Greatest cop shows

[SpeedTchr]

I appreciate that they went with some offbeat choices like Sledge Hammer! and Police Squad!, as well as some old shows like Naked City and Columbo. For the most part, it wasn't a, "Ooh, look at me and the awesome shows I've seen that you never have" type of list.
But, again, no Dragnet?
Not just too low, but omitted altogether?
How does that happen? That's an iconic show that should've been in the Top 5. It's like making a list of greatest sci-fi movies and forgetting to put Star Wars and Star Trek on there.
Adam-12 is also a glaring omission. Between Dragnet, Adam-12 and Emergency!, Jack Webb helped inspire an entire generation of kids to become cops and firefighters.

I just assumed Adam-12 was on there and I missed it. Nope. As Batman points out, that's an unforgivable omission.

 

[Batman]

Emergency! was my favorite show as a kid. Nothing better than watching that and CHiPs back to back.

Same here. I had a couple of versions of the Station 51 Matchbox set that I'd play with constantly, and even a Station 51 fire helmet. Not sure where it came from, since I was born in 1976 and the show was off the air and in reruns by the time I got old enough to watch it, but I loved those things.

 