The unit pursues a gang of out of towner bank robbers including a young woman who seems very much like a Patty Hearst type and another young woman who looks like a refugee from Superfly or Shaft. One of the three men in the gang has an ugly track record of rape.
Pepper (Angie Dickinson) balances femininity with solid police work surrounded by sensitive modern guys in her unit. It isn't easy for her as she watches a young policeman shot in the opening scenes and can only watch as he dies in her arms.
While the series has become almost synonymous with feminist ideals if you go by this initial episode you don't really see the kind of gender war stuff that different varieties of feminism espouse.
Pepper is a valued colleague to her fellow officers who know she is solid at what she does due to her professional attitude, top flight training and years of on the job experience.
She also happens to be the fastest gun and most accurate shot we see on the show which given the shoot em up nature of cop shows at the time was evidently the primary measure of whether a cop was any good.
But the implication we also see presented is that she might have something extra to offer because she is female and it is a notion that some might take offence at today.
Pepper is able to get a kidnapped female teller to admit she was raped by one of the gang. The teller, hospitalized by the ordeal, was reluctant to relate the experience to Pepper's male colleagues Sgt.Crowley, Styles and Royster.
Pepper is also able to deal with kids abducted and released by the gang and in each instance get invaluable information. So this character is presented as having something different to offer in her job than her male colleagues i.e. nurturing and sensitivity i.e. a feminine stereotype. Sexist? Or an example of what feminism once meant? I think it is more that this is meant to show a dynamic individual who transcends labels. She wears her heart on her sleeve at times and will even occasionally allow the guys in her unit to know she is a little scared by it all. She is comfortable enough to be herself in her job without worrying what people will think it means.
Police Woman was actually spun off from an episode of the series Police Story which launched a number of cop shows. The Police Story pilot episode of Police Woman featured the same basic set-up of a woman cop portrayed by Angie Dickinson but the character had a different name on Police Story than she had on Police Woman and her commanding officer was portrayed by a badly miscast Bert Convy instead of a well-cast Earl Holliman.
One notes the casting of supporting actresses in this episode. Other than Linda Dano the women we see as guest stars aren't as attractive as Angie Dickinson or in Hollywood terms even photogenic enough to be on screen as anything other than background performers. Was it a prerequisite that the other women on screen not be as attractive as the star? I'd be very surprised if it wasn't as an industry vet like Angie Dickinson was no dummy.
If it looks like the cast is wearing stuff they got from Salvation Army it is because the stuff they are wearing was new back then but is stuff that would be donated to thrift stores by now. If you wonder why anyone would wear stuff like that if they had a choice you aren't alone.
