The Commish is a television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 series that aired 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...

 in the United States from 1991 to 1996. The series focused on the work and home life of a suburban police commissioner in upstate New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.

The Commish also screened on KTN

KTN

KTN may refer to:*Katoen Natie, a global logistics provider based in Belgium*Kawish Television Network*Kenya Television Network*Ketchikan International Airport...

 (Kenya Television Network) in Kenya, Nelonen

Nelonen

Nelonen is a Finnish commercial TV channel. It started out as Helsinki's local television channel PTV in 1989 on the HTV cable network, which name was changed first to PTV4 and then to Nelonen. It started on June 1, 1997. Nelonen, in Finnish, means the glyph of the number four. The channel is...

 in Finland, NRK in Norway, TV3

TV3 (Catalonia)

TV3 is the primary television channel of Catalan public broadcaster Televisió de Catalunya, a subsidiary of the CCMA. TV3 broadcasts programs only in Catalan, with an optional dual track in the original language for some foreign-language series and movies...

 in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, RCTI

RCTI

RCTI is Indonesia's first privately owned television network and is based in West Jakarta. RCTI broadcasts Indonesian Idol as well as sinetron , films, news and current affairs, reality shows and religious programs...

 in Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, Sky One in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, , RTÉ One

RTÉ One

RTÉ One is the flagship television channel of Raidió Teilifís Éireann , and it is the most popular and most watched television channel in Ireland. It was launched as Telefís Éireann on 31 December 1961, it was renamed RTÉ Television in 1966, and it was renamed as RTÉ One upon the launch of RTÉ...

 in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 and the Nine Network

Nine Network

The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...

 in Australia. It is still broadcast on SBS Net in Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, TV4 Guld

TV4 Guld

TV4 Guld is a Swedish television channel devoted to "classic" programmes such as older television dramas.The channel launched on November 3, simultaneously with its sister channel TV4 Komedi, on satellite from Canal Digital and cable from Com Hem...

 in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 and La7

La7

La7 is an Italian television channel owned by Telecom Italia Media and operated by Telecom Italia.-History:In 2001, Lorenzo Pellicioli and Roberto Colaninno, of Telecom Italia announced they had acquired Telemontecarlo, in order to create a strong competitor against the six other national channels...

 in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

Synopsis

The series starred Michael Chiklis

Michael Chiklis

Michael Charles Chiklis is an American actor, voice actor, occasional director and television producer. Some of the previous roles for which he is best known include Commissioner Tony Scali on the ABC police drama The Commish, LAPD Detective Vic Mackey on the FX police drama The Shield, Thing in...

 as Tony Scali, a police commissioner in a small upstate New York

Upstate New York

Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...

 town who worked through problems with humor and creativity more often than with violence or force. Theresa Saldana

Theresa Saldana

Theresa Saldana is an American actress, known for her work in motion pictures and television. She is perhaps best known for her role as Rachel Scali, the wife of Police Commissioner Tony Scali, in the 1990s television series The Commish, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best...

 played Rachel Scali, Tony's wife, and Kaj-Erik Eriksen

Kaj-Erik Eriksen

Kaj-Erik Eriksen is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his roles as Danny Farrell in the television series The 4400, Jeremy Peters in the television series Boston Public, and as the son of the main character in the 1990s show The Commish.-Career:Eriksen began his acting career in Vancouver,...

 played their teen-aged son, David. Also living with the family in the first season was Rachel's freeloading brother, Arnie Metzger, played by (David Paymer

David Paymer

David Paymer is an American actor and television director, seen in such films as Quiz Show, Searching for Bobby Fischer, City Slickers, Crazy People, State and Main, Payback, Get Shorty, Carpool, The American President, Ocean's Thirteen, and Drag Me to Hell...

). A daughter, Sarah, played by twins Justine and Dayna Cornborough, was born to Tony and Rachel in the second season. The show focused as much on family situations as on police drama. The series often dealt with a wide range of topical social issues such as racism

Racism

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

, homophobia

Homophobia

Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...

, drug addiction, disabilities, child abuse, illegal immigrants, and sexual harassment

Sexual harassment

Sexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...

. The series lasted five years.

Cast and crew

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

Commissioner Scali went through three lieutenants at his precinct during the run; Lt. Irv Wallerstein (Alex Bruhanski), his long time buddy and second-in-command, was succeeded after only a few episodes by Lt. Paulie Pentangeli (John Cygan

John Cygan

John Cygan is an American actor, voice artist, and comedian.-Career:Cygan is notable for his television work and his voice work .-Filmography:*The Commish ......

). At the start of the second season, Paulie himself was replaced by a female lieutenant, Cyd Madison (Melinda McGraw

Melinda McGraw

Melinda Leigh McGraw is an American actress. She has starred in movies such as Albino Alligator , Wrongfully Accused , and Nutty Professor II: The Klumps , and is also known for her television performances on The Commish, The X-Files and Mad Men.-Early life:McGraw was born in Nicosia, Cyprus, to...

). She lasted two seasons until John Cygan returned to the series as Paulie at the start of season four. The star cops who also worked closely with the Commish included Stan Kelly (Geoffrey Nauffts), young, hot-headed Ricky Caruso (Nicholas Lea

Nicholas Lea

Nicholas Lea is a Canadian actor best known for his portrayal of Alex Krycek on The X-Files and on Kyle XY playing Tom Foss.-Biography:...

), and Carmela Pagan (Gina Belafonte).

Production

Chiklis's character, Tony Scali, was at least ten years older than Chiklis's 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; Schembri also served as the Secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice

Florida Department of Juvenile Justice

The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice is a state agency of Florida that operates juvenile detention centers. Its headquarters are in the Knight Building in Tallahassee.-Residential facilities:...

 under Governor Jeb Bush

Jeb Bush

John Ellis "Jeb" Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. He is a prominent member of the Bush family: the second son of former President George H. W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush; the younger brother of former President George W...

. Schembri was "discovered" after being a technical consultant for the TV series. Schembri was serving as the Police Commissioner of Rye, New York during that time. The show was unrealistic in that Tony would do many things a real-life police commissioner doesn't, such as 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 Cannell to cease pre-production with that network. Eventually, Cannell took the series to ABC and it won the ratings

Nielsen Ratings

Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...

 war with CBS for that time slot (Saturday nights at 10pm).

Awards

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

DVD Releases

Anchor Bay Entertainment

Anchor Bay Entertainment

Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...

 released the first two seasons of The Commish on DVD in Region 1 in 2004–2005. Because of poor sales, no further seasons were released. These releases have been now discontinued and are out of print.

In 2009, Mill Creek Entertainment

Mill Creek Entertainment

Mill Creek Entertainment is a home entertainment company that manufactures movie and television DVD compilation box sets at "value" prices. Nashville's Amity Entertainment is an affiliate to Mill Creek...

 acquired the rights to several Stephen J. Cannell

Stephen J. Cannell

Stephen Joseph Cannell was an American television producer, writer, novelist and occasional actor, and the founder of Stephen J. Cannell Productions.-Early life:...

 series, including The Commish. They have subsequently re-released the first two seasons.

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.

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

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Dates
		Region 1	Region 4
The Complete First Season	22	March 9, 2010	July 16, 2008
The Complete Second Season	22	September 14, 2010	October 15, 2008
The Complete Third Season	22	N/A	June 10, 2009
The Complete Fourth Season	22	N/A	October 7, 2009
The Complete Series	94	October 12, 2010	N/A

External links