''Reasonable Doubts'' is an American

police drama The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eithe ...

television series created by Robert Singer, which broadcast in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

that ran from September 26, 1991 to April 27, 1993.

Synopsis

''Reasonable Doubts'' is primarily about the working relationship between Assistant

District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...

Tess Kaufman (

Marlee Matlin Marlee Beth Matlin (born August 24, 1965) is an American actress, author, and activist. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for a ...

), a prosecutor very sensitive to the rights of the accused, and hard-charging, gruff

Detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...

Dicky Cobb (

Mark Harmon Thomas Mark Harmon (born September 2, 1951) is an American actor. He is most famous for playing the lead role of Leroy Jethro Gibbs in '' NCIS''. He also appeared in a wide variety of roles since the early 1970s. After spending the majority of ...

), an old-fashioned cop with a "bust-the-perps" attitude. The reason that these two are assigned to work together was that Cobb is one of the few available police officers who knows

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

, and Tess, like the actress who portrayed her, is

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an Audiology, audiological condition. In this context it ...

. Dicky is usually more frustrated by Tess' sympathy for the suspects than by her deafness; he also repeats what Tess says back to her to make sure that he understood it (Tess can also read lips) and this allowed the audience to understand her part of the dialogue. Dicky also spoke as he signed to Tess. Both characters are romantically involved with other people when the series opens: Tess is estranged from, but still in contact with, her husband Bruce ( Tim Grimm); Dicky had a manipulative girlfriend named Kay Lockman (

Nancy Everhard Nancy Everhard (born November 30, 1957) is an American former actress. She became known for her roles in the films ''DeepStar Six'' (1989) and '' The Punisher'' (1989). She also appeared in television series such as '' Reasonable Doubts'' (1991� ...

), who is, unsurprisingly, quite jealous of Tess, and not without reason, as a considerable mutual attraction, despite their differences, has developed between Tess and Dicky. The situation becomes more complicated with the death of Kay early in the second season, freeing the characters to pursue the relationship at least somewhat, although its resolution is still up in the air when the program was not renewed for a third season. Cobb was also involved with flinty lawyer Maggie Zombro (

Kay Lenz Kay Ann Lenz (born March 4, 1953) is an American actress. She is the recipient of a Daytime Emmy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, as well as nominations for a Golden Globe Award and a Saturn Award. Lenz is best known for her title role in the f ...

), an early continuing character who became a regular in later seasons. Executive producer Bob Singer gained some interest from the network in spinning off the show into a straight cop drama starring Harmon and

Jim Beaver James Norman Beaver Jr. (born August 12, 1950) is an American actor, writer, and film historian. He is most familiar to worldwide audiences as Bobby Singer in ''Supernatural''. He also played Whitney Ellsworth on the HBO Western drama series '' ...

, who had played Dicky's friend and partner Detective Earl Gaddis from the beginning of the show, but ultimately NBC demurred.

Cast

as Detective Dickie Cobb *

as Assistant District Attorney Tess Kaufman *

William Converse-Roberts William Converse-Roberts is an American actor. He was born William Converse Roberts in Needham, Massachusetts. He attended both Stony Brook University and the Yale School of Drama. In 1989, he won an Obie Award for his performance in an Off-Br ...

as District Attorney Arthur Gold *

as Kay Lockman * Tim Grimm as Bruce Kaufman *

as Maggie Zombro (recurring, season 1; main, season 2)

Episodes

Season 1 (1991–92)

Season 2 (1992–93)

Awards and nominations

References

* Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, ''

The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0101175 NBC original programming 1990s American legal television series 1990s American crime drama television series Deaf culture in the United States Sign language television shows English-language television shows Television series by Lorimar Television 1991 American television series debuts 1993 American television series endings Fictional portrayals of the Chicago Police Department Television shows about deaf people Television series about prosecutors