Mon 23 Apr 2012
MAKE A LIST: TV’s Most Memorable Crime Fighters by Decade, by Michael Shonk.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , TV mysteries[49] Comments
TV’s Most Memorable Crime Fighters by Decade
by Michael Shonk
I tend to avoid bestseller lists and top-rated television as I have always found more enjoyment with entertainment rejected by the masses. However, today I will turn away from my reviews of one forgotten TV series after another and focus on the most remembered.
Who is each decade’s most remembered TV cop, private eye, or any other form of crime-fighter? (The category “Others” below includes not only amateur detectives, but spies, lawyers, reporters, and any other character solving crimes who is not a cop or PI.)
THE 1950s:
Cops: DRAGNET (NBC). When Jack Webb brought his popular police radio show to TV it changed television. Best remembered for its unique dialog style, the opening and closing scenes, and theme music, but it was the series’ use of close-ups and narration to speed action along that soon became standard use in television.
PI: PETER GUNN (NBC/ ABC) Created by Blake Edwards. The cool personality of Gunn (Craig Stevens) was unlike any other TV PI before. The eccentric characters that populated the stories, Mother’s jazz club with Gunn’s love interest and club singer Edie (Lola Albright) are all fondly remembered, but it was one of TV’s most famous theme songs (Henry Mancini) that made this show unforgettable.
Others: PERRY MASON (CBS) Based on characters and books by Erle Stanley Gardner, Perry remains TV’s most fondly remembered lawyer. Still popular today in syndication, who done it no longer matters; it is the interaction of the characters, Perry (Raymond Burr), Della Street (Barbara Hale), Paul Drake (William Hopper) and Hamilton Burger (William Talman) that still entertains us. The series also benefits from an unforgettable theme song.
THE 1960s:
Cops: THE UNTOUCHABLES (ABC) OK, this began in 1959, but name a more remembered and influential cop series in the 60s. Based on Eliot Ness’ memoirs (with co-writer Oscar Fraley), the series is still remembered for the protests from anti-violence and Italian-American groups. But it was the unforgettable narration of Walter Winchell, Robert Stack as Eliot Ness and its high production values that should be remembered. Among the many talented people involved with this Desilu Production was Quinn Martin who would become one of TV’s most famous producers of crime drama.
PI: MANNIX (CBS) Created by Richard Levinson and William Link, and more importantly, developed by Bruce Geller. The original premise of having old school PI Joe Mannix (Mike Conners) work at a modern computerized PI agency failed. The second season found Joe on his own as he was meant to be, with his African-American secretary Peggy (Gail Fisher), Mannix would become one of TV’s most remembered PIs series.
Others: THE AVENGERS (ABC) Created by Sydney Newman. This British TV series has existed in many forms, all with government agent John Steed (Patrick Macnee), but the best remembered version are the Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) years. Part of the 60s ITC British invasion of American television, the series was also noted for its surreal plots and modern fashion style of clothes. Kinky boots.
THE 1970s:
Cops: COLUMBO (NBC/ ABC) Created by Richard Levinson and William Link. The series began as part of the NBC Mystery Movie wheel series and resurfaced more than once since. Columbo (Peter Falk) is such an iconic character that his rumbled raincoat is better remembered today than most of last season’s television series.
PI: CHARLIE’S ANGELS (ABC) Created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. Three beautiful female PI’s work for the mysterious Charlie. The series would live on with two successful theatrical films and a failed TV remake. People still can name you their favorite Angel. (Mine’s Sabrina — Kate Jackson.). This series is remembered less as a PI show but as the perfect example of 70s TV, pretty, cheesy, mindless fun.
Others: KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER (ABC) Created by Jeff Rice and starred Darren McGavin as reporter Carl Kolchak. This is an example of how opinions of TV series can change over time. A few years ago the answer here would have been Six Million Dollar Man (ABC), but with the increase interest in supernatural fiction there has been a revival of interest in Kolchak. It would not be surprising if there are more people today aware of Kolchak: The Night Stalker than the number of people who watched it in the 70s.
THE 1980s:
Cops: MIAMI VICE (NBC) Created by Anthony Yerkovich. Michael Mann took this TV buddy cop show with Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas and made it the perfect visual representation of 1980s pop culture.
PI: MAGNUM PI (CBS) Created by Donald P. Bellisario and Glen Larson. Set in Hawaii, Tom Selleck portrayed the easy going Thomas Magnum. Many today consider this series to be television’s best PI show.
