Television pilot costs even if the network chooses to not order the show. Sometimes, a made-for-TV-movie is filmed as the pilot, but because of actors not being available, the series intro is reshot and the first reshot episode is considered the pilot. The original "Cagney & Lacey" movie co-starred Loretta Swit (of "M*A*S*H" fame) as Chris Cagney, but when she could not get out of her contract, they reshot it with Meg Foster, who after the first season was replaced with Sharon Gless; therefore, the original movie is not considered a pilot, and is not included in the series collections on DVD.
Sharon Gless debut in Lillian Hellman's "Watch on the Rhine" at Stage West in Springfield, Massachusetts. Gless has extensive stage experience including two appearances in London's West End, first in 1993 with Bill Paterson, when she created the role of Annie Wilkes in the stage version of Stephen King's "Misery" at the Criterion Theatre, and then in 1996, where she appeared opposite Tom Conti in Neil Simon's "Chapter Two", at the Gielgud Theatre. She starred at Chicago playhouse The Victory Gardens Theater in Claudia Allen's "Cahoots", as well as several stints, including an evening at Madison Square Garden with the National Company