Network: Global Television Network
Broadcast Run: 2007 to 2008
Broadcast Medium: Television
Pretty Dangerous was a crime-documentary series that followed the harrowing,true stories of “bad girls” and the seemingly endless parade of male fools they scammed, bilked, and sometimes murdered for money.
The series kicked off with the story of a notorious Toronto con artist named Tracy Sargent, a former call girl who used her sexuality to defraud a variety of besotted men out of more than a million dollars over a 20 year period. Sargent was interviewed for the first time ever about her crimes and the dozens of high-profile men she bilked. They included some of Toronto’s well-known CEOs, crown attorneys, governors, royalty and even priests. One of her victims, whose identity was protected so he was shown as just “Jack”, talked about how he was victimized by Sargent and yet still paid Sargent’s rent even after she ended up in prison on charges for what she did to him.
Production of the series mixed black & white film-noir type footage with a mischievously styled narration by Ray Landry. Each program looked at both the gold-digger and the fools who fell for them. Other female protagonists included: Cynthia Phillips who murdered several husbands, burned their houses and collected insurance money, before finally being caught for the murder of husband #4, in Texas; Della Dante Sutorius, a gold digger from Ohio who slept her way through four husbands before murdering #5, a wealthy surgeon whose death she still claimed was a suicide; and Barbara Holder, a drug-addled Texas maven who used sex to persuade an ex-con and his pal to murder her husband for the life insurance payout.
Toronto filmmaker Barbara Shearer was the series’ creator, writer, director and producer. She combined her extensive documentary background with her love for irreverent, ironic, sexy and controversial fare.
Broadcast: Debuted February 2007, returning for 2nd season
Time slot: Originally Wednesdays 10:30 pm, TBA on 2nd season
Running time: 30 minutes
Creator, writer, director and producer: Barbara Shearer
Director of photography: Russell Gienapp
Editor: Gordon McClellan
Music: Jim McGrath
Supervising Poducer: Craig Baines.
Executive producers: William Johnston, Ronald Lillie and Lee Herberman at Summerhill Television.
Executive in charge of production for Global Television: Sarah Jane Flynn.
Written by Joanne Ingrassia – June, 2007