Others: MURDER, SHE WROTE (CBS) Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and Peter Fischer, with Angela Landsbury as Jessica Fletcher, mystery writer and amateur detective. This series is television’s most successful attempt to create an American original traditional mystery worthy of Agatha Christie. As with many on this list it has survived cancellation with TV Movies. Currently survives in syndication and as a popular book series written by Donald Bain.
THE 1990s:
Cops: LAW AND ORDER (NBC) Created by Dick Wolf. This cop and lawyer series lasted twenty years, spawned several spin-offs and countless imitations. The famous two-note intro created by Mike Post joined the NBC chimes and Dragnet four-note opening in TV history.
PI: ROCKFORD FILES (CBS) The NBC-TV private eye series created by Stephen J. Cannell and Roy Huggins, made unforgettable by James Garner as Jim Rockford, returned to TV for a series of TV-Movies. It was a dark time for original TV PIs when the best-remembered of the decade was a remake of a PI from the 70s.
Others: X-FILES (FOX) Created by Chris Carter. This science fiction mystery featured David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as two FBI agents solving strange crimes and dealing with a possible alien conspiracy.
THE 21st CENTURY:
Cops: CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION (CBS) Created by Anthony E. Zucker. The series is remembered for its striking visual style, but its effect on society has gone deeper as its portrayal of forensic role in crime fighting has changed how real juries view forensic evidence such as DNA.
PI: VERONICA MARS (UPN/ CW) Created by Rob Thomas. Kristen Bell played a teenage student who got involved with her PI father’s cases. The series’ use of the season long arc story as a backdrop to weekly stand-alone episodes, as well as its school location, brought a new fresh look to the TV PI character that had been long in need of an update.
Others: CASTLE (ABC) Created by Andrew W. Marlowe. Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) is a best selling mystery writer who tags along with Detective Kate Beckett’s team of homicide detectives. The series has such devoted fans there has been a series of “Richard Castle” Nikki Heat mystery novels published and make the NY Times bestseller list for real.
Editorial Footnote: In the first posting of this list, Michael called his third category “Amateurs.” As the discussion of his choices went along, it was generally decided that the concept of amateur detectives was too small to include all of the non-cop and non-PI series that came up for consideration. Rather than expand the number of categories, Michael has agreed to call the category “Others” instead (actually his first choice). Any crime-fighting series involving characters who are not cops or a PI now belong to this newly formulated category, as you see it now.
April 23rd, 2012 at 5:20 pm
Solid choices, all, Michael, but I think you have left room for discussion here, agreement as well as disagreement.
For example, you include more in your category of “Amateur” than I would. Scully and Mulder (1990s) are FBI agents after all, and ordinarily I’d consider them cops. But the cases they tackle are not exactly your usual cop cases, are they.
I might even go so far as to call the series Science Fiction and not a Crime Fighting one at all, but since I agree with you wholeheartedly on KOLCHAK, I’ve cut the ground out from under my own feet on that argument.
I’d like to include NCIS somewhere in the decade-plus of the 21st century. It’s extremely popular, with one spinoff series to its credit, but at the moment I’m inclined to go with you on CSI, by a small margin, for the reasons you say.
April 23rd, 2012 at 6:13 pm
Nor are the Avengers amateurs.
April 23rd, 2012 at 6:57 pm
#1. You are right about X-FILES being cops. Now I have to think of something else. And the 90s are hard to find anything worth remembering but cops.
#2. D.A., I almost used the term “Other” rather than amateur. If you notice my definition included spies (they were government agents not police or PI). You have a point but spies and cops really don’t belong together either, even if Dr. No called Bond just another stupid policeman.
April 23rd, 2012 at 7:03 pm
Four of the best series that qualify and these are four of the very best, are not listed:
HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREETS
THE WIRE
THE SHIELD
JUSTIFIED
True, these are more recent but the quality is so high that they have to be squeezed in somewhere.
April 23rd, 2012 at 7:22 pm
Walker, you bring up a subject I hoped someone would, best is not most remembered. Many of the shows on this list I don’t even like, but I can’t deny the masses loved them and still remember them.
JUSTIFIED is the best show on TV today but the majority of TV viewers have never seen it.
It would be fun to see lists with best compared to what most people remember.
#1 and #3. Steve, don’t change the post but my pick for 90’s amateur aka other would be ABC’s THE PRACTICE, a lawyer series created by David E. Kelley.
