For the Shield or for the Cash: Trollheart Investigates TV Crime Drama

[Trollheart]

For the Shield or for the Cash?
Trollheart Investigates the History of
Television Crime Drama

Crime drama has been with us for a while now. The first real proponent of crime fiction, and recognised as the father of the detective story, was Edgar Allan Poe, who, though more known for his dark horror works, did introduce the first fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin, to the world, most famously making his debut in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". Following him was of course Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose Sherlock Holmes far outstripped Poe's detective and took the idea of investigation and deduction to new heights, becoming the template for most of the fictional - and even real - detectives who followed. The detective fiction or crime fiction novel gained great popularity in the 1930s and 1940s, with writers like Dashiel Hammett and Raymond Chandler and of course Agatha Christie all gaining huge followings.

With the advent of film, Hollywood jumped on board, and cop and gangster and private eye movies were the thing, making stars of people like Humphrey Bogart, David Suchet and Robert Mitchum. But movies were then at best a two-hour event, an insufficient amount of time to truly explore a character, the world he lives in, the choices he makes, the life he lives. This really only became possible with the advent of television, where shows could be scripted that would run for twenty or more episodes, perhaps even several seasons, through which the whole grimy world of the private detective and the dangerous world of being a cop could be shown to its fullest extent. As a result, "cop shows" became very popular in the western world, and their popularity has never really faded. Why is this?

Maybe it's because first of all, they're exciting. As kids, we all played cops and robbers, and to be honest, I doubt it mattered which side you were on, though chances were if you belonged to the latter you were going to end up getting shot or put in jail. Even then, I suppose playing the robber was a way for us kids to rebel against authority and the establishment, even if we didn't realise we were doing it, or it mattered little to us. "You dirty cop!" How many of us yelled that as we were machine-gunned in the streets outside our houses? Or when thrown in "jail", vowed to break out and get even with the damn cops who had put us there? To be fair, we didn't - well I didn't, and I haven't heard of anyone who did - play detective, private eye or anything like that. I guess it wasn't immediate enough for us; too much brainwork, not enough shooting your way out of a setup. For kids, I reckon that was just too much like work.

Anyway, we saw enough of them on the television. By the time I was growing up, around the mid-seventies, you couldn't turn on the telly without seeing a cop or a private eye show (and we only had four channels then!) and of course this tradition goes way back to the very advent of television. We've always been fascinated, both by trying to work out the clues in a mystery and catch the murderer, and by how the whole legal system works. Shoot-outs are fun, but mostly they belong in westerns, where there is no real law, as such. On the mean streets of San Francisco, Chicago or Detroit, you couldn't just shoot first and ask questions later. Procedures had to be followed. Police departments were sworn to protect and serve, and they were trusted to uphold the law.

Not all, of course, did, and this began to filter in more and dovetail perhaps with reality when shows like Hill Street Blues, Murder One and The Wire appeared on our TV screens. These showed cops as humans: flawed, tired, struggling to survive on what they were paid, susceptible to bribes, disillusioned with the broken system. The shows of the 50s, 60s and 70s mainly gave us "good cops." It was seldom that one went wrong, and if he did, his compatriots hunted him down and turned him in. There was nothing like widespread corruption, racism or sexism in these forces. Well, there was of course, but it was brushed to one side or just glossed over. They were the good guys, and they always got their man. Similarly, the bad guys were the bad guys: there was no real attempt, generally, to try to explain or understand the motivations of a criminal. Oh, you might see him being pushed into something due to circumstances beyond his control, but there would be little sympathy for him and he'd still end up locked up, or shot in a gun battle.

As we move into the third decade of the twenty-first century, even with the general bad reputation many police forces are - often rightly - getting now, cop shows are just as popular as they ever were. People like Dick Wolf and Jeff Davis continue to produce high quality TV shows that often uncover the seamier side of the police force, or the more questionable methods of private detectives, though the latter has fallen away recently as producers and writers concentrate more on stories of the legitimate law enforcement departments. Wolf's FBI series now has two spin-offs, Tom Selleck is starring in season eight of Blue Bloods and  neither CSI nor NCIS seem to be able to stop spinning off into new series, and look like they'll last forever. We've had every level of policing, from The Rookie to The Chief, and everything in between. We've had procedurals, mockumentaries, all-action shows and cerebral looks into the real police. We've had Line of Duty and The Wire, The Shield and Shots Fired, and there's no sign of it ever stopping, or that we want it to.

