Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Tough Cookies: Robby Benson and Laine Kazan

Tough Cookies aired from March until April 1986 on CBS.

Juvenile film star Robby Benson just turned 30 but still saddled with a kid's image ( one unkind critic called him " Cute as Bambi and twice as smarmy"), tried to establish an "adult" image by playing a tough cop in this 1986 series. It didn't work. Plainclothes detective Cliff Brady ( Benson) was on home turf, assigned to the precinct in a tough Southside Chicago neighborhood where he had grown up. He lived nearby, kept in touch with old friends, and tried to keep the area from deteriorating still further. His favored hangout ( all tough cops have hangouts) was the Windbreaker, a local saloon run by outspoken Rita ( Lainie Kazan), a sort of surrogate mother. Boyhood friend Richie ( Matt Craven) worked there as a bartender and another buddy smooth-talking bookmaker Danny ( Adam Arkin), hung out. Lt. Iverson ( Art Metrano) was Cliff's even-tougher superior, Father McCaskey ( Alan North) the understanding police chaplin, and Connie ( Elizabeth Pena) a fellow officer who couldn't have been more concerned about the welfare of the cute-er tough-detective if she had been his sister.

A Review from The New York Times

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: March 5, 1986

The star of ''Tough Cookies'' is Robby Benson, whose film career began with ''Jory'' in 1972. At the time, Mr. Benson was 15. He now looks 20, maybe 21. In a youth-obsessed society, that could be a blessing, but for Mr. Benson, it is something of a problem, especially when he is trying to portray a police detective. Granted, the character of Cliff Brady is supposed to be young, but Mr. Benson looks as if he could be arrested for impersonating an officer. Boyishly ingratiating, yes; convincing, not at all.

The executive producers of the series are Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas, the team that, with Susan Harris, has been responsible for a number of offbeat sitcoms ranging from ''Soap'' to ''The Golden Girls.'' Without the acerbic Miss Harris, the gentlemen evidently have decided to take a whirl in ''heartwarming'' territory. Cliff the detective works in the same Chicago Southside neighborhood where he grew up. Everyone - the nice guys and the toughs, the bookie and the priest - is family. And most of them hang out at Rita's restaurant. When Rita, played by Lainie Kazan, is described as the heart of the neighborhood, she is sure to add that Cliff is the heart of Chicago.

Tonight's debut has Cliff wooing and apparently winning the affections of a local television newscaster. But as the romance proceeds, it becomes clear that their telephone beepers never go off at the same time. Although Cliff introduces Diane (Gail Edwards) to the gang at Rita's, it is by no means certain that she is ready to become the worrying wife of a policeman. Throughout, Mr. Benson remains likably youthful. In one scene requiring him to eat messily with a pair of chopsticks, he is positively childlike.

Because this is a Witt/Thomas Production, one tends to be patient. But there are limits. Paul Krasny's direction of the teleplay, by Jan Fischer and William Weidner, is heavy-handed, grabbing at anything, even a dead fish, for a comic prop. The rest of the cast, including Art Metrano, Adam Arkin, Matt Craven, Alan North and Elizabeth Pena, appear to be mildly and understandably distressed.

A Review from USA TODAY

TV PREVIEW/BY MONICA COLLINS

'Cookies': The cop next door

There are no crumbs in cookies. Everybody's really sweet and supportive. Not cloying, mind you. But for a cop comedy supposedly set in gritty Chicago, it's surprising to find so many wholesome sane people in one half-hour.

Here, the king of the wholesome is Robby Benson, who stars as Cliff Brady, a police detective with clear eyes, unblemished skin, a shock of shiny hair and a fresh attitude.

Thank goodness we've found at least one big-city cop who seems relatively undamaged by the riger and stress of the job. Benson has no crustiness, no girth, no psychosis that is immediately apparent. Unlike many of the gnarly cops seen regularly on TV, this one could be a Cub Scout pack leader in his spare time and you wouldn't worry that the little scouts would end up twisted.

When this well-scrubbed cop isn't solving crimes, he's hanging out with his friends in a neighborhood bar owned by a brassy earth mama ( Lainie Kazan). Her heart is as imposing as her bustline.

Such a venue would be the natural place to find the weirdos and oddballs who normally populate TV sitcoms. None here, however. The best friend is a bookie ( Adam Arkin) but a benign one. The bartender ( Matt Craven) is a loser, but a lovable one.

The station house is no different. There we find an Irish priest ( Alan North) who is the sweet detective's sounding board.

If all this is sounding boring, it shouldn't.

There's something touching about Tough Cookies. The tone of the show is bittersweet-no laugh a minute and the style is relatively straight-forward.

This cop is devoted-both to his job and his friends. He's not your usual loner who operates outside the system. He's a loner by reason of sanity.

That's how Tough Cookies is different. Instead of playing up all those quirks and oddities that make people stand alone, this comedy plays up those calmer qualities. Our hero seems nearly normal.

That's what sets him apart.

For the Official Website of Robby Benson go to http://www.robbybenson.net/

For a Page dedicated to Robby Benson go to http://members.tripod.com/~orangeglass98/

For the Robby Benson Scrapbook go to http://www.robbybensonscrapbook.piczo.com/?cr=7

For the Official Site of Lainie Kazan go to http://www.lainiekazan.com/

For a Page dedicated to Adam Arkin go to http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/adamarkin/

To watch the opening credits of Tough Cookies go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5JEwV8xMaM&feature=related