Teresa Graves in "Get Christie Love!"

 

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Clips from the 1974 made-for-TV movie "Get Christie Love!"
Teresa Graves interviewed on "Soul Train"
Scenes from "Get Christie Love" (Set to Beastie Boys music)
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In clip (at 2:37)
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In clip (at 2:30 and 2:56)
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In clip (at 1:38)
Teresa Graves as a celebrity judge at the Miss USA Pageant (1970)
Get Christie Love - One Bad Mama

"Get Christie Love!" was a 1974 made-for-TV movie starring Teresa Graves that spawned a short lived television show by the same name. Graves played beautiful black policewoman that goes undercover to break up a drug ring in the film.

I fondly remember this film and TV show, although I was barely old enough to know why she gave me that gooshy feeling in my underpants. At the time Marcia Brady and Laurie Partridge had the same effect on me. At the time I found that I would endlessly imagine myself in impossible and heroic situations with these women where I was invariably suave, witty, strong and protective.

Graves was famous for saying the line, "You're under arrest, sugar!" on the show. She would also wear tight-fitting jeans and a cropped leather jacket. Graves had a delightfully expressive face. At times when she spoke she would pause and narrow her gaze, slightly open her mouth and shift her jaw a bit to the left in a very thoughtful emphasis of her words. She had a very beautiful face and a unique on-screen presence.

I also remember Graves from when she was on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," where she would perform in skits, makes jokes and dance around in brief segments wearing a bikini and with her body garishly painted with clever statements like "Sock it to me!" and "You bet your bippy!".

Graves later abandoned her acting career in to concentrate on her increased involvement with the Jehovah's Witnesses, and to take care of her mother. Apparently she also refused many roles because of her religious convictions.

Graves died tragically in a house fire in 2002, at the age of 54. According to imdb.com, "Firefighters responding to a fire in the Hyde Park section of Los Angeles found Graves unconscious in a bedroom of her home. She was taken to Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in nearby Inglewood, where she died. A faulty space heater was determined to be the cause of the blaze."

adherents.com has a reprint of a TV Guide article that's very interesting. Apparently none of her neighbors knew that she was television star when she died.

I had not realized that the show was based on a book by Dorothy Uhnak, "The Ledger", which was adapted for the movie and the TV show. Several of her novels became best-sellers. The author apparently committed suicide.

Wikipedia: Teresa Graves
Wikipedia: Doodletown Pipers [ 2 ]
Wikipedia: Dorothy Uhnak
imdb.com: Teresa Graves - Biography
adherents.com: TV Guide Honors Teresa Graves
The Rap Sheet: The Pioneering Policewoman (About Dorothy Uhnak)

This post is for my esteemed colleague Dr. Monkerstein's running mate, GETkristiLOVE, because she did a great post where she made me look like Hong Kong Phooey.