We're even at it ourselves. Stuart Carolan's hard-hitting Love/Hate looks at the other side of the story, the microscope from the point of view of the sample, as it were, chronicling the lives of a major crime gang in Ireland, as does Kin, and events that play out on a daily basis in a fictional Garda (Irish police) station form the basis of the soap-like narrative of Red Rock, There's also recently been Criminal Assets, a joint production with Norway looking into the activities of CAB, the Criminal Assets Bureau, and Redemption follows the exploits of a British police officer who returns to Ireland to investigate the murder of her daughter.

There's been an interesting trend though from the seventies to the nineties, as private eyes, often the more numerous in the TV shows, have slowly been elbowed aside and retired as the official police take their place. PIs often involved the police in their investigations, or gained information - usually unofficially, through friends of theirs in the force - that would help their cases. Most are treated by the cops with a mixture of contempt and perhaps sneaking admiration/jealousy, based on the way they don't have to play by the rules the police do. But gradually the television demographic on cop shows seems to have shifted in favour of "real" police, and there are much fewer shows these days about private detectives.

In this journal I'll be looking through the history of the cop show, the detective show and any series on television that featured primarily those tasked with or attempting to uphold the law. I should make a few things clear: there will be no reviews of episodes, just an overview of each series and some information about each. If one contributed significantly to the development of the genre I will note that, as well as any "gimmicks" used in their series. I will be going chronologically, and will try to look at all cop/detective shows, not just American and British, though these will of course form the mainstay of my research.

What I will not be looking at is police reality shows - COPS. 911: What's Your Emergency. The First 48. Police Stop! Border Patrol. While there is nothing wrong with these shows, they are not scripted drama; they follow real people doing real jobs, and that's not the remit of this journal. Everything covered here has to be fiction, even if based in some way on real events (Appropriate Adult, A Confession etc. I will however, despite the title, be looking into any comedy or spoof cop shows, so Sledge Hammer!, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Police Squad!, all that kind of thing is in.

[Trollheart]

Before 1950


Title: Martin Kane, Private Eye
Year(s): 1949 - 1954
Nationality: American
Protagonist: Private Detective
Main character(s): Martin Kane
Seasons*: Unknown
Episodes (total)*: Unknown
Sample episode chosen: Unknown (no title shown)
Category: Crime mystery
Style: Drama
Location(s): New York
Writer(s): Ted Hediger
Starring: William Gargan, Ted Nolan
First episode: Unknown
Last episode: Unknown
Gimmick/Hook (if any): None, though because the show was sponsored by a tobacco company Kane smoked a pipe similar to that smoked by Sherlock Holmes. This also led to a LOT of very blatant advertising within the actual show.
Spin-offs (if any): The New Adventures of Martin Kane (1957)

Surely the first ever cop show on telly, as this went out in 1949? I wasn't even sure TV was in use by then, but I guess it was. Based, as were most of these shows, on a radio programme, the title character was a wisecracking good guy who helped rather than hindered the police, though in later seasons he seems to have drifted away from that, becoming the stereotypical pain in a cop's ass. As noted above, the show was sponsored by the United States Tobacco Company, but rather than do as other sponsors would in similar shows and limit themselves to a two-minute slot hawking their product before or after the show, these guys made sure they were front and centre. Martin would frequent a tobacco shop during the episodes - all but his base of operations - and chat amiably to the owner about different blends of pipe tobacco, all the while smoking his calabash pipe.

The show ran for five years, during which time the lead actor changed, from William Gargan to Ted Nolan, though Gargan returned for the spin-off/reboot in 1957. The episode I'm watching I must admit I find boring and slow, despite the fact that someone gets shot in the opening scene. It's just too plodding, no real action. Interesting I guess that Kane is trying to prove someone's innocence, a man who has been jailed for a robbery. Good interaction between the two cops, one a college boy and the other a normal joe, but the doctor is very cliched, with the standard bad German accent; when he gets shot he hardly looks as if he's noticed.

Not quite sure how a private eye can be allowed to question witnesses in a court! Surely that's only for attorneys? Yet Kane is there, questioning away under the judge. Is this willing a suspension of disbelief, or is it just poor research? Either way, it's bad. I do commend him though for promoting the Veterans Association at the end. Fair play to him. Rather surprisingly, I hear the theme and I realise it was re-used in the 1970s spoof spy show Get Smart. That brings back memories.