April 24th, 2012 at 1:40 am
I’d say the Bionic People and the Kolchak series are about on a par in terms of lenient nostalgia (all the original series were awful, even if the two telefilms before KOLCHAK were fine), as well as failed revival (BIONIC WOMAN and NIGHT STALKER reboots both quickly failed). While there were Kolchak callbacks throughout THE X-FILES, both the current series ARCHER and THE VENTURE BROS. have their recurring fun with Steve Austin (leaving aside the wrassler).
April 24th, 2012 at 4:56 am
Ahhh, good ,old AVENGERS ! We highly enjoyed that series in the Sixties , it being a piece of ‘grown-up-TV’ that we were sometimes allowed to watch. The gadgets back then were sci-fi .
The Doc
April 24th, 2012 at 7:32 am
I would say Dale Cooper — an FBI agent paid to fight crime and summoned to the town of Twin Peaks to solve the murder of Laura Palmer — absolutely belongs on the 90s list. TP may have proved Neil Young’s axiom that “It’s better to burn out than to fade away,” but both the show and the Cooper character made an indelible imprint on TV history.
April 24th, 2012 at 9:13 am
#8. David. TWIN PEAKS got beat out on my list by LAW AND ORDER. Both will be remembered and for different reasons. Like any list there is no one right answer. I picked LAW AND ORDER because it is the GUNSMOKE of TV cops with its long life and for Mike Post’s two note intro. But you can make a strong case (as you did) for TWIN PEAKS.
April 24th, 2012 at 9:17 am
#6. Todd. As a fan of ARCHER (I even have the book HOW TO BE ARCHER) and the VENTURE BROTHERS, you would have thought I would have remembered their fondness for the SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN.
April 24th, 2012 at 9:27 am
As I look at this list I am surprised that the only one that might make my favorite’s list is PERRY MASON.
What makes something the most remembered by society? Is it our favorites? Or is it the show that may not be the best or our favorite but entertains the most number of people? Or is it for some other reason?
Why do we remember some shows and forget others?
April 24th, 2012 at 9:38 am
The Rockford Files aired from 1974 to 1980 – and it blows Charlie’s Angels away six days from Tuesday!
April 24th, 2012 at 10:48 am
#12. Stan, THE ROCKFORD FILES is without doubt the best PI for the seventies. But people don’t think of it as a series from the seventies. ROCKFORD FILES is a great pick for the list, but I went with the PI series people remember less as a PI series and more as the perfect example of 70s television, CHARLIE’S ANGELS. I then cheated by naming THE ROCKFORD FILES TV movies during the 90s.
Oh, and my favorite PI from the 70s would be BANACEK.
April 24th, 2012 at 12:59 pm
To start with, Perry Mason is a lawyer.
Last time I looked, that was a profession.
Furthermore, he works with Paul Drake, who is a private eye.
What’s more, sometimes he actually gets help from Lt. Tragg/Anderson/Drumm of the police.
Not an amateur in the room, as far as I can see.
Obviuosly, lawyer/detectives deserve their own category, just as they get in prose.
Even when the Preston family (The Defenders) were attacking social issues, they often did it in a whodunit context.
(The spoonful of sugar …)
If we really want to go crazy here, how about doctor/detectives, from Quincy to Diagnosis: Murder to House(going back in time, there’ve been some others)?
Or perhaps superhero/detectives – the original Superman from the ’50s usually functioned as a ‘tec (thanks to scripts from Jackson Gillis and Robert Leslie Bellem et al.). All those who came in his wake have to detect at least some time before they can break the walls down.
You see the problem here: you made the amateur category so large as to be impractical.
And just limiting yourself to one per category – well, you admit the problem there yourself.
Add the time frames and the overlap factor, and before long you’re not just making a list, you’re compiling an encyclopedia.
Oh what the hell – it’s all in fun anyway, and we can all comment on it all day long, so goody-goody for us.
Thanx.
*and at least you didn’t name Moonlighting …*
April 24th, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Michael
Way back in Comment #3, you said you almost called Category Three “Others.” My suggestion is to go back and change it.
“Amateurs” is fine as a category, but it’s too small to encompass all of the crime fighters who aren’t cops or PIs but are still professionals but ended up there by default.
A footnote could be added at the end of the original post to help explain the comments.
And we could keep THE X-FILES in as your choice for the 1990s.
What do you think?
