October 22. On October 5, ABC
aired "The Outrage
", an episode of Marcus Welby, M.D.
in which a male teacher sexually assaults
a male student. Gay and lesbian activists, coordinated by the National Gay Task Force
, staged nationwide protests, persuading several advertisers to pull their commercials, and convincing 17 affiliates not to air it. NBC removed "Flowers of Evil" from the schedule and had it re-edited. Although the network denied that the Welby protests were a factor in its decision, NGTF spokesperson Ronald Gold said "It's our view that because we showed a little muscle with ABC, NBC took it off the air." Series producer Douglas Benton described the editing as "mostly cosmetic cutting" which according to Gerber included removing "brief scenes of overt touching, stares and verbal references to the relationship of the three women". NBC ordered further changes, including the removal of any mention of the word "lesbian" (although a character's describing Mame as looking like "she should be driving a diesel truck" was left in).
Gay and lesbian activists were slow to react to "Flowers of Evil", because unlike the Welby episode they had not read the script in advance. Whereas with Welby activists were able to mobilize a grassroots
national campaign, for this episode activists were only able to alert key cities. There were some protests the day the episode aired. Activists criticized the episode for being another in a series of portrayals of lesbians as villains in the absence of positive portrayals and derided Mame, Gladys and Janet as "The Butch, the Bitch and the Femme".
Eleven days after "Flowers of Evil" aired, lesbian activists operating under the name Lesbian Feminist Liberation staged a zap
at NBC's New York City
headquarters. Ten women entered the building in pairs at 15 minute intervals, traveling by elevator to different floors before converging on the Standards and Practices offices. Advised that vice president Herminio Traviesas would not return to the office until the following week, demonstrators announced their intention to wait until he returned. Around 75 women demonstrated in front of the building. The following morning half of the women left, along with the children of the lead protester. The remaining protesters unfurled a twenty foot long banner from the balcony of Traviesas's office reading "LESBIANS PROTEST NBC". They and street-level picketers chanted slogans like "NBC works against lesbians" and "Lesbians are sitting in". The demonstrators hoped to attract both network news coverage and arrests. When they realized neither was forthcoming, they left the building. While the networks ignored the story, it was picked up by local media and the wire services
.
called "Flowers of Evil" "the single most homophobic show to date". Writing for United Press International
, critic Frank Swertlow focused less on the episode and more on the protesters. While recognizing the validity of complaints about how minority groups are portrayed on television, Swertlow concludes that by "cav[ing] in" to demands of "pressure groups", network television "could take a step backward. There would never be any gutsy documentaries or dramas, just mush. The TV industry, which has ducked issues before, would have the backbone of a wet noodle."
Activists continued negotiating with the networks about LGBT portrayals on television. In 1975, NBC agreed not to rebroadcast the episode. "Flowers of Evil" was withheld from syndication for at least 25 years, but it is available on the season 1 DVD box set.
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...
television series Police Woman
Police Woman (TV series)
Police Woman is an American television police drama starring Angie Dickinson that ran on NBC for four seasons, from September 13, 1974, to March 29, 1978.-Synopsis:...
. The episode features Sgt. Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson (Angie Dickinson
Angie Dickinson
Angie Dickinson is an American actress. She has appeared in more than fifty films, including Rio Bravo, Ocean's Eleven, Dressed to Kill and Pay It Forward, and starred on television as Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson on the 1970s crime series Police Woman.-Early life:Dickinson, the second of...
) going undercover at a nursing home to investigate a murder. She uncovers a trio of lesbians who are robbing and murdering their elderly residents. The episode, the 8th of the first season, originally aired on November 8, 1974.
Gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
and lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
organizations protested "Flowers of Evil", which producers said was based on a real case, for its portrayal of the killers as lesbians and for the stereotypical presentation of lesbianism. The episode aired a month after a similarly controversial episode
The Outrage (Marcus Welby)
"The Outrage" is a 1974 episode of Marcus Welby, M.D., a long-running American medical drama on ABC. The episode tells the story of a teenage boy who is sexually assaulted by his male teacher. The episode, which originally aired October 8, 1974, sparked controversy and anger for its equation of...
of Marcus Welby, M.D.
Marcus Welby, M.D.
