Series Description

The Partners in Crime TV show was a 60 minute private investigator drama series on NBC about two women who joined forces in order to find the murderor of a man to whom they had each been previously married! He left them each equal ownership of his detective agency. After solving his murder, they decided that rather than selling the business and splitting the proceeds as their ex-husband probably envisioned, they would continue to run the agency as "Partners in (solving) Crime".

Partners in Crime Cast

Loni Anderson .... Sydney Kovak
Lynda Carter .... Carole Stanwyck
Walter Olkewicz .... Harmon Shain
Leo Rossi .... Lieutenant Ed Vronsky
Eileen Heckart .... Jeanine

Partners in Crime Trivia

The two main Partners in Crime TV show characters were named after classic Hollywood actresses. Sydney Kovak was named after "Kim Novak". Carole Stanwyck was a combination of two actresses, "Carole Lombard" and "Barbara Stanwyck".

Carole and Sydney were about as different as two human beings could be. Carole was rich at one time and then lost all of her money. She then had to earn a living as a photographer and sometimes courier. Sydney, on the other hand, was a street-wise daughter of a con man. She earned part of her living as a bass musician in a jazz band while "moonlighting" as a pick pocket! Their completely different backgrounds and lifestyles may have caused some personal conflict but it made them a formidable private investigation team!

The 9:00PM on Saturday night time slot for Partners in Crime was good in one way in that it followed two very popular NBC series, "Diff'rent Strokes" and "Gimme A Break". Unfortunately, it also meant that Partners in Crime had to compete for its audience with the immensely successful ABC series, "The Love Boat"!

The setting for the Partners in Crime TV show was San Francisco, California.

Among the other characters were Harmon Shain, the girls' ex-husband's assistant; Lieutenant Vronsky, the token police department contact that every private investigator must have; and Jeanine, the girls' (ex?)mother-in-law.

The title for the series came from the fact that Jeanine ran a mystery-oriented bookstore called, "Partners in Crime".

Another thing that may have harmed Partners in Crime's chances to go multi-seasonal was that most fans remembered Loni Anderson mostly from her role on the hit comedy series, "WKRP in Cincinnati" and Lynda Carter from the fantasy series, "Wonder Woman". Partners in crime demanded that they both play dramatically different characters and, unfortunately, that typically eliminates some percentage of an actor's past fans from viewing their new series. It's important to note, however, that this says nothing about Loni or Lynda's abilities to engage other types of roles as they have both performed magnificently in others during their careers.

Episodes List With Original Air Dates

The First And Only Season

1. Celebrity (9/22/1984)
2. The Hottest Guy in Town (9/29/1984)
3. Murder in the Museum (10/6/1984)
4. Pilot Episode (2 hours) (10/13/1984)
5. Duke (10/20/1984)
6. Paddles Up (10/27/1984)
7. Is She or Isn't He? (11/3/1984)
8. Fantasyland (11/24/1984)
9. The Setup (12/1/1984)
10. Fashioned for Murder (12/8/1984)
11. The Strangler (12/15/1984)
12. Getting in Shape (12/22/1984)
13. Double Jeopardy (12/29/1984)