April 24th, 2012 at 2:10 pm
Well, from the British perspective:
THE SWEENEY: Very definitely professional from the early 70s. Tough and controversial stories of the Flying Squad, with a much younger and more uncouth John Thaw as DI Jack Reagan (upon kicking open a bedroom door to arrest a villain, he finds said bad guy in bed with young woman. Without missing a beat, he tells the man “Right, get your trousers on. You’re nicked!”
SHOESTRING: Another 70s show. A local radio station hires a private eye to act as a ‘Private Ear’, and solve listeners cases. A short lived but delightful series.
DEPARTMENT S: From the 60s. A slick, clever little film series, with a two fisted American investigator, a female scientist, and an insanely flamboyant thriller writer solving impossible crimes.
JONATHAN CREEK: More impossible crimes, this time solved by a man who thinks up stage magic for a living. Funny, charming and sporadically brilliant series. Amongst many clever twists, the female ‘Watson’ is actually the dominant one in the partnership, forever bullying the diffident Creek into solving crimes.
And there are many others….
April 24th, 2012 at 2:20 pm
Bradstreet
Thanks for the reminder that not all of the good shows have ever been seen in the US. I’ve heard of all four, and I have DVD sets for at least two of them, but I haven’t found the time to watch any of them yet. It’s a challenge, it really is.
April 24th, 2012 at 2:27 pm
#14. Mike, I would include anyone even doctors in “Others” such as QUINCY, M.E. and DIAGNOSIS MURDER. I had a hard enough time finding worthy picks (especially in the 90s) for just the three categories without adding more.
Of course, you and anyone else can try.
April 24th, 2012 at 2:30 pm
#15. Steve, I agree. Change it to “Other” and use my explanation of “Amateur” for what is included in “Other.” Feel free to any any more clearer explanation to what each category means.
April 24th, 2012 at 2:49 pm
#16. Bradstreet, I would enjoy reading a list of what is most remembered (by decade or not) on the other side of the pond. THE SWEENY is the prefect choice for 70s cop as it changed British TV and reflected the changes in society.
SHOESTRING, for some reason, reminds me of THE ROCKFORD FILES.
I reviewed DEPARTMENT S here so you know I am a fan of it, but don’t more people remember JASON KING?
JONATHAN CREEK, I have seen only a couple and found the hero odd as he tends to get overshadowed by others.
My guess the sixties would be ITC series such as THE SAINT and DANGER MAN.
Then there is CALLAH, TAGGART, BERGERAC, DALZIEL & PASCOE, CI5 THE PROFESSIONALS, RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY, JUDGE JOHN DEED, and all the Inspectors Craven, George Gently, Morse, etc.
You also have SHERLOCK, COLONEL MARCH OF THE SCOTLAND YARD, THE SINGING DETECTIVE, and who knows what else we Yanks have missed.
April 24th, 2012 at 2:56 pm
Anyone who doubts how important Steve as an editor is to my posts read my comment #19.
Feel free to add any more clearer explanation to explain whatever the heck my point is…
April 24th, 2012 at 3:36 pm
All someone has to do is post a list of anything and there will be about a zillion comments! Hooray!
April 24th, 2012 at 5:33 pm
Everyone loves lists! I know I do!
April 24th, 2012 at 5:38 pm
I’ve revised Michael’s original posting and added an Editorial Footnote along the lines I suggested several comments back. Michael, I didn’t make any changes to your original choices or your reasons for selecting them. I know you chose THE PRACTICE as a replacement for THE X-FILES when we were struggling to identify what shows went in what categories, but now that we have a better handle on the categories, I think X-FILES will be remembered — and had more influence on TV shows that came along later — than THE PRACTICE has or will.
April 24th, 2012 at 6:29 pm
Michael: Interestingly, when the creator of SHOESTRING, Robert Banks Stewart, was interviewed about the show a few years ago, he claimed that he wanted to make a ‘sort of British version of THE ROCKFORD FILES’.
My guess is that, for most people, JASON KING and DEPARTMENT S have merged in the memory. For my money DEPARTMENT S is the better series, although JASON KING is fun, and occasionally rises to a sort of genius (WANNA BUY A TELEVISION SERIES? has to be one of the weirdest, cleverest episodes of any genre show).
Thinking about favourites, I just remembered LOVEJOY. Very good comedy/drama (especially in the earlier seasons). I wonder just how many good detective series I’ve forgotten. There are just too many!
