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"A Substantial Gift (The Broken Promise)" | |
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Police Squad! episode | |
![]() Frank discovers who Sally really is | |
Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 1 |
Directed by | Jim Abrahams David Zucker Jerry Zucker |
Written by | Jim Abrahams David Zucker Jerry Zucker |
Original air date | March 4, 1982 [1] [2] |
Guest appearances | |
Lorne Greene (special guest star) Barbara Tarbuck as Mrs. Twice Terry Wills as Jim Johnson Terrence Beasor as Dr. Roland Zubatsky Russell Shannon as Ralph Twice Jimmy Briscoe as Cop Kathryn Leigh Scott as Sally Decker | |
"A Substantial Gift (The Broken Promise)" is the first episode of the television series Police Squad! . It was written and directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker. [3] [4] [5] [6]
The episode starts inside the office of the Acme Credit Union. A young credit union teller [7] named Sally Decker is arguing with her boss, Jim Johnson, over a loan of money to pay a debt to her orthodontist. Johnson declines, saying that due to an upcoming audit, he has to balance the credit union's books and can't loan her any more money. The argument ends as customer Ralph Twice, recently laid off from the Lorman Tire Company, arrives to cash his last payroll check. Sally devises an impromptu scheme to solve her money problems: she shoots Johnson and Twice, making it look like Twice was trying to rob the credit union by planting a gun on him. She pilfers the cash drawer and then begins screaming to attract attention.
Frank Drebin arrives at the credit union, and inquires of his boss, Ed Hocken, about the case. Ed tells Frank that the alleged robber, Ralph Twice, is a good family man with no prior record. They both question Sally, who makes a really complicated statement in which she claims that Twice shot Johnson and she then shot Twice. As Frank and Ed depart, Sally believes that they have bought her story.
Frank goes to see scientist Ted Olson at the Police Squad crime lab. Ted tells Frank that if the shooter stood where Sally said, the bullet which killed Johnson should have penetrated deeper. Ed and Frank go a neighborhood in the city called Little Italy to question Ralph Twice's widow, who is unable to provide them with any clues. The next morning at the Police Squad office, Ed and Frank receive the forensics reports, which contradict Sally's version of the events, suggesting that the shooter was really much further away from the victims than she claimed.
Frank tries to discover the position in which Mr. Twice and Jim Johnson stood, by using real people as test subjects and firing real guns. After several hours of trying, Frank has nothing conclusive (other than a pile of dead bodies). To get answers, Frank visits Johnny the Snitch, who tells Frank that Ralph would have gotten his job back in two weeks anyway, while Sally got mixed up in penny-ante bunko scams. Frank visits Sally's former boyfriend Joe Surlov, who leads Frank to Dr. Zubatski, the orthodontist who treated Sally. Visiting Zubatski, Frank learns that Sally was chronically in arrears with her payments to Zubatski, but that she paid him in full the day after the credit union holdup.
Setting up a final confrontation, Frank calls Sally pretending that he is Zubatski, and threatening her with blackmail, arranges a meeting. When Sally sees Frank, she tries to leave, but Frank tells her that he has discovered that next to her robbery scam, she has in the past undertaken other shady jobs using a number of aliases, pulling several wigs off her head to prove his point. Exposed, Sally starts a shootout with Frank, which alternates into throwing guns at each other once they run out of ammunition. Sally ultimately attempts to flee, but Ed arrives to arrest her.
The New York Times largely praised the episode in its preview/review, with many praising the episode's writing. [3]