Post by topbilled on Oct 30, 2022 1:03:32 GMT
My choices:
1. The Streets of San Francisco. One of my favorite shows of all time. The on location filming is excellent. The interplay between Karl Malden & young Michael Douglas is so engaging it often overshadows the well-structured plots.
2. Kojak. Telly Savalas is brilliant as the lead, and the guys who play the supporting characters at the station are also quite good. The guest stars are always superb, and I love the New York City atmosphere. I'm very analytical so when I watch episodes of shows I usually try to pick them apart and find out where they don't hold up. But Kojak is so flawless that I seldom find anything wrong with it.
3. Hawaii Five O. The Jack Lord version. I strongly dislike the reboot. James MacArthur is such a great sidekick. The villains are always well written, so we get more than just cardboard bad guys. Routine plots have extra added touches.
4. Hunter. A remarkable depiction of urban decay in Los Angeles during the 80s and early 90s. Some of the stories were quite daring for that time, and still are when viewed today. Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer had a special chemistry. Charles Hallahan was perfect as the gruff but still likable captain.
5. Cagney & Lacey. Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless are superb. We get a sense of the characters as working professionals who struggle to balance a demanding job with family problems at home. Plus their point of view as women crime solvers just gives the whole thing an edge over most other series in this genre.
6. The Fugitive. It feels a bit dated, but it's stylish. And David Janssen is excellent. I find the episodes hit or miss. Some feel like filler, until Barry Morse turns up again (he's not in every episode). But the ones that are good are very good indeed. It's a show that should not have transitioned to color. It works best in black-and-white.
7. Vera. My favorite British crime show. Brenda Blethyn is a revelation. She gives us a fully realized character. Her Vera Stanhope seems more realistic than most other TV detectives. Some of the plots are predictable, even when the writers are trying to be clever. But I can look past that because of Blethyn.
8. Cannon. William Conrad gives tough guy a whole new meaning. Cannon is different than other investigators. There's something charming yet intimidating about him. Conrad also did fine in his later series Jake and the Fatman, though that program didn't always benefit from such good writing, like this show does.
9. The Rockford Files. Propelled by James Garner's iconic turn as Rockford. The writing is consistently good. The dialogue is idiosyncratic even if the situations are sometimes cliched. Garner's work with Noah Beery is unmatched in terms of father-son acts on TV.
10. Columbo. What would this show be without Peter Falk? A star turn for him. The plots are fairly simple, but it's the whole cat-and-mouse game he plays with the culprits that makes it so entertaining. My only gripe about the show is that the killers are supposed to be so smart yet they all underestimate Columbo. Just once I wish there had been someone who saw through Columbo but let him catch them anyway because of a guilty conscience.
Special mention: The Sherlock Holmes series made in Britain during the 1980s and 1990s with Jeremy Brett as the famed detective. Exquisitely produced and Brett's performances cannot be improved.
1. The Streets of San Francisco. One of my favorite shows of all time. The on location filming is excellent. The interplay between Karl Malden & young Michael Douglas is so engaging it often overshadows the well-structured plots.
2. Kojak. Telly Savalas is brilliant as the lead, and the guys who play the supporting characters at the station are also quite good. The guest stars are always superb, and I love the New York City atmosphere. I'm very analytical so when I watch episodes of shows I usually try to pick them apart and find out where they don't hold up. But Kojak is so flawless that I seldom find anything wrong with it.
3. Hawaii Five O. The Jack Lord version. I strongly dislike the reboot. James MacArthur is such a great sidekick. The villains are always well written, so we get more than just cardboard bad guys. Routine plots have extra added touches.
4. Hunter. A remarkable depiction of urban decay in Los Angeles during the 80s and early 90s. Some of the stories were quite daring for that time, and still are when viewed today. Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer had a special chemistry. Charles Hallahan was perfect as the gruff but still likable captain.
5. Cagney & Lacey. Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless are superb. We get a sense of the characters as working professionals who struggle to balance a demanding job with family problems at home. Plus their point of view as women crime solvers just gives the whole thing an edge over most other series in this genre.
6. The Fugitive. It feels a bit dated, but it's stylish. And David Janssen is excellent. I find the episodes hit or miss. Some feel like filler, until Barry Morse turns up again (he's not in every episode). But the ones that are good are very good indeed. It's a show that should not have transitioned to color. It works best in black-and-white.
7. Vera. My favorite British crime show. Brenda Blethyn is a revelation. She gives us a fully realized character. Her Vera Stanhope seems more realistic than most other TV detectives. Some of the plots are predictable, even when the writers are trying to be clever. But I can look past that because of Blethyn.
8. Cannon. William Conrad gives tough guy a whole new meaning. Cannon is different than other investigators. There's something charming yet intimidating about him. Conrad also did fine in his later series Jake and the Fatman, though that program didn't always benefit from such good writing, like this show does.
9. The Rockford Files. Propelled by James Garner's iconic turn as Rockford. The writing is consistently good. The dialogue is idiosyncratic even if the situations are sometimes cliched. Garner's work with Noah Beery is unmatched in terms of father-son acts on TV.
10. Columbo. What would this show be without Peter Falk? A star turn for him. The plots are fairly simple, but it's the whole cat-and-mouse game he plays with the culprits that makes it so entertaining. My only gripe about the show is that the killers are supposed to be so smart yet they all underestimate Columbo. Just once I wish there had been someone who saw through Columbo but let him catch them anyway because of a guilty conscience.
Special mention: The Sherlock Holmes series made in Britain during the 1980s and 1990s with Jeremy Brett as the famed detective. Exquisitely produced and Brett's performances cannot be improved.