[Trollheart]

Title: The Plainclothesman
Year(s): 1949 - 1954
Nationality: American
Protagonist: Detective
Main character(s): "The Lieutenant"
Seasons*: Unknown
Episodes (total)*: 233
Sample episode chosen: The only one I could get; no title shown
Category: Crime
Style: Drama
Format: Solo
Location(s): Unknown
Writer(s): Donald S. Sanford, Laurence Melkin
Starring: Ken Lynch, Jack Orrison
First episode: Unknown
Last episode: Unknown
Gimmick/Hook (if any): All scenes were filmed in what we would today call an FPS (First Person Shooter) format; the main character's face was only ever seen in one episode, so you literally looked through his eyes and saw what he saw.
Spin-offs (if any): None

Then again, this could also be a candidate. I can't get any information on which of the two came first, but between them I think we can consider these the trailblazers. The Plainclothesman (a bit of a mouthful, considering they could just have called it The Detective or The Lieutenant or, hell, anything at all. It was 1949, not like there was much competition) followed the main character who was only ever known as "The Lieutenant", and as mentioned above was perhaps unique in showing the action as it happened through his eyes, his face never seen on screen. Only four of the over 200 episodes made are thought to have survived, and luckily (or not) one is on YouTube, so here I go.

It's very much of its time. Pretty stereotypical Italian shopkeeper with a young sexy fiery daughter. He ends up dead, and the cops are about as sympathetic as the KKK at a BLM march; all they care about are the details. Nobody even tells the poor girl they're sorry her father has been killed. Very cold, very hard, very macho. I'm not so sure about the viewpoint; it's a little artificial. More like watching a camera orient on a subject than looking through someone's eyes. Doesn't really work for me and I don't see the need for it. I also wonder how the actor dealt with it. If this ran for five years it must have been popular, yet this Ken Lynch is never seen on camera, so how could he capitalise on that fame? No incidental music, except when he goes into a bar, but other than that it's just the dialogue.

An interesting idea, considering we're talking early 1950s here, with the woman in charge of the counterfeit operation. Oh man. Someone just said "What's the big idea?" Har har. Yeah not bad for the time, but I don't know where this episode falls in terms of the running order (the quality is awful, but then you'd expect that) so if it's 1949 then that's understandable. If it's more in the early 1950s, well, it could be better. A decent enough show for its time I guess.

[Shhon]

Adam 12 is a classic I used to watch. Columbo too, and yeah Dragnet was awesome. I don't have a tv now but they still play them on the satellite channel called MeTV.

[Rubber Soul]

I love how they did commercials inside the plot. That took chutzpah.

[Trollheart]

Early 1950s

Title: Charlie Wild, Private Detective
Year(s): 1950 - 1952
Nationality: American
Protagonist: Private Detective
Main character(s): Charlie Wild
Seasons*: 2
Episodes (total)*: 64
Sample episode chosen: Season 2, episode ? "The Case of the Double Trouble"
Category: Crime mystery
Style: Drama
Location(s):
Writer(s): Peter Barry, Stanley Niss
Starring: Kevin O'Morrison (replaced for season two with John McQuaide)
First episode:?
Last episode:?
Gimmick/Hook (if any):May or ay not be one, but the main character speaks a monologue into the phone in his office, ostensibly to his secretary (who no doubt has "great gams") as a kind of introduction to the episode.
Spin-offs (if any): None

One of the perceived more dour and poor detective series, and one of the earliest, debuting in 1950, there doesn't seem to have been any humour about this one at all. Taking a more highbrow approach perhaps, Charlie Wild utilised classical music, beautiful women and lavish costumery to, according to some reviewers, cover up the poor writing and wafer-thin plots. Let's see if we can get one to watch. Okay here we go. Very poor quality video but I think we're lucky to have anything at all. This one is from the second season, so by now O'Morrison has been replaced by McQuaide. Starts off somewhat cliched even at this early stage, with the door to a PI's office and the investigator's shadow outside behind it, door opens and in he walks. Another, different gimmick, as Wild picks up his phone and speaks about the episode, in a sort of prologue, as if talking to his secretary (who, yes, he calls sweetheart duh). Lots of phrases ripped from Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade - "not worth a plugged nickel", "Must be a gag", "Come on sister" and so on. I'm beginning to see why the reviewers panned this.

Let's give it a chance though. Hmm. Oddly enough, though he's a (presumably registered) private detective, he has no card to show, and when asked to prove his identity has to show his social security card and driving licence. Hardly convincing is it? Why doesn't he have a business card if he's in business? Well in fairness it's a bit melodramatic but I wouldn't quite agree with the vitriol the reviewers spewed at it at the time. Surely not close to the best but I'd imagine there were worse. I think part of the problem may lie in the fact that this began life as a radio serial, and some of the episodes were transcribed directly for TV. On radio it was more important to be dramatic and use your voice to describe the action, as people couldn't see what you were doing, so a certain amount of over-acting would be involved, and the plot would be very wordy. This doesn't seem to have been adjusted for a visual medium, with the result that you end up with basically a radio play being performed on the television, and it really doesn't work more than it does.

