A Matter of Life or Death

**A Matter of Life or Death** (*part one*) is the first episode of season one of the series featured on the ABC channel, *The Commish.* The episode aired on October 26, 1991, and is considered to be the Pilot episode of the series.

However, the episode was shown as the fifth episode during the airtime while the third episode called In The Best of Families was shown as the first episode. *A Matter of Life or Death* was split into two episodes, and part 2 aired on November 2, 1991. On DVD and streaming channels, the episodes were not split but combined into one whole episode.

### Synopsis

Young commissioner Anthony 'Tony' Joseph Scali starts the review process to become a New York police commissioner while investigating the disappearance of two of his police officers and juggling his daily life.

### Plot

##### Part One

Tony Scali's morning consists of hearing a DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) arrest from the police radio while he's taking a shower. He's already in a job mode even when he hasn't gone to the office yet and immediately orders the car to be impounded and not letting the repeated offender named Phil Kelsey get it back even when he lawyered up. Tony knows the only way to give a lesson to the drunk driver is to take his vehicle away.

Tony's brother-in-law, Arnie Metzger, is complaining about his morning, and he keeps whining to Rachel Scali about it. David Scali seems upset because Tony is going to consider himself a contender for New York City Police Commissioner, and the boy doesn't want to move to NYC if his dad gets the job. Tony calls his friend and District Attorney Larry Bickford to green-light the Commissioner nomination which delights him.

Before he goes to work, Sergeant John Randazzo comes by to report about two missing officers Henning and Blatcher from their midnight tour patrol after they didn't answer their routine call. Tony assures the sergeant that everything will be alright, and he goes to the officers' family homes to tell them about the news. Susan Henning and Marcia Blatcher are the wives of the missing cops, and they are hysterics when they see the Commish himself in their homes. Tony tries to calm the wives but at the same time asks them questions about whether they know something unusual.

At Eastbridge Police Department, Tony and Chief Detective Irv Wallerstein are checking the missing cops' lockers but only find a notebook filled with surveillance logs. Tony suspects that the missing cops are sitting on something, like a case or a clue. At Tony's office, Helen Stags informs him that there's a hunger strike at Eastbridge County Jail and the prisoners want to meet him to talk about demands. Tony immediately goes to the bathroom to lose his breakfast because he wants to be in the same mindset as the prisoners and he already hatched a plan with the prisoners' demands.

During lunch with Larry, Tony says that it might not be the right time to see the search committee for the NYC commissioner because he's busy with the missing police case. But Larry doesn't want to hear it because he has a hidden agenda; he is going to apply for the Attorney General seat, and he needs a New York Commissioner as his backup support.

Phil and his lawyer Nestor Henderson demand the car to be released from the police impound lot, but caretaker Joe Halloran refuses their demand because Tony's order was clear: don't let the repeated offender take the car out. Nestor angrily tells Tony, that he has no right to hold his client's property but Tony brushes him off. He tells Phil and Nestor that he wants a day where the repeat offender isn't drunk driving and crashing his car into a pizza parlor and killing kids.

Irv and Tony discusses the notebook filled with logs from the missing cops. It seems they are tailing someone around town, so he tells his chief detective to investigate. At home, Tony argues with Arnie about his get rich scheme and Rachel chides her brother, tells him that her husband is worry about the missing cops. The reason why Tony is at home during the day is because his wife is ovulating, so they need to conceived in order to get pregnant again, because they want another baby.

Before they can do anything, Tony is called as they have found the missing police officers. They searched the river, and their bodies are found inside a police cruiser trunk, bind and shot through the head. According to Sergeant Murphy, their conditions are bad.

Officer Stan Kelly is on a verge of hysteric because both cops were his friends at the Police Academy. Tony doesn't want Stan to jeopardize the case because he isn't in the right mind, so instead, he gives him a baseball hat that belonged to his son, and orders him to investigate the owner of the hat.

Tony notify the wives about their husbands' death, and Marcia informs the commish that her husband was worried about the brass. He thought that it might be other officials, but they are still in the dark. At the precinct, Tony orders his subordinates to find the murder weapon and some info about the knots from a rope that bound the murdered cops. He also manages to destroy Phil's car into a cube so he won't be able to drunk driving again, however his lawyer is planning to filing for a lawsuit against the police department.

Irv and Tony discusses whether the murdered cops were dirty, especially when they had Carl Slack's phone numbers, a well-known criminal and an ex-dirty cop. Tony doesn't like the idea of the cops might be corrupt, but he has no choice but to investigate.

### Cast and Characters

#### Starring

* Michael Chiklis as Tony Scali
* Theresa Saldana as Rachel Scali
* Kaj-Erik Eriksen as David Scali
* Geoffrey Nauffts as Stan Kelly
* Tom Mason as Larry Bickford
* Luke Reilly as Carl Slack
* John H. Brennan as John Randazzo
* Alex Bruhanski as Irv Wallerstein
* Babs Chula as Helen Stags
* Jason Schombing as Ronnie Lopez
* David Paymer as Arnie Metzger
* Kelli Fox as Susan Henning
* Julianna Raye as Maria Blatcher

#### Guest Starring

* Ken Pogue as Nestor Henderson
* French Tickner as Joe Halloran
* Forbes Angus as Phil Kelsey
* Doug Abrahams as Sergeant Murphy
* Lorena Gale as Leona Rice
* Dave 'Squatch' Ward as Freddie
* Joe Maffei as Mel Fein
* Richard Newman as Marty
* Walter Marsh as Donovan
* Rachel Hayward as Marie Pulaski
* William B. Davis as Don Chesley
* John Destry as Sheriff Nelson
* Lance Garrett as Calvin
* Brian Knox McGugan as Delmar
* Michael A. Jackson as Bobby