Vintage Telemovie Of The Week: Policewoman Centerfold (1983)

By Erin Free

In this regular column, we drag forgotten made-for-TV movies out of the vault and into the light. This week: the 1983 true life drama Policewoman Centerfold, starring Melody Anderson, Ed Marinaro, Donna Pescow and Bert Remsen.

Often pumped out quickly and designed to pull in the biggest TV audience possible, the telemovies of the 1970s and 1980s were often based on minor but eye-catching news stories. Basically small screen exploitation, salacious subject matter was used to hook the audience, who were then usually pulled into a considerably more dramatic, thoughtful story than they’d get in a similarly tawdry big screen effort. A perfect example of this type of small screen storytelling is Policewoman Centerfold, which first aired on major US network NBC on October 17, 1983, and was loosely based on the true story of Barbara Schantz, a cop who posed for Playboy Magazine in 1982. Despite the ample opportunities for sleaze, this is very much a low-key drama, and it offers literally nothing in the way of T&A. Instead, the luridly (and basically) titled Policewoman Centerfold plays out much more like the kind of feminist-leaning, “women’s story” pics that formed such a large part of the bedrock of the vintage telemovie format.

Policewoman Centerfold opens on attractive, hard-working beat cop Jennifer Oaks (Melody Anderson), who is unduly informed by her friendly, supportive, nice-guy partner Chris Sands (Greg Monaghan) that he’ll be requesting a transfer because his new fiancée isn’t comfortable with him working with a woman. Single mother Jennifer is initially unhappy with her considerably more macho new partner Nick Velano (Ed Marinaro), but the duo eventually warm to each other and even begin a secretive relationship right under the nose of their blustery boss Captain David Buckman (Bert Remsen), a chauvinist with no time for female cops. With pressure at work, and amidst her burgeoning relationship with Nick, Jennifer makes the surprise decision to pose nude for a men’s magazine. This stirs trouble for her on the job, and also for her young son Tommy (Jerry Supiran), while even the measured, well-intentioned Nick has a little trouble dealing with the fact that his girlfriend is a centrefold.

An original newspaper ad for *Policewoman Centerfold*

On the page, this might play as either tawdry or melodramatic or both, but Policewoman Centerfold is none of those things. Director Reza Bediyi (a storied episodic TV vet who also helmed the exemplary 1981 telemovie adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men) keeps things nicely restrained and responds sensitively to the debut script by Jen Rutherford (who went on to various TV series and a couple of Danielle Steel adaptations), which approaches the material very much from a female point of view. The most interesting element of the story is Jennifer’s motivation for posing nude: she wants to do it to feel better about her body, to up her confidence, and because it’s her decision. It’s that simple, and though not Jennifer’s intention, it plays out as a finely calibrated act of sex-positive feminism.

Also fascinating is the manner in which Jennifer’s experience with the men’s magazine (not Playboy, by the way, but some nebulous substitute) unfolds. The editor is a woman who treats her with respect and doesn’t rush her into anything; the photographer is a nice guy who’s appealing and interested but gladly backs away when Jennifer tells him it’s not happening; Jennifer is given the opportunity to withdraw whenever she feels like it if things aren’t going well; and the final photos are tasteful and to Jennifer’s liking. The whole experience is a positive one, which is certainly out of the ordinary for telemovies about women taking a walk on the proverbial wild side. Similarly for such a feminist-leaning project, the men in the film are largely supportive and sensitive, with the noted exception of the decidedly unreconstructed Captain Buckman and a few other neanderthal cops.

Melody Anderson in *Policewoman Centerfold*

Policewoman Centerfold is also very nicely performed. Melody Anderson is incredibly likeable as the sweet but steely Jennifer, and the telemovie represents something of a high-water mark for the actress, who is perhaps best known for playing Dale Arden in the loopy 1981 sci-fi comic strip adaptation Flash Gordon. Now a social worker and public speaker specialising in the impact of addiction on families, Anderson guested on essential 1980s TV shows like The A-Team, The Fall Guy, Battlestar Galactica and St. Elsewhere, and notably played Marilyn Monroe in the 1993 telemovie Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair. Few of her roles, however, allowed her the expanse of emotion that she gets to exhibit in Policewoman Centerfold, and Anderson really rises to the occasion. Ed Marinaro (Hill Street Blues), meanwhile, is excellent as tough nice guy Nick, and Donna Pescow (Saturday Night Fever) offers scene-stealing support as Jennifer’s cheeky best friend.

Disappointingly, Policewoman Centerfold uses just a few scenes to gloss over the legal and professional ramifications of Jennifer’s centrefold side-hustle, instead sliding quickly toward a neat-and-tidy happy ending which is nevertheless wholly satisfying. Nowhere near as salacious as its title and description might suggest, Policewoman Centerfold is a solidly entertaining drama about a quietly heroic woman who refuses to back down, and resolutely lives her life on her own terms.