Oh look! Now he does have a card. Why then didn't he present it when - ah, I give it. Next!

[Trollheart]

Title: The Adventures of Boston Blackie
Year(s): 1951 - 1953
Nationality: American
Protagonist: Freelance crime fighter
Main character(s): Boston Blackie, Mary
Seasons: Unsure: 3?
Episodes (total)*: 58
Sample episode chosen: Season 2, episode 8 "Queen of Thieves"
Category: Crime mystery
Style: Drama/comedy
Location(s): Los Angeles
Writer(s): Unknown (based on the books by Jack Boyle
Starring: Kent Taylor
First episode: Unknown
Last episode: Unknown
Gimmick/Hook (if any): In effect, the first series (maybe) to pit an ordinary joe - in fact, an ex-con - against the police, in terms of solving the crimes. Also possibly one of the first to use humour.
Spin-offs (if any): Unknown; already a major spin-off from a series of book, films and a radio show

I guess this guy must have been a celebrity in America, though this is the first I've ever heard of him. With 25 films running from 1918 - 1949 and a radio series preceding this television adaptation that ran for six years, this must have been one of the most successful of the early American TV crime series. Can't tell you too much about it though. Oh wait I can, thanks to The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable Shows by Tim Brooks and Earle F. Marsh, which is going to be a great help to me, at least when it comes to American shows.

So, Boston Blackie was a retired safecracker and burglar, who, with his girlfriend Mary, managed to out-think the police and solve crimes before they did. His turnaround came when he had spent too much time in a bad prison and decided to start solving crimes instead of committing them. I don't see how official, if at all, he was - it doesn't say he was for hire, or even in business - and I think maybe he was just an amateur, which would then I think make him one of the first of that sort, more of which would crop up over the following decades. This idea would lead to a lot of conflict and tension between the "amateur sleuth" (sometimes, as in the case of Ellery Queen, an author of crime or mystery fiction) as the police bemoaned his lack of qualifications, knowledge and professionalism, and complained that he got in the way of their investigation, while most times he would solve it.

The Adventures of Boston Blackie also seems to be the first of these series that didn't take itself too seriously; comic relief and jokes and jibes were used, lessening the impact of a murder or other crime, while, one would assume, not trivialising it. You would see this also happen in series such as Hart to Hart, Matlock, Diagnosis Murder and the like as time went on. As many of these shows possibly believed the idea of murder was too dark a subject for their audiences, they would lighten the mood with whimsical music, joky asides, quirks of the detective in question, or side plots that still linked into the murder but took people's minds off it to some extent. Of course, they weren't all about murder, but many were.

Watching one of the episodes it's perhaps the first time - probably not, but the first for me - that someone says that classic cop show line "Just give me twenty-four hours!" Class. Quite funny, too, to see the headline scream "WOUNDED PICKPOCKET IN COMA!" As if anyone gave a fuck about a two-bit lowlife (hey, ya gotta get into the lingo of the time, ya dig? Or something). Perhaps jumping on the "legend" of Ma Barker, the bad guy here is a woman, an old woman, a sort of female Fagin with a very grown-up gang. Is this the first instance of a female criminal, setting aside Irene Adler in the Sherlock Holmes stories? I find it odd that the doctor consults so readily with Blackie about Archie, the pickpocket, who has come out of his coma with total amnesia. He doesn't even ask Blackie if he is a relative, though I suppose it could be taken that the hero has already made this claim.

I like the Ford Model T he drives, even in 1952. Oh no wait: that's the old lady. Blackie drives a much more modern sportscar. Well of course he does. Got a real sense of class about this guy; reminds me of Clark Gable. I can see what they mean about a sort of light-hearted approach; even the guy who was supposed to be shot, Archie, survives and so far nobody has been killed or even badly injured, and there's a kind of, what, Pink Panther or maybe Raffles feel to the whole thing, as if it shouldn't be taken too seriously. Even the music is light-hearted, unlike the darker, more dramatic music used in most of the other early shows. It's a clever touch to have the narrator/guy who does the introduction be part of the show, a newspaper vendor who pops up, and as I saw with my perusal of Tales of Tomorrow and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the curse of the sponsor hangs large over this show too, as I guess every major show had to have its sponsor and therefore allow them to advertise during breaks in the show.

The hard man, tough guy attitude of the time is encapsulated when one of Blackie's agents comes to the house after having collected something for him which he complains is very embarrassing. Is it a pair of lady's knickers? Perfume? A hat with a feather in it? No, it's much worse: knitting needles and wool! Oh, misogyny abounds! Yet you have to laugh. The parlance of the time used is cute: "knock them down," says the old lady, and "take care of him." I mean, you know what she means, but the word kill is not used (although in this time it might be "rub out" - or was that the thirties?) - ah, euphemisms! I am glad to see that when we're shown the embroidery the old woman is making, it says VIRTUE IS ITS OWN REWARD: many shows, even today - especially today - would have had an apostrophe in "its". Good to see that proper English is being observed.

