''Reasonable Doubts'' is an American police drama television series created by Robert Singer, which broadcast in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

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, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

Tess Kaufman (

Marlee Matlin Marlee Matlin (born August 24, 1965) is an American actress, activist, and author. Deafness, Deaf since she was 18 months old, Matlin is known for her portrayals of deaf women, and for her activism on behalf of deaf individuals in Cinema of the ...

), 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 the ...

Dicky Cobb (

Mark Harmon Thomas Mark Harmon (born September 2, 1951) is an American actor, writer, producer, television director and former American football, football player. He is best known for playing the lead role of Leroy Jethro Gibbs on ''NCIS (TV series), NCIS'' ...

), 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 elements, no ...

, 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 audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

. 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 Americans, American former actress. She became known for her roles in the films ''DeepStar Six'' (1989) and ''The Punisher (1989 film), The Punisher'' (1989). She also appeared in television series s ...

), 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), 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 as District Attorney Arthur Gold *

as Kay Lockman * Tim Grimm as Bruce Kaufman * Kay Lenz as Maggie Zombro (recurring, season 1; main, season 2)

Episodes

Series overview

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''

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0101175 1990s American legal television series 1990s American crime drama television series Deaf culture in the United States Sign language television shows American 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 NBC crime dramas