Karen Sisco
Network: ABC
Years Aired: 2003 – One Season – 10 Episodes
I’m a big fan of Elmore Leonard. I love his stories, and how they often show that the “bad guys”, as we may think of them, aren’t entirely bad.
That being said, I’ve felt that there have only been four instances where people have “got” what Leonard was trying to do, and adapted it well to the visual medium: films Get Shorty, Jackie Brown (aka ‘Rum Punch’ – and this isn’t particularly surprising, seeing as Quentin Tarantino is also a fan) and Out of Sight, and the TV show ‘Karen Sisco’. Which is interesting in itself considering how the latter three are intertwined.
‘Karen Sisco’ was not your typical Leonard offering. In most of his books, the protagonist is often someone looking to pull a crime, and is rarely seen as a “good guy”. Federal Marshall Karen Sisco, on the other hand, IS one of the good guys, so things are a bit different. Still, the elements are there that made the movies so fun – interesting characters, bouncy soundtrack, and plots that can take you anywhere.
The character of Federal Marshall Karen Sisco is played by Carla Gugino, and is based off of the character played by Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight. Rounding out the cast is her father, Marshall Sisco (Robert Forster), a retired Marshall-turned private detective, and Karen’s boss, Amos Andrews (Bill Duke), who isn’t afraid to throw difficult cases her way.
A typical episode sees Karen assigned to find fugitives in Miami’s Gold Coast, sometimes on her own, other times with other Marshalls and FBI Agents, including Konner (Gary Cole), Peter Dillard (Jake Busey) and Ray Nicolet (Peter Horton, but played by Michael Keaton in both Jackie Brown and Out of Sight).
Personally, I think that Carla Gugino plays the part perfectly – where Lopez played a slightly more romantic version of the character, Gugino’s Sisco is a little harder, a bit more glib and very at ease in the Miami sunlight. Which plays well given the odd cast of characters on this show. And Robert Forster plays things perfectly as her dad – probably due to his previous experience in Jackie Brown.
So, the question everyone is probably asking, if it was such a good show, then why was it cancelled? Several factors. First, ABC scheduled this after ‘The Bachelor’, which was starting to lose it’s luster after being on nearly nonstop for a couple of years. I assume that they were trying for a “girl power” block that really seemed a bit awkward – pairing the show with ‘Alias’ would have made more sense. Second, putting the show up against ‘Law & Order’ meant that ABC was expecting some results, and fast – the general strategy of a number four network – meant that ABC was expecting some results, and fast – the general strategy of a number four network. Third, it was kind of like a procedural, and hadn’t CBS done quite well with their Bruckheimer procedurals.
So what could have prevented the cancellation? Hard to say – I would’ve said that had Sin City come out in the summer of 2003, Gugino would’ve become more of a star, but the cancellation of ‘Threshold’ seems to discount that (although to be fair, there was probably a “Braga boycott” that helped too). So it comes down to the usual suspects – the network needed to be more patient, and let the show develop an audience. Unfortunately, like most of the shows in this feature, ‘Karen Sisco’ didn’t get that chance.