Okay I was wrong: some people are getting shot. I love how, when they are shot, they just fall forward as if they're still as a board. Knees don't buckle, arms don't fly out, just a direct fall to the ground like trees being cut down. Also, not a sound as they go down, not even a "you dirty rat! You got me!" or any exclamation of pain. Talk about literal cardboard cut-outs! Yeah overall quite enjoyable, certainly one of the more light-hearted shows to be sure. Guess I can see why he was so popular at the time. Have a goosy.

[Trollheart]

Title: Casey, Crime Photographer (Or just Crime Photographer)
Year(s): 1951 - 1952
Nationality: American
Protagonist: Newspaper photographer
Main character(s): Jack Casey
Seasons*: 2
Episodes (total)*: 57
Sample episode chosen: None
Category: Crime mystery
Style: Drama
Location(s):Unknown
Writer(s): George Harmon Coxe
Starring: Richarl Carlyle (replaced at the end of season 1 by Darren McGavin)
First episode: Unknown
Last episode: Unknown
Gimmick/Hook (if any): Unknown, though being a photographer, while not new (see Superman) was something of a gimmick for a cop/detective show at the time
Spin-offs (if any): None

Another based on first novels, then a radio show and movies, Casey, Crime Photographer (often referred to without the name Casey) followed the adventures of a newspaper photographer who was able to help the police solve crimes. Well, I mean, you would have got that from the title, wouldn't you? Unfortunately YouTube only has the radio show, and I don't think I'm going to get much of a flavour of the show from that. There is also one of the movies, but we're not concerned with films here, so we have to move on.

[Trollheart]

Title: Sherlock Holmes or, We Present Alan Wheatley as Mr. Sherlock Holmes in...
Year(s): 1951
Nationality: British
Protagonist: Detective
Main character(s): Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson
Seasons: 1
Episodes (total)*: 6
Sample episode chosen: None
Category: Crime mystery
Style: Drama
Location(s): Various
Writer(s): C.A. Lejeune, based on the stories of SirArthur Conan Doyle
Starring: Alan Wheatley, Raymond Francis
First episode: "The Empty House"
Last episode: "The Second Stain"
Gimmick/Hook (if any): None
Spin-offs (if any): None, unless you count all the later Holmes series. This was the first ever to translate Doyle's books to television, so in that sense can be said to be the grandfather of all series featuring the consulting detective that followed.

A very interesting beginning. While I wouldn't class this as a cop show, it certainly deserves to be included, being of course one concerning the world's most famous and favourite private detective. Running for only six episodes, the genesis of the programme is worth noting. The star of the show, Alan Wheatley, tells it thus: "C A Lejeune [the writer] gave me a marvellous notice in the Observer and she finished up by saying, "If the BBC have got any sense they will commission a series of Sherlock Holmes stories and ask Alan Wheatley to play Sherlock Holmes." So the BBC, very unlike them, took this up and wrote to her and said, "All right, if you will do the scripts we will do the series," and that's how they came to be done..."

Incredible to think this was all done live. No recordings, no re-edits, no second chances. And no surviving episodes, of course, as it was never recorded. Imagine doing that today! The writer did insist on sticking to the spirit of the stories, so I imagine they were pretty close to the originals. There were some famous faces too. Bill Owen, known to British TV audiences for decades as the cheeky Compo in the long-running comedy Last of the Summer Wine played Inspector Lestrade, Sebastian Cabot, most famous as Santa in the classic Christmas movie Miracle on 34th Street, and as the voice of Bagheera the panther in Disney's animated version of Kipling's The Jungle Book, played Jabez Wilson in one episode, and John Le Mesurier, another famous face on British TV, mostly for his role as the long-suffering Sergeant Wilson in Dad's Army appeared in one episode.