Marcus Welby, M.D. is an American medical drama television program that aired on ABC from September 23, 1969, to July 29, 1976. It starred Robert Young as a family practitioner with a kind bedside manner, and was produced by David Victor and David J. O'Connell...
on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
garnered national protests. Mindful of that recent controversy, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
delayed the episode and ordered some changes but they were not enough to allay gay and lesbian concern over network television's negative portrayal of homosexuality. After negotiations, NBC agreed not to rerun the episode.
Plot
An elderly woman is found strangled to death. The investigation leads police to the Golden Years Retirement Home. The home is owned and operated by three lesbians, the butchButch and femme
Butch and femme are LGBT terms describing respectively, masculine and feminine traits, behavior, style, expression, self-perception and so on. They are often used in the lesbian, bisexual and gay subcultures...
Mame Dorn, Gladys Conway and Gladys's femme lover, Janet Richards. Police Sergeant "Pepper" Anderson goes undercover in the home as a nurse and discovers that the women are robbing their elderly residents and one of them murdered the woman, Kathleen O'Shaunessy. Under Pepper's questioning Janet confesses to the murder, but when Pepper reveals that her college roommate was in love with her so Pepper understands "what a love like yours can do to a person", Janet admits that she confessed to protect Gladys, who actually committed the murder.
Cast
- Angie DickinsonAngie DickinsonAngie Dickinson is an American actress. She has appeared in more than fifty films, including Rio Bravo, Ocean's Eleven, Dressed to Kill and Pay It Forward, and starred on television as Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson on the 1970s crime series Police Woman.-Early life:Dickinson, the second of...
as Sgt. Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson - Earl HollimanEarl Holliman-Early life:Earl Holliman was born at Delhi in Richland Parish of northeastern Louisiana. Holliman’s biological father died before he was born, and his biological mother, living in poverty with several other children, gave him up for adoption at birth...
as Sgt. Bill Crowley - Charles DierkopCharles DierkopCharles Dierkop is an American film and television character actor.Dierkop was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and attended Aquinas High School in La Crosse...
as Royster - Ed BernardEd Bernard----Ed Bernard born July 4, 1939 in Philadelphia, USA, is an American actor.- Career :Most of his career was made on television, standing for playing the role of Det. Joe Styles, in the classic TV series Police Woman. He played the character in 91 episodes between...
as Styles - Laraine Stephens as Gladys Conway
- Fay SpainFay SpainFay Spain was an American actress in motion pictures and television. She was born in Phoenix, Arizona.-Theater apprentice:...
as Mame Dorn - Lynn LoringLynn LoringLynn Loring is an American actress and producer.She first started acting at the age of seven, playing the role of Patti Barron on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow. She played the role until 1961, when she graduated from high school and explored other opportunities...
as Janet Richards - Meg WyllieMeg WyllieMargaret Gillespie "Meg" Wyllie was an American actress. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, she was the first ever Star Trek villain, the Talosian Keeper in the first Star Trek: The Original Series pilot episode The Cage. The character was voiced by Malachi Throne...
as Kathleen O'Shaunessy
Production and controversy
According to executive producer David GerberDavid Gerber
David Gerber was a television executive producer. His notable work on television included the 1970s TV series Police Story and Police Woman. Other executive producer credits include The Ghost & Mrs...
, "Flowers of Evil" was based on a real case in which three lesbians ran a nursing home and stole from their residents. "The characters just happen to be lesbians. It has nothing to do with the crime, it's simply what was true in the factual case." The intention was to focus on the issue of elder abuse
Elder abuse
Elder abuse is a general term used to describe certain types of harm to older adults. Other terms commonly used include: "elder mistreatment," "senior abuse," "abuse in later life," "abuse of older adults," "abuse of older women," and "abuse of older men."...
. Fay Spain, who played the butch
Butch and femme
Butch and femme are LGBT terms describing respectively, masculine and feminine traits, behavior, style, expression, self-perception and so on. They are often used in the lesbian, bisexual and gay subcultures...
Mame, reported that producers advised her to cut her hair very short, bind her breasts, speak with a harsh, raspy voice and change her walk and mannerisms to appear masculine.
The episode was originally scheduled to air on October 22. On October 5, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
aired "The Outrage
The Outrage (Marcus Welby)
"The Outrage" is a 1974 episode of Marcus Welby, M.D., a long-running American medical drama on ABC. The episode tells the story of a teenage boy who is sexually assaulted by his male teacher. The episode, which originally aired October 8, 1974, sparked controversy and anger for its equation of...
