History Series / TheCommish

* GenderMisdirection: Done InUniverse, where Tony's new NumberTwo is a female but his wife doesn't realize that until she meets her, because Tony always refers to her as "Cyd" which Rachel hears as "Sid," a common enough male name.

* PlayingGertrude: Michael Chiklis was only 28 years old when the show began. It's implied that the character is closer to 40.

** In "Sleep of the Just", the rapist was a diplomat. At one stage the police decide to harass him by ticketting for obscure and long-obsolete violations of the law, like sneezing in public (it frightens the horses).

* NaziGrandpa: The final episode of the series involves a Jewish concentration camp survivor who turns out to actually have been one of the Nazis in charge of the camp, and who is involved in a white supremacist group attacking synagogues. When asked why he did it his only reply is "Because they're Jewish." His daughter, who believed the concentration camp story, is apalled.

* BaldOfAwesome: Tony

* YouWouldMakeAGreatModel: There is an episode with a professional photographer who works for a couple of questionable papers which require shots of underage (though not child: ages 14-18) models. What many find too late: [[spoiler:he also works for a child porn ring]]. The girl who used to babysit the Commissioner's son is among the victims...

''The Commish'' was a television series that aired on Creator/{{ABC}} in the United States from 1991 to 1996. The series focused on the work and home life of a suburban police commissioner in upstate New York.

The series starred Creator/MichaelChiklis as Tony Scali, a police commissioner in the small upstate New York town of Eastbridge, who worked through problems with humor and creativity more often than with violence or force. The show focused as much on Tony's family situation as on police drama. The series often dealt with a wide range of topical social issues such as racism, homophobia, drug addiction, disabilities, child abuse, illegal immigrants, and sexual harassment. The series lasted five years.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Perhaps inadvertantly, the assassination of a white supremacist leader plays out ''a lot'' like the assassination of UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr

* OutfitRipSexCheck: Tony approaches the senior mother of a wanted bank robber who he suspects of harboring her son and/or the money he had stolen. Tony tells her and her friend, another little old lady, that unless she tells him where the money is he'll get a warrant to tear her house apart looking for it. He also mentions that her son had stolen $200,000. The woman is outraged, because apparently her son had told her he stole less than that and was holding out on her. Her friend assures her that her son wouldn't do somehting like that but the mother knocks her wig off, revealing that she is really the son, in hiding. Tony then reveals that the son had only stolen $80,000.

* RatsInABox: In this case the guilty party was the one who fell asleep in the prison cell (apparently {{Truth in Television}} as it was mentioned in the non-fiction book ''Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets''. Based on the idea that the others don't know why they've been arrested, but the guilty party is resigned to the fact that he's been caught). Tony calls it a "Brooklyn Invertivew."

* MistakenForProstitute: A prostitution ring is uncovered when a businessman orders a blonde dressed as a police officer, and runs into a HotCop in the hotel lobby. She's a brunette but he's too excited to care. He asks to be arrested as part of the roleplay. She happily obliges.

* AnachronisticClue: Tony tries to prove to the press that his name and sexual preferences appeared in a madam's rolodex only after he had arrested her. He takes a polygraph and passes, but people still aren't convinced, so he gets an ink expert from the FBI to test the card and prove that the ink was less than 48 hours old, created after he had arrested the madam.

* Dreamsequence: "The Ides of March."

* RapeAsDrama: The local football hero rapes the Scali's behavior. Sure enough, an investigation reveals he's had complaints filed against him before.