[Trollheart]

Title: Dragnet
Year(s): 1951 - 1959, 1967 - 1970, 1989 - 1991, 2003 - 2004
Nationality: American
Protagonist: LAPD Cop
Main character(s): Joe Friday
Seasons*: 16
Episodes (total)*: 448
Sample episode chosen: Season 1 episode 1 (1951) "The Human Bomb"
Category: Police Procedural
Style: Drama
Location(s): Unknown (LA?)
Writer(s): Jack Webb (creator); Various from 1989 on following Webb's death
Starring: Jack Webb, Ben Alexander, Harry Morgan (1967 revival); Jeff Osterhage, Bernard White (1989 series The New Dragnet); Ed O'Neill, Ethan Embry (2003 LA Dragnet)
First episode: "The Human Bomb"
Last episode: "Killing Fields"
Gimmick/Hook (if any): A voiceover at the start announced "What you are about to see is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent." This gave the idea the show was real (which of course it was not, or it would not be featured here) and also started a long-running joke where the "disclaimer" would be parodied with such claims as "names changed to protect the ignorant" and perhaps the famous opening to the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, where it says "Most of what follows is true."
Spin-offs (if any): Three revivals after the main one: one which ran from 1967 - 1970, The New Dragnet, featuring new characters and actors ran from 1989 - 1991 and a final, Dick Wolf-helmed series, so entirely different in every way other than the title, from 2003 - 2004, which went under the title of L.A. Dragnet. Also three movies, one of which was a parody.

Probably the first major US cop show, Dragnet debuted in 1951 and over four incarnations kept going right into the twenty-first century, possibly making it the longest non-concurrent-running cop show on TV. The show had its origins even earlier, starting life as a radio series in 1949 and running for eight years. Dragnet was the first show which tried to portray police work as it was, and is: dangerous, often tedious, hardly glamorous and often thankless. It was responsible for helping to change the public's attitude towards police, largely seen, through the medium of those private eye shows that came before, as ineffectual bumblers who needed someone else to solve their cases for them. It stands as the first "police procedural", that is, one that shows the actual steps taken by the police in investigating and prosecuting crimes, rather than their arrival being announced by a siren or a door being broken down by pistol-wielding officers. It took people behind the scenes, showing them how hard a case can be to prove, to bring to court, and how, unlike some of the previous shows, it was 99% hard graft and maybe 1% luck that brought the guilty to justice.

The creator of the show, Jack Webb, began his career in radio, and indeed comedy, though  his anger at the way the police were perceived through portrayals in TV shows led him to switch to drama, and Dragnet was born, as a way to show the public how undervalued their local cops were. I said above that the stories weren't true, but that isn't correct. I read now (not being an American, I've never seen the show and was only dimly aware of it through the Dan Akyroyd spoof movie) that he would take actual cases and replay them in a fictional setting, hence the disclaimer. So in some ways it almost was reality TV, nearly an early precursor of those many, many shows now where they act out reconstructions of cases of murder, rape and so on.

Let's see what it was like then. I have no doubt there are plenty of episodes lying around the interweb. I'd like to get one from the original series and then maybe compare it to a later incarnation, but we'll see how we go. Okay here's the first episode. A suicide bomber in 1951? Would not have thought such a thing existed. Interesting that they should start off with something sensational like that. I guess they certainly grabbed the audience's attention. This appears to have been one of the first, maybe the first cop show to use narration, as Friday explains what's happening over the action. Very film noir in its way.

Yeah this is a seismic shift already, and so early in the history of TV crime drama. There's no attempt to play this for laughs, no real effort to introduce us to working relationships, no quips, no unreasonable plotlines. It's real - or real crimes re-enacted - so that leaves little room for any improvising. This is not entertainment, this is essentially education. This is Webb saying "you don't know what it's like to be a cop! Here, let me show you." And he does. No incidental music, so that heightens the sense of reality, no sudden changes of heart by the characters: were this pure fiction, I might have expected the bomber's brother, whom he had demanded be relased from prison or he'd set off his bomb in the police headquarters, might have tried to talk him out of it or disarmed him, unwilling to be an accessory to multiple murder. But real people don't act that way, and these are real people, or at least, actors playing real people.

This certainly was one of the most successful cop shows on TV, and I'd venture to say the first really successful one, going on for 8 seasons in its initial run, then rebooted in 1967 for another three years, again in 1989 for two and finally "reimagined" by Dick Wolf in 2003. There were three movies, and just about everyone even now knows the theme tune. It must have helped changed the public view of police, and for that I'm sure LA's finest were grateful. I do wonder though if it showed the other side of the force? It's all very well praising and putting them on a pedestal, but those feet of clay tend to bring down any idol, and I can't help thinking Dragnet may have been biased in favour of the police.

It can't be denied though that it was the first "real" cop show, that it influenced a generation of series that came after it, not only in America but elsewhere. Shows like Hill Street Blues, Blue Bloods, Line of Duty and The District owe a huge debt to Webb and his pioneering show, as does nearly every other cop show.  As for the police, well how many other civilians do you know who had an honour guard at their funeral provided by the LAPD? Not only that, but the LA Office lowered its flag to half staff and the badge Webb had worn during the show - 714 - was retired and is on display in the LA Police Academy.