April 24th, 2012 at 7:30 pm
LOVEJOY was a favorite of mine as well as long as I didn’t compare them to the books.
But both the books and series seemed to fade over time. If I remember the TV series right they drifted away from the theme of the books (a womanizing lovable con man). I liked the actress playing the love interest but it never really fit well. Of course it has been years since I have watched an episode, so I could be totally wrong.
April 25th, 2012 at 7:35 am
Mike Doran: What’s wrong with Moonlighting?
April 25th, 2012 at 12:19 pm
I don’t think anyone’s mentioned FOYLE’S WAR, which would be in the argument as best detective series in television history.
April 25th, 2012 at 12:42 pm
To David Bushman:
Since you ask …
Moonlighting started with two of the most annoying star performances in TV history.
I was able to tolerate these in the early going: Cybill Shepherd’s character was supposed to be annoying, while Bruce Willis hadn’t yet seen his notices.
But eventually he did, and she got raves for what she was in real life (a droning bore), and Moonlighting became a critical darling for being the exact opposite of a detective show.
But the worst was yet to come.
With a season or so under their belts, the producers got cocky and made Moonlighting into the self-satisfied, cutesy-poo, “we don’t need a format” ickfest
that (for me at least) became totally unwatchable.
On some level, viewers have to care at least a little about what’s happening on the screen, or else why watch?
On Moonlighting, it soon became apparent that the people making the show – on both sides of the camera – weren’t the least bit interested in making stories that were thrilling, or funny, or thought-provoking, or anything else.
They didn’t care any more – except that they were getting away with an hour of pure self-indulgence in network primetime.
That the tabloid press loved the “behind-the-scenes” feuds and covered them as if they were real (admit it – did you really believe any of those feud stories?) only led the producers to program more for them than for the mere viewers who might feel like watching a well-written story about interesting characters.
The astonishing part (to me, anyway) is that they got away with it for as long as they did.
So that was what was wrong with Moonlighting.
All that aside, sometimes it wasn’t bad.
April 25th, 2012 at 1:46 pm
Jon —
I don’t think you’ll get much argument from anyone here about FOYLE’S WAR. Head and shoulders above the competition in almost every way you can think of.
Mike —
MOONLIGHTING was like a breath of fresh air to me when it started, and maybe I stayed with longer than you did, but for whatever reason (including everything that turned you off), as the series went along, it seemed to verge further and further away from reality.
I think viewers who watched it as a detective series gave up on it more quickly than the critics did.
This is from memory. I haven’t watched it since it was first on the air. Is it available on DVD? I’ll have to check. I wonder what I’d think of it today.
April 25th, 2012 at 2:09 pm
#28. Jon, one of the reasons I like lists is people can always mention something I had forgotten. I am not the fan of FOYLE’S WAR that you and Steve are, I would put SHERLOCK and the 70s ELLERY QUEEN ahead of it (just naming two off the top of my head) as far as “best.” And I would put INSPECTOR MORSE and SHERLOCK ahead as most remembered. But FOYLE’S WAR is a good show worthy of mention.
One of the objectives of this list was to explore fame vs favorites vs quality. It reaffirmed my belief that I follow a different trail than the masses.
April 25th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
As for MOONLIGHTING, I liked the attempt at a screwball comedy mystery. Creator Glenn Gordon Caron had just finished working on REMINGTON STEELE and it showed. Both were good examples of TV’s Nick and Nora Charles school of mystery. Both had problems with the stupid will they or won’t they bit. In STEELE everyone wanted them to and they didn’t. In MOONLIGHTING no one wanted them to and they did.
Some point at MOONLIGHTING answering the will they or won’t they question as the reason for its demise, they are wrong. The writers strike, Caron leaving the series, and the egos of the stars were more the cause.
During its time its fame seemed would live forever, yet today it is an almost forgotten series. Will the fame of CSI, LAW AND ORDER, and others on this list for the 90s and the 21st century vanish in a couple of decades as MOONLIGHTING had?
April 25th, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Michael, in Comment #31:
Maybe we’d like to think that fame and favorites and quality would all be one and the same, but I guess we all know better. In a way, it’s too bad, in another it’s what makes life interesting.
It’s also why we’re already up to Comment #33 — and echoing Randy in Comment #22, maybe a zillion more.
And if this blog is in any way representative and we can generalize from it, it’s television that’s at the center of so many people’s common experience. There are always more comments on TV here on M*F than either books or even movies, maybe even combined.
