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TUE. PBS PIONEERS OF TV "CRIME DRAMA"

gregg75

gregg75

Tue. 8PM Eastern
We're having some interesting discussions on here about this series. Most have two
complaints: lack of earlier program material and the way the show is pieced together.

That being said, I'd expect early CRIME DRAMA will revolve around something like
Adam-12 or Mannix. It seems this series is most comfortable in the late 60's time
period. I guess that is "pioneer" if you're around 35 years old. What are some shows
they will probably not mention or just skip over (as usual)? What are some shows we
would expect to be seen on CRIME DRAMA?
 
gregg75 said:
Tue. 8PM Eastern
We're having some interesting discussions on here about this series. Most have two
complaints: lack of earlier program material and the way the show is pieced together.

That being said, I'd expect early CRIME DRAMA will revolve around something like
Adam-12 or Mannix. It seems this series is most comfortable in the late 60's time
period. I guess that is "pioneer" if you're around 35 years old. What are some shows
they will probably not mention or just skip over (as usual)? What are some shows we
would expect to be seen on CRIME DRAMA?
Click to expand...

Adam-12 was Crime Drama Lite. Nobody was going to confuse it with Dragnet, Kojak, or The Untouchables.
 
The producers of this series must be just out of college if they consider the 60's "early" TV history. There were bunches of crime drama's being televised from the late 40's throughout the 50's and I'll bet virtually none of them show up. Examples:

Racket Squad
Boston Blackie
Highway Patrol
The Untouchables
....etc.
 
I'll probably watch. I expect to be disappointed (again). From the reviews I've read, the show on local kiddie shows should be better.
 
Probably really heavy on Jack Webb and Quinn Martin, and depending on when their "Pioneers" time line ends, Steven Bochco. If "crime drama" includes lawyer shows, then "Perry Mason" might get mentioned.
 
m squad with lee marvin should be on the program.

i have the dvd set.it was a pretty good show.
 
One thing that stands in the way of a truly panoramic study of TV crime drama, is the lack of surviving kinescopes of a lot of the pioneer shows like Rocky King, Inside Detective--most of the early ABC, DuMont and NBC kinescopes and NBC tapes have been lost or destroyed.

CBS started filming its crime dramas early on so a lot more of their shows like The Lineup probably still exist someplace, and if they're not included it's because the producers just forgot them or didn't think them important enough to include.

For shows like Dragnet (either the original or the 1967-72 revival) there's no excuse, since they were all filmed and Jack Webb was mindful enough of rerun values to make sure they were all saved. My guess is that his shows will be included because they're well remembered and they all have survived.

The Untouchables also survives, not only because the original is remembered (and all preserved on film by Desilu, which pioneered the preservation and marketing of reruns) but because it was revived both in syndication and in hit feature film form late in the 80s (remember the theatrical remake with Kevin Costner, Sean Connery and Robert DeNiro?). Can't imagine that won't be included.

So should late 60s and 70s shows like Mod Squad, Ironside, Police Story and Police Woman...not to mention Kojak and the subject of the newest revival, Hawaii 5-0.

They might be tempted to wrap it with a show that's something of a transition from the original police procedurals to the more contemporary approach, Hill Street Blues, which was part police procedural, part social drama, part soap opera.

What'll be interesting, is to see if they move forward to the current generation of crime/police procedurals, from the Law & Order franchise to NYPD Blue to the CSI franchise, which have each added to the grit and realism of the genre. Maybe those shows are too contemporary to be subject of a retrospective. But since they began either back in the 90s or at the very beginning of the current milennium, maybe it's time to start discussing them while they're either fresh in our memory (NYPD Blue and the original Law & Order) or still around and in production (Law & Order SVU, all the CSI shows).
 
Keep in mind that this series is based around fresh interviews done by cast and crew members still alive in 2008, when the series was done. If key people died a long time ago, they will get a brief mention with a still shot.
 
Dragnet will probably make the cut. Harry Morgan is still around. Art Gilmore died recently, so he may have been available, as well. Don't look for much about M-Squad (unless they got Leslie Nielsen to talk about how Police Squad was Shirley a parody of M-Squad).
 
I thought I saw a brief interview clip with Steven J. Cannell during the Westerns show. If so, he did a ton of Crime Dramas during his years with Universal.
 
Yeah, the 1960s were not early TV. Truly early TV starts in 1946. BTW, the 1960s revival of "Dragnet" lasted 3 seasons, from 1967 to 1970. I wish it would have lasted to 1972.
 
johnbasalla said:
Yeah, the 1960s were not early TV. Truly early TV starts in 1946. BTW, the 1960s revival of "Dragnet" lasted 3 seasons, from 1967 to 1970. I wish it would have lasted to 1972.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry it came back. The original Dragnet was a classic, film noir crime drama. The remake was a series of slick cop propaganda shorts. Evils of drugs. Evils of hippies. Day in the police PR department. A day at the information desk. In the 50s, Joe Friday solved murders, robberies, kidnappings ... you know, crimes. In the 60s, we pushed paper and gave lectures.
 
So they concentrated on 4 or 5 shows as usual. But the flow between shows was better and
things were almost in chronological order. Once again they seemed to spotlight 1965-1969.

Just a little too much info on MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, I thought, which could have been
devoted to other shows.
 
gregg75 said:
Just a little too much info on MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, I thought, which could have been
devoted to other shows.
Click to expand...

Why? Because they had fresh interviews with Peter Graves and Martin Landau.
 
Missed the show. Did they mention "Highway Patrol"? Just an excellent series with great performances from Broderick Crawford and great S. CAL location shooting. Fortunately, available on Hulu!
 
I keep wondering if "I Spy", "Honey West", or "Girl From U.N.C.L.E." should have been included. I guess "Honey West" and "Girl from U.N.C.L.E." were mentioned when they were talking about "Police Woman".

I always thought that "I Spy" and "Mission Impossible" were spy shows not crime drama. Seems like "77 Sunset Strip", "Surfside 6", "Hawaiian Eye" and "Peter Gunn" might have been a better fit. I never heard them mention those shows.

I got a phone call during the show tonight so I may have missed a few things.
 
What A Load of ...!

WHAT A WASTE!!!

No mention of M-Squad, Highway Patrol or many others worth mentioning.

This thing is clearly all about who was available for interviews that could be used in all the shows - notice it's the same people each week.

And, secondly, the emphasis is on political correctness: First show with a Black leading actor. First show with a Woman leading actor. First show with Asians in the regular cast. Yada yada.

Ther impact of a show on our culture or on subsequent television doesn't matter. They don't get into that at all.

Interesting, the only sponsor credit is "Viewers Like You." (Not me.) Apparently, none of the usual foundations or corporate underwriters wanted to pony up for this piece of trash.

They called it crime shows but more than a third of it was devoted to Spy Shows.

They completely screwed up the "recreation" of the Dragnet radio show. The show was unique in using two announcers (Hal Gibney and George Fenneman, yes that George Fenneman). They showed one. And they showed part of the opening as part of the close. They also showed the show being produced with sound effects. It used location recordings - like they recorded Jack Webb actually walking down the corridor at LA City Hall to get greater realism.

@MS: You didn't miss anything. Besides this show won't go away. Public television will keep repeating it during pledge week to rope in the marks. Besides, if the show had been any good, you would have let the call go to voice mail (but you really should get a Tivo, anyway).
 
searadiofreak said:
Missed the show. Did they mention "Highway Patrol"? Just an excellent series with great performances from Broderick Crawford and great S. CAL location shooting. Fortunately, available on Hulu!
Click to expand...
...and still being rerun overnights on ThisTV...
 
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