Reasonable Doubts

Reasonable Doubts
Created by	Robert Singer
Starring	Mark Harmon Marlee Matlin
Theme music composer	Brad Fiedel
Composer(s)	Ross Levinson
Country of origin	USA
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	44
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Production company(s)	December 3rd Productions Lorimar Television
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	September 26, 1991 – April 27, 1993

Reasonable Doubts is a police drama television series broadcast in the United States by NBC that ran from 1991 to 1993.

Synopsis

Reasonable Doubts is primarily about the working relationship between Assistant District Attorney Tess Kaufman (Marlee Matlin), a prosecutor very sensitive to the rights of the accused, and hard-charging, gruff Detective Dicky Cobb (Mark Harmon), an old-fashioned cop with a "bust-the-perps" attitude. The reason that these two had been assigned to work together was that Cobb was one of the few available police officers who knew sign language, and Tess, like the actress who portrayed her, was deaf. Dicky was usually more frustrated by Tess' attitudes than by her deafness; he also repeated what Tess said back to her to make sure that he understood it (Tess also read lips) and this allowed the audience to understand her part of the dialogue. Dicky also spoke as he signed to Tess.

Both characters were involved with other people when the series started; Tess was estranged from, but still in contact with, her husband Bruce (Tim Grimm); Dicky had a manipulative girlfriend named Kay Lockman (Nancy Everhard). Kay was, unsurprisingly, quite jealous of Tess, and not without reason, as a considerable mutual attraction, despite their differences, developed between Tess and Dicky. The situation became more complicated with the death of Kay early in the second season, freeing the characters to pursue the relationship at least somewhat more, although its resolution was still up in the air when the program was not renewed for a third season. Cobb was also involved with flinty lawyer Maggie Zombro (Kay Lenz), an early continuing character who became a regular in later seasons.^[1]

Executive producer Bob Singer gained some interest from the network in spinning off the show into a straight cop drama starring Harmon and Jim Beaver, who had played Dicky's friend and partner Detective Earl Gaddis from the beginning of the show, but ultimately NBC demurred.

Cast

• Mark Harmon as Detective Dickie Cobb
• Marlee Matlin as Assistant District Attorney Tess Kaufman
• William Converse-Roberts as District Attorney Arthur Gold
• Tim Grimm as Bruce Kaufman
• Kay Lenz as Maggie Zombro (recurring, season 1; main, season 2)
• Bill Pugin as Ben Douglass
• Jim Beaver as Detective Earl Gaddis
• Marnie Andrews as Judge Andrea Claussen
• John Mese as Sean Kelly (1991–1992)
• Willie C. Carpenter as Robert Maxwell (1991–1992)
• James Acheson as Andy Cromyer (1991)
• Michael Holden as Judge Melvin Orrick (1991–1992)
• Richard Gant as Alvin Pinkston (1991–1992)
• Vanessa Angel as Detective Peggy Elliott (1992–1993)
• Jim Pirri as Asher Roth (1992–1993)
• Leslie Jordan as Marvin/Cliff Sizemore (1992–1993)
• Gregg Henry as Weldon Lewis (1992)

Awards and nominations

References

• Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows

External links

• Reasonable Doubts on IMDb
• Reasonable Doubts at TV.com