April 25th, 2012 at 4:52 pm
Steve, I don’t think Moonlighting was ever supposed to approximate reality. And it does exist on DVD. As for it being forgotten, what do you want to bet that some Hollywood producer will one day come up with a theatrical-film remake? The Paley Center did a panel with the cast and creative team of Moonlighting back in 1987, and the tension between the leads was such that only one of them showed up, and you have two guesses as to which one did NOT (time’s up … it was Shepherd). By the way, with respect to comment #2 above, I believe that Emma Peel was in fact an amateur, though John Steed was not.
April 25th, 2012 at 5:31 pm
My feelings about Moonlighting are on a purely visceral level; I can’t think of anything I’ve ever liked Cybill Shepherd in, and Bruce Willis didn’t impress me until the Die Hard series (the first two, anyway). So when the TV critics of the time started fawning over the show , and over Willis in particular (smirking only goes so far for me), that was the ball game.
I did make a token effort to keep up with Moonlighting as the show went on, but generally the cutesy-poo factor kicked in before the second commercial, and I started looking elsewhere.
To all of you out there who champion the show, go with God. The DVDs are available, so enjoy.
Just don’t tell me I didn’t see what I saw.
As to the future shelf life of past series, everything depends on availability.
With so many cable and broadcast outlets going retro these days, some shows are getting more exposure than they did in their original runs.
Unfortunately, more recent shows that have already had long runs (and are still ongoing in many cases) have an unfair advantage in the current marketplace.
This is why we need to share the contents of this blog and others like it with those who are too young to know the older shows we write about at first hand.
Call it our contribution to education.
*or something …*
April 25th, 2012 at 5:57 pm
#35. Mike, you bring up a point that when I play critic I often have to remind myself, I am a fan of the writers not the actors. Having attempted to write for TV, that is what I am interested in and notice when I watch TV. I place the characters ahead of the actors as well, that is how I could enjoy the early seasons of MOONLIGHTING while agreeing with you 100% about the actors.
I named DRAGNET as most remembered 50s cop show when it really isn’t. Most people remember DRAGNET 1967-70. The 50s cop shows are rarely seen. TV LAND has been a disappointment, ME-TV is better, but someday it would be nice if there was a TCM for television. Mike, blogs are keeping the information alive, I just wish the internet was better getting the facts right for future generations.
April 26th, 2012 at 1:01 am
SCOTLAND YARD (the version introduced by Edgar Lustgarten) was a terrific show from the 50s. Strictly speaking it started of as a series of supporting features from the cinema between 1953 and 1961, but it started to show up on TV fairly quickly.
As might be expected from the appearance of noted criminologist Lustgarten, the half-hour shows are supposedly based on real-life cases (although I have my suspicions about some of them). Made by Merton Park, who were not famous for the expense of their productions, the films are generally solid little reconstructions, and these days give one the added enjoyment of spotting well known actors before they were famous.
However, a few of them really do try to do something different. There is one called, I think, NIGHT PLANE TO AMSTERDAM, where the style shifts from straight police drama at the beginning to horror movie at the end.
Another unusual entry is THE BLAZING CARAVAN, where a killer tries to pose as his victim in order to claim a fortune. What makes it unusual is that the story is told in flashback. Instead of letting the audience know when the story is shifting into flashback, the time period will suddenly shift as he turns a corner or opens a door, showing us the state of the killer’s mind.
Ken Hughes, who directed a lot of them, didn’t do any other of them like this,which makes it look like a deliberate choice. It’s very effective.
April 26th, 2012 at 10:03 am
Thanks, BRADSTREET, it sounds great. YouTube is my number one source for British TV but all it has for this series is this opening:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrV2bAPP66E
April 26th, 2012 at 10:46 am
I’ve seen episodes from SCOTLAND YARD available on collector-to-collector DVDs, but I’ve never placed them very high on my to-be-obtained list. After watching that opening, though, I’ve been persuaded to move it up on the Priority list.
April 26th, 2012 at 11:33 am
Though this has nothing to do with the discussion I just thought I’d mention that according to the Tvshowsondvd website the early 60’s 87th PRECINCT (and YANCY DERRINGER) are coming out in August. Precinct starred Robert Lansing as Steve Carella with Gena Rowlands as Teddie. Norman Fell played Meyer Meyer with hair. Also with Gregory Walcott (one who survived PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.)