[Trollheart]

Title: Mr and Mrs North
Year(s): 1952 - 1954
Nationality: American
Protagonist: Freelance sleuths
Main character(s): Pam North, Jerry North
Seasons*: 2
Episodes (total)*: 56
Sample episode chosen: Season 1 episode 36 "Two Faced"
Category: Mystery
Style: Light-hearted drama
Location(s): New York
Writer(s): Richard and Francis Lockridge
Starring: Barbara Britton, Richard Denning
First episode: "Weekend Murder"
Last episode: "Climax"
Gimmick/Hook (if any): Husband/wife team
Spin-offs (if any): None

One of the first of the husband and wife teams solving crimes in their spare time, a trope which became increasingly popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s, leading to such series as McMillan and Wife and Hart to Hart, this one seems to have been quite forward-looking in terms of sexual equality, as rather than just be along for the ride, the wife appears to be the brains, the one who solves all the crimes, while the husband just sort of tags along. Based on a series of novels, a movie and radio show, it was immensely popular and was no doubt one of the shows that irked Jack Webb, as it lampooned the local police force, showing them to be completely clueless to the extent that part-time, unprofessional amateurs could solve crimes and interpret and find clues they could not. It also looks to have been one of the first in which a mystery author turns to actual crime sleuthing, another thing that would become popular, culminating in the godawful Murder, She Wrote.

Have to say, it's very disappointing. For so-called sleuths that can outfox the police, these two do nothing, at least in the episode I'm watching. They just kind of go along and participate in the taking of a criminal. Nothing special that I can see. Yeah, pretty poor. Maybe I just chose a bad episode, but I'm not interested in watching any more.

Questions abound though, and if this is typical of the Lockridge's writing then all I can say is it's piss poor. Why did the barber kill his wife/girlfriend (the relationship is not properly established, despite this being a fulcrum of the episode, so you're left to make up your own mind) when it became clear she only went to the hotel not to have an affair but to blackmail the crook? What was his reasoning? You can't say he didn't know: he read the note and it was in fact he who prevailed upon the Norths to go to rescue her. If he loved her so much that he was willing to risk his life to save her, how could he then turn so violent for no reason? And why would Jerry North so quickly and easily turn on his friend the barber, selling him out to the cop without talking to the man to see why he had done what he did? And how in the name of god can any cop be so dense as to STILL not realise what he's being told until the words "you murdered her!" are used? Terrible. Just terrible.

As for the woman being the brains, I don't see it, not here. All Mrs. North does is flounce around after her husband, more concerned about the new hat she bought which he left in the barber's than looking at any clues, which it says in the writeup she does. She might as well not be there for all the use she is. It's very much a case of "I'll solve it, dear; you just stand there and look pretty." Not what they say the books are about at all. Meh.

[Trollheart]

Mid 1950s (1954 - 1956)

Title: Crime on Our Hands
Year(s): 1954
Nationality: British
Protagonist: Unknown, possibly police officer
Main character(s): Unknown
Seasons: 1
Episodes (total)*: 6
Sample episode chosen: None
Category: Possibly Police Procedural
Style: Drama
Location(s): Unknown
Writer(s): Unknown
Starring: Geraldine McEwan, Jack Watling
First episode: Unknown
Last episode: Unknown
Gimmick/Hook (if any): Unknown
Spin-offs (if any): None

Virtually nothing is known about this show, as you can see. It's said it was also recorded live, ran for six episodes and that's about it. A pity, as it looks like it may have been one of the first British series to feature actual police, as in, the first of what is now known as a police procedural.

[Trollheart]

But we might be on more solid ground here?

Title: Colonel March of Scotland Yard
Year(s): 1955
Nationality: British
Protagonist: Police officer
Main character(s): Colonel March
Seasons: 1
Episodes (total)*: 26
Sample episode chosen: Season 1 episode 3  "Present Tense"
Category: Crime mystery
Style: Drama
Location(s): Various, but presumably most at Scotland Yard
Writer(s): Carter Dixon/ John Dickson Carr
Starring: Boris Karloff, Ewan Roberts
First episode: "The Sorcerer"
Last episode: "Passage at Arms"
Gimmick/Hook (if any): At the beginning of each episode, Colonel March would sit down at his desk and write the title in his log book. This would then dissolve into a picture of an item to be featured in the episode.
Spin-offs (if any): None

With 26 episodes, this is surely the closest we come in the 1950s to a real series. Even today, many series don't get that many episodes in a season. Starring the famous Boris Karloff, this may be why the show was first broadcast across the water in the USA before being seen by British television audiences. It was also part of the initial lineup of the new ITV (Independent TeleVision) channel which rose to take on the might and monopoly of the BBC. Again we have some serious guest stars, such as Christopher Lee, Joan Sims, a later mainstay of the Carry On film franchise, Richard O'Sullivan, who would become very well known to British audiences thanks to his roles in comedy series Man ABout the House and its spin-off Robin's Nest, though it would be a while before they would recognise him, as he was only ten years old at the time, director John Schelsinger and Alan Wheatley, who had starred as Sherlock Holmes in the first ever TV adaptation of Conan Doyle's stories, as related above. Also another connection to Dad's Army, as John Laurie, who played Private Frazer, guest stars here too.

