Best TV COP Series?
 

Three categories.

1.)New York City Cops
2.)Los Angeles Cops
3.)Other

My Nominations:
1. Law & Order(especially with Orbach)
Barney Miller

2. Dragnet
Adam 12

3. Hill Street Blues

I don't know about TV series, but Super Troopers gets my vote for movies :D

There are eight million stories in the "Naked City" :yes:

Reno 911 :D

Cop Rock ! <grin> Seriously, they gotta go a long way to beat "Hill Street Blues"...Another underappreciated gem was "Crime Story", a kind-of "Miami Vice" set in Chicago & Vegas in '63...

I am partial to Hawaii 5-0, for obvious reasons.

Nefarious activity in paradise.

Car 54 Where are you ?

Hill Street Blues !

Actually,it would be Columbo..followed by Dragnet,Hill Street Blues and Baretta

How about Police Story? Probably the first to show cops dealing with stress, abuse and other issues.

Of course, Starsky & Hutch was a classic.

Per the three categories:

New York: Law and Order franchise

LA: The Shield

Other (Baltimore in this case): Homicide: Life on the Streets

Barney Miller

my favorite also :smoke:

Another vote for Homicide: Life on the Streets. It was a trend setter. Countless cop and detective shows follow its style. The first season or two of CSI (the original, not the spinoffs) were pretty good, but then they just got silly.

The Shield, Homicide: Life on the Streets, Crime Story, Robbery/Homicide

Yes. I know he was a P.I., but the Rockford Files was one of the best shows ever. I also agree with the other poster about Barney Miller.

Car 54 Where Are You

The English contribution
 

Cracker- Fitz ( Robbie Coltrane) is the everyman of addictive personalities... drinking, smoking, gambling. A police shrink that is a genius at profiling anyone but himself. He digs deeply into the minds of the suspects while his own life falls to pieces. It feels strange to enjoy a character and be pissed at them at the same time... The series was short lived, but deadly intense.:thmbsp: Coltrane proves he is more than a character from "Harry Potter"

There was an US sequel with Robert Pastorelli as Fitz and a young Josh Hartnett playing his son.. (part of Fitz's alienated family). It was pretty good also.:yes:

Cracker WAS excellent- thanks for jogging the memory on it.

Gotta chime in for the English version of Cracker, too. Every now and again, these still air on BBC.

Other=X-Files.

Another vote for Homicide Life on the Streets, and Detective Munch is still around on Law and order SVU

Seconded. Just got a couple seasons of Rockford on DVD.

Hawaii 5-0 also makes the top of my list (and the opening sequence is exciting to watch on an early color tv). Along with another good cop show I don't think anybody has mentioned yet: Kojak.

I like the first 48 hours, it is a reality cop show, where the show what happens in the first 48 hours after a murder is discovered. I also like Cold Case, and Cops, just to keep up with the family.

Does "Charleys Angels" qualify.Barney Miller..CSI...COPS badboys,badboys whatcha gonna do........LOL

Another vote here for Homicide-excellent show.

The Highway Patrolman. Gotta love Broderick Crawford!

It's no contest the Shield by a long shot. Crime story was also excellent, and I wouldn't say it was a 60's take on Miami Vice. Crime story was well done and believible (until they moved the series to Las Vegas).

the job with dennis leary

I guess no one has mentioned "NYPD Blue" because everyone already knows that it was the best cop show EVER, so the discussion is for second place. That must be it, right? Kinda like "Well obviously Michael Jordan was the greatest NBA player, but who's next?" Dennis Franz has set the standard for all TV detectives, and the rest of the cast including Nick Turturo, James McDaniel, Esai Morales, and of course Jimmy Smits made for 12 seasons of great drama. The list of bit actors that have gone on to star status is endless, and the writing credits read like a who's who list of the most acclaimed people in the business.

...If only they'd gotten rid of the "10-year-old playing w/his daddy's camcorder" style of camera work in "NYPD Blue", I could have stood it a LOT better.

Columbo!

TankDonovan

prime suspect,with helen mirren was really good,tho more of a series of mini series kind of thing.cant say that i cared much for any of bochco's(probably misspelled) output.i much preferred homicide at least the early stuff with daniel baldwin and melissia leo.the later stuff veered into formula imho

Nick Turturro is only the worst actor of all-time. His stinko sister on The Sopranos is in the running for worst actress. Nothing like coasting on brother John's coattails.

Car 54
The Highway Patrolman
Racket Squad
Crime Story (a pre-makeup Dennis Farina)

Mod Squad, Andy Griffeth, Hunter, Oh yes Kojak. CC

Broadcast TV.

Homicide by a land slide. Set new trends in all areas.

NYC-Kojak
LA-Dragnet. Original and remake which never made it.

Cable
HBO

The Wire- This to me is obviously the best of all time. What a great show.
Very realistic and down to earth.
As Homicide it's done about Baltimore.

Another vote for Homicide.

Anybody remember "Boomtown?" It was only on for one season a few years back. Was set in LA. Very unique premise. It told each crime story from different viewpoints--the cop's, the DA's, the victim's, even the perp's. A few episodes were presented in reverse chronological order. You really had to watch closely to get what was going on. Maybe that's why it only lasted one season, but it had a great ensemble cast, good acting, and intelligent writing. I thought it was a really first-rate cop show.

http://www.antoniogenna.net/doppiagg...m/boomtown.jpg

Um, no, actually. Without Hiil Street Blues, NYPD Blue wouldn't have existed. Hill Street really was the first to bring a human touch to the cop show genre. Not everything got wrapped up in an hour. Not every cop was a perfect robot always catching bad guys. Personal lives intertwined, and sometimes interfered, with the job. It wasn't neat, it wasn't perfect, but it was real.

I would agree. The show had a cleverness that shows from the 80's on lacked. And it was not regimented. Barney Miller, and the Rockford Files have always been favorites. I never watch regular TV anymore. It's just like Radio, awful.