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Bakers Dozen aired on CBS from March until April 1982.
Much in the style of Barney Miller, Baker's Dozen sought to show the human and often funny side of police work. It followed the offbeat activities of an undercover ant-crime unit of the N.Y.P.D. under the direction of no-nonsense Capt. Florence Baker ( Doris Belack). Mike and Terry ( Ron Silver, Cindy Weintaub), two of the undercover cops, struggled to maintain their rocky romantic relationship, though their assignments often got in the way. Otis Kelly and Harve Schoendorf ( Alan Weeks, Sam McMurray)were also members of Baker's team and Jeff Diggins ( John Del Regno), , one of the many street people they delt with, was a neighborhood con man who sometimes helped them out with information. Sgt. Martin ( Thomas Quinn), the precinct philosopher was forever spouting homlilies and making long winded observations about life to anyone who would sit still and listen.
The program was filmed on location in New York
From The New York Times
Television Weekly
By C. GERALD FRASER
Published: March 14, 1982
Detective Story ''You've got to deal with the craziness of New York. If you don't have a sense of humor you can't exist here,'' said Salvatore (Sonny) Grosso, a local police officer for 20 years. He and his detective partner, Eddie (Popeye) Egan, became famous when they found a $3.5 million heroin cache in a French television personality's car. That incident prompted the movie ''The French Connection.'' And now, Mr. Grosso, who also made a brief appearance in this and other films, has created - he submitted the idea and wrote the outline - a half-hour comedy series about New York police officers, ''Baker's Dozen.'' It begins Wednesday on CBS at 9:30 P.M. and stars Ron Silver and Cindy Weintraub.
Now retired as a police officer, Mr. Grosso said: ''From 'The French Connection' I went into a bit part in 'The Godfather.' I also wrote a couple of television pilots, wrote a movie called 'The Seven Ups,' was a technical advisor to 'Kojak' and 'Baretta' and 'The Marcus-Wilson Murders.' I based this creation, 'Baker's Dozen,' on my own experiences.''
Nick Arnold, the show's producer and chief writer, said the series was filmed on New York's streets with one camera, in contrast to multiple-camera studio tapings which most half-hour comedies use. ''It's not a cop show,'' he said. ''It's about people who have a very difficult, pressured, tense job being cops and how the pressure of the job enables them to release their humor.''
A Review From The New York Times
Review By John J. O'Connor
Published March, 17, 1982
''Baker's Dozen'' represents still another advance in the return of cop shows to television. Admittedly, they are coming back in a broad variety of guises. NBC-TV's ''Hill Street Blues'' spikes its action with touches of humor. ABC-TV's ''Police Squad!'' offers parodies that are strictly for laughs. ''Baker's Dozen'' takes the form of situation comedy, in which the comedy is supposed to emerge from basically serious situations.
The ''dozen'' of the title seems to be six New York Police Department members of a special anticrime unit under the command of a woman named Captain Baker (Doris Belak). Outside the office, Mike (Ron Silver) and Terry (Cindy Weintraub) are ''seeing each other.''
In tonight's premiere, Mike is eager to set up a decoy plan to capture a suspect who likes to threaten his female victims with a knife. However, Mike wants Harve (Sam McMurray) to serve as the decoy, dressed as a woman in a singles bar. Being protective, he argues that Terry should not be exposed to such dangers. Captain Baker, however, a kind of Jewish mama with pronounced feminist leanings, assigns Terry to the job.
In the course of the evening, Officer O.K. Kelly (Alan Weeks) finds himself saddled with an ingratiating pickpocket artist. The decoy plan goes awry, putting Terry in unanticipated danger. And the laughter on the canned soundtrack begins to sound more and more strained.
In the end, Mike has to admit that ''you really did a hell of a job, Terry, you know that.'' But, by that time, audiences across the nation may well begin to wonder how many more laughs can be dredged out of street crime in coming weeks.
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