April 26th, 2012 at 12:15 pm
This is good news, Ray, thanks! Both series have been around for a while on bootlegs, but it’s good to know that someone thinks they have commercial value. I’m also glad that I never paid the money for the bootlegs, though I’ve been tempted on both — more so for the PRECINCT series, which I’ve never seen and have always wanted to.
April 26th, 2012 at 12:44 pm
I always wished this site had a spot where we could leave tips, news, and notes of interest. Besides the two Ray mentioned in #40, the TV series CASABLANCA is due out. Sadly it is not the 50s version, but the 80s version with David Soul.
Any fan of film noir needs to be on the weekly mailing list of wbstore.com The site is adding every week to its Made On Demand DVD catalog and many are no doubt on this crowd’s want list.
Then there is this note for all those who worry about digital replacing print or DVDs. Fox studios told theatre owners they plan to drop 35mm film for digital in two years. Any photography buff can tell you film is vanishing.
April 28th, 2012 at 11:27 pm
So much to choise from, but my picks are:
1950’s – DRAGNET
1960’s THE FUGITIVE (as the Best) but
Hawaii Five-O as more Popular and watched
OTHER: I want to say WILD WILD WEST, but it’s Mission: Impossible (esp. with the high quality undated movies (can’t say the same for Starsky and Hutch, 21 Jump Street, Mod Squad)
1970’s I’m grouping COLUMBO with the 70’s as that’s where most of the esps. are from
1980’s CRIME STORY and WISEGUY tie for Best (sorry just can’t choose one over the other), although Miami Vice or 21 Jump Street were more Popular
1990’s Law and Order, all the way, and influential as to the way other shows are framed now
2000’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and NCIS tie; (Castle and The Mentalist are great but I see them as being viewed in the same light as McMillan & Wife, Starsky and Hutch or Hart to Hart is now (think forward ten years))
POLICE: 1951-1959 Dragnet
1957 to 1960 M Squad
1958 to 1963 Naked City
1963 to 1967 The Fugitive
1968-2003 Columbo (69 eps.)
1968 to 1980 Hawaii Five-O
1968 to 1973 The Mod Squad
1968 to 1975 Adam-12
1970 to 1977 McCloud
1971 to 1976 Cannon
1971 to 1977 McMillan & Wife
1972 to 1976 The Rookies
1972 to 1977 The Streets of San Francisco
1973 to 1978 Kojak
1973 to 1978 Police Story
1974 to 1978 Police Woman
1975 to 1978 Baretta
1975 to 1979 Starsky and Hutch
1977 to 1983 CHiPs
1981 to 1987 Hill Street Blues
1981 to 1988 Cagney & Lacey
1984 to 1991 Hunter
1984 to 1989 Miami Vice
1986 to 1987 Crime Story
1987 to 1991 21 Jump Street
1987 to 1990 Wiseguy
1988 to 1992 In the Heat of the Night
1990 to 2010 Law & Order
1999 to – Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
1993 – 2005 NYPD Blue
(this won tons of awards but absolutely spoke like this; and they say Jack Webb’s shows and Gerry Anderson’s (and Adam West) had wooden, stilted acting)
2000 to – CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
2003 to – NCIS
2003 to 2010 Cold Case
2005 to – Criminal Minds
2008 to – The Mentalist
2009 to – Castle
PI: 1958 to 1961 Peter Gunn
1972 to 1974 Banacek
1973 to 1980 Barnaby Jones
1974 to 1976 Harry O
1974 to 1980 The Rockford Files
1976 to 1981 Charlie’s Angels
1979 to 1984 Hart to Hart
1980 to 1988 Magnum, P.I.
1982 to 1987 Remington Steele
1983 to 1986 Hardcastle and McCormick
1984 to 1996 Murder, She Wrote
1985 to 1988 Spenser: For Hire
1985 to 1989 Moonlighting
1985 and 1989 The Equalizer
OTHER (The Government): 1964-1968 The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968 Danger Man/Secret Agent
1965 to 1968 I Spy
1965 to 1969 The Wild Wild West
1965 to 1974 The F.B.I.
1968 to 1970 It Takes a Thief
1974 Kolchak: The Night Stalker
1966 to 1973 Mission: Impossible
1974 to 1978 The Six Million Dollar Man 1976 and 1978 The Bionic Woman
1976, to 1983 Quincy, M.E.