", an episode of Marcus Welby, M.D.
Marcus Welby, M.D.
Marcus Welby, M.D. is an American medical drama television program that aired on ABC from September 23, 1969, to July 29, 1976. It starred Robert Young as a family practitioner with a kind bedside manner, and was produced by David Victor and David J. O'Connell...
in which a male teacher sexually assaults
Sexual assault
Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....
a male student. Gay and lesbian activists, coordinated by the National Gay Task Force
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force builds the political power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community from the ground up. The Task Force is the country’s premier social justice organization fighting to improve the lives of LGBT people, and working to create positive, lasting...
, staged nationwide protests, persuading several advertisers to pull their commercials, and convincing 17 affiliates not to air it. NBC removed "Flowers of Evil" from the schedule and had it re-edited. Although the network denied that the Welby protests were a factor in its decision, NGTF spokesperson Ronald Gold said "It's our view that because we showed a little muscle with ABC, NBC took it off the air." Series producer Douglas Benton described the editing as "mostly cosmetic cutting" which according to Gerber included removing "brief scenes of overt touching, stares and verbal references to the relationship of the three women". NBC ordered further changes, including the removal of any mention of the word "lesbian" (although a character's describing Mame as looking like "she should be driving a diesel truck" was left in).
Gay and lesbian activists were slow to react to "Flowers of Evil", because unlike the Welby episode they had not read the script in advance. Whereas with Welby activists were able to mobilize a grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
national campaign, for this episode activists were only able to alert key cities. There were some protests the day the episode aired. Activists criticized the episode for being another in a series of portrayals of lesbians as villains in the absence of positive portrayals and derided Mame, Gladys and Janet as "The Butch, the Bitch and the Femme".
Eleven days after "Flowers of Evil" aired, lesbian activists operating under the name Lesbian Feminist Liberation staged a zap
Zap (action)
A zap is a form of political direct action that came into use in the 1970s in the United States. Popularized by the early gay liberation group Gay Activists Alliance, a zap was a raucous public demonstration designed to embarrass a public figure or celebrity while calling the attention of both gays...
at NBC's New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
headquarters. Ten women entered the building in pairs at 15 minute intervals, traveling by elevator to different floors before converging on the Standards and Practices offices. Advised that vice president Herminio Traviesas would not return to the office until the following week, demonstrators announced their intention to wait until he returned. Around 75 women demonstrated in front of the building. The following morning half of the women left, along with the children of the lead protester. The remaining protesters unfurled a twenty foot long banner from the balcony of Traviesas's office reading "LESBIANS PROTEST NBC". They and street-level picketers chanted slogans like "NBC works against lesbians" and "Lesbians are sitting in". The demonstrators hoped to attract both network news coverage and arrests. When they realized neither was forthcoming, they left the building. While the networks ignored the story, it was picked up by local media and the wire services
News agency
A news agency is an organization of journalists established to supply news reports to news organizations: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. Such an agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire or news service.-History:The oldest news agency is Agence...
.
Critical response
TV GuideTV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
called "Flowers of Evil" "the single most homophobic show to date". Writing for United Press International
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
, critic Frank Swertlow focused less on the episode and more on the protesters. While recognizing the validity of complaints about how minority groups are portrayed on television, Swertlow concludes that by "cav[ing] in" to demands of "pressure groups", network television "could take a step backward. There would never be any gutsy documentaries or dramas, just mush. The TV industry, which has ducked issues before, would have the backbone of a wet noodle."
Activists continued negotiating with the networks about LGBT portrayals on television. In 1975, NBC agreed not to rebroadcast the episode. "Flowers of Evil" was withheld from syndication for at least 25 years, but it is available on the season 1 DVD box set.
See also
- List of 1970s American television episodes with LGBT themes
- The Other Martin LoringThe Other Martin Loring"The Other Martin Loring" is a 1973 episode of Marcus Welby, M.D., an American medical drama that aired on ABC. It tells the story of a middle-aged man facing several health issues, which seem to stem from his repression of his homosexuality...
- another Marcus Welby episode that faced protests for its negative gay portrayal
External links
- "Flowers of Evil" at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- "Flowers of Evil" "minisode" at Metacafé