Linking to Holmes, this series was perhaps the first in which the lead character (and here eponymous) out-thinks the police by solving mysteries and murders they don't have a clue about. This would then continue Doyle's idea of a detective who is smarter than the police, though in this case March does work for them. Hmm. Here's an episode I found.

Yawn. I tried to watch it but my god it was boring. I could feel my brain cells dying as the episode unfolded, and I couldn't tell you how it ended or even what went on in it. Not a good start. Surprised this made the 26-episode mark. Oh well, no accounting for taste I guess.

[Trollheart]

Title: Dixon of Dock Green
Year(s): 1955 - 1975
Nationality: British
Protagonist: Police officer
Main character(s): PC (Police Constable) George Dixon
Seasons*: 22
Episodes (total)*: 432
Sample episode chosen: Season 2 episode 7 "Father in Law"
Category: Crime
Style: Drama
Format: Solo
Location(s): London
Writer(s): Ted Willis
Starring: Jack Warner
First episode: "PC Crawford's first Pinch"
Last episode: Unknown
Gimmick/Hook (if any): Dixon would talk directly to the viewer, saying "Evenin' all" and at the end of the show salute and greet them "Good night all".
Spin-offs (if any): None

One of the longest-running police dramas from the early days, Dixon of Dock Green has had its detractors and its supporters. The first - possibly the only - police show not to focus on major crimes, violence, solving mysteries and glamour, it followed the eponymous police officer who was, at the start of the series, an ordinary officer, or "bobby", on the beat. He was also a more mature man, creating a kind of father figure for the younger officers at the station, and possibly for some viewers too. The show was more concerned with small, petty crimes and social problems than the bigger stories covered by later series such as The Sweeney, Z-Cars and The Bill, taking a more relaxed and insular approach to policing, very much an example of community police work before there really was such a thing.

Because of this, it became very popular with the British police, whom it portrayed as basically good guys, normal blokes trying to keep everyone safe, and the nature of the episodes, with very little sensationalism and a homely approach, appealed so much to television audiences that many believed, as they used to of Sherlock Holmes, that George Dixon was a real person. I am quite surprised when I check out the credentials of the writer/creator. I assumed that with all this knowledge of the police Ted Willis had been in the force, but in fact I read he became General Secretary of the British Young Communist League! The relationship between the Reds and the police was seldom a good one, with Britain, certainly in the 1950s and 1960s, as worried about the Communist influence on their society as the Americans were. Still, with Britain under a Conservative government and at war at the time (1941) but with I guess Russia at the time on the side of the Allies following Hitler's invasion of his former ally's country, maybe it wasn't seen as the big deal it would be later. Certainly, Willis ended up getting knighted, becoming a baron, so either his communist ties were swept under the carpet or he renounced them.

Willis seems to have been another who was told by a nasty teacher that he would never amount to anything, and had not the imagination to be a writer. In the end, it shows how much these fuckers know, as Ted Willis is now considered the most prolific TV writer in the entire world, and in his lifetime was the chairman of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain for six years. Why are teachers so dismissive and ignorant? Why don't they want their pupils to get on? Matt Groening, Robbie Williams, the list goes on. No wonder people hate teachers.

An interesting point for a show set in the 1950s is that we see a female police officer, and she's a sergeant. I feel that's a little ground-breaking for a time when women in cop shows, certainly in America, and I think here too, were mostly relegated to wives, girlfriends, molls or secretaries. A forward-thinking writer, certainly. The show did receive much stick for its portrayal of the police as being too "soft" and "cosy", like a family looking after each other, with less emphasis on kicking the nonce in, as others would do, and more on keeping the lines of communication open with the community. Nothing wrong with that, but how realistic was it I wonder? Still, one of the original unique cop shows, and it came from Britain. Definitely one of the longest-running, well outpacing even current series at twenty-two years.

I must admit, the episode I watched seemed more like an episode of The Waltons or some soap; can't really say I was impressed. Still, that's only one of hundreds, so who's to say? Not much in the way of police action though.