1977 to 1982 Lou Grant (if newspaper reporter, KOLCHAK, can be in there then so can Lou Grant)
1993 (1993-09-10) to 2002 The X-Files
April 28th, 2012 at 11:37 pm
D L
You’ve just brought back a lot of memories. Your list is the story of my life.
April 29th, 2012 at 9:06 am
DL, that is an incredible list with only a few I would disagree with as either best or remembered (none on your top list).
I wouldn’t have on my best or remembered (or favorite) list:
In the Heat of the Night
Cold Case
Criminal Minds
The Mentalist
Hardcastle and McCormick
Spenser For Hire
Considering how long your list is (and thanks for spending the time on it) and how few on it I can disagree with, it tells us how much television characters become a part of our past and of our lives.
Thanks for the great list.
April 29th, 2012 at 9:30 am
It suddenly occurs to me there is one cop series that will be remembered that all of us forgot, CSI: MIAMI. If only for all the parodies done of it, and making taking off sunglasses a cliche.
April 29th, 2012 at 10:45 am
DL
One thing you said struck the right chord with me. As far as shows that have been on in 2000s are concerned, we don’t have the right perspective yet; or in terms of how memorable they are, a perspective that’s long enough.
Michael pointed this out in his original list as well, when he wrote up his choice in the “Others” category for the 1970s, replacing SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN with KOLCHAK. I think he was right in doing so. The former was very popular at the time, but I’ll bet it barely makes a budge in the recognition factor with most of the population today.
Well, I’ll concede a budge, but not a big one.
April 29th, 2012 at 11:59 am
I see that I left a word out 🙁
“1993 – 2005 NYPD Blue
(this won tons of awards but absolutely (NOBODY) spoke like this; and they say Jack Webb’s shows and Gerry Anderson’s (and Adam West) had wooden, stilted acting)”
The list was to jog others memories of shows and and their era (from looking at Wikipedia’s “Television series by year” and looking for cops/detectives. My own also!
Not all were the ones I watched or liked (hated Miami Vice, Hill Street Blues); never saw WISEGUY or CRIME STORY at the time until it came out on DVD and was blown away.
Keep watching NYPD BLUE and Have no idea why because the writing was just awful. Also have no idea why it kept winning awards… were the other shows of that time worse ? Aside from LAW AND ORDER I do see a void in good cop shows until 2000s came along.
Raised in the Late 60’s-70’s upper NY state, so grew up watching, and enjoying, reruns after school and weekends, shows like ADAM-12, DRAGNET (60’S version), MOD SQUAD, (the great) IT TAKES A THIEF, (on Saturday’s) The AVENGERS (Emma Peel), MY PARTNER THE GHOST (who I later found is RANDELL AND HOPKIRK: DECEASED; never saw it past that one year for 35 years until I found the DVD set (1ST season only)), WILD WILD WEST, ROOKIES, ROOM 222, KUNG FU, BATMAN (but they never aired reruns of Green Hornet), etc.
I have very brief fragmented memories of UFO and even STAR LOST (almost thought I dreamed that one up). I got the DVD sets to both of those.
My brother liked IRONSIDE, which I didn’t care for, and my sister STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO, again not I… 5 kids equal lots of fighting over the television and the JUST 3 networks (and going outside to turn the TV antenna).
I never saw The FUGITIVE until it was on A&E, and one can see were it influenced many shows to follow like The Incredible Hulk, Lucan, Run Joe Run (look that on up, and the prior), Werewolf, Roswell, and any other chase show.
April 29th, 2012 at 1:18 pm
I had to look up RUN JOE RUN and you bring in the Saturday morning TV that could inspire an entire list all on its own. I am a big fan of comic strips (https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=7070) and animation (https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=12597). Live action less so – I like THE BANANA SPLITS more now as an adult than I did as a kid.
When you wrote RUN JOE RUN I thought of RUN BUDDY RUN (a parody of THE FUGITIVE). But I only remember that from my trips through YouTube.
I was born in 1954 and spent 12 years an only child, so I didn’t have to fight for the TV. But there were only two networks so I missed several ABC and NBC shows that rank now as favorites such as T.H.E. CAT.
Shows I remember from my childhood include CAPTAIN KANGAROO, TENNESSEE ERNIE FORD, JIMMY DEAN (with Ralph the pre Muppet), DARK SHADOWS, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. and too many to mention cartoons (I sure I will think of others shows soon after I post this).