This is a list of characters appearing on the television program Reno ! Lieutenant James "Jim" Ronald Dangle played by Thomas Lennon is the flamboyant highest-ranking deputy in the department and is usually seen wearing his trademark short-shorts, which he claims that he wears for "mobility.
Unfortunately, his jeans caught fire, forcing Dangle to cut the bottom parts of his pants off, resulting in the hot-pants he currently wears.
Dangle is gay. I guess people think he's closeted because Trudy is in love with him, but that has more to do with the fact that she's severely brain-damaged. Dangle openly harbors an attraction to Jones and occasionally flirts with suspects. In one episode, Jones apparently had sex with him out of sympathy "I'll try anything once" , after which Dangle was hospitalized because, as Jones said it, "he can't fucking walk" the incident occurs off-camera, with the actual events undisclosed.
Dangle was briefly married to a woman named Debbie see below and he briefly believed that he fathered a son a result of sex with what he thought was a drag queen , but DNA results proved otherwise. Dangle also felt attraction to a female Homeland Security officer in town to conduct counter-terrorism training, but the experience left him uncomfortable and confused.
It was revealed later that the female officer was actually a very well-disguised man and was part of a team of con artists, along with the other Homeland Security "trainer" , which caused sexual confusion among the heterosexual deputies who had also felt attracted to "her". Prior to Trudy's brain damage, Dangle apparently had an affair with her while married to Deb in Despite her brain damage, he still engages Trudy romantically on occasion, most notably in Miami , where Trudy asks Dangle to have sex with her out of pity; to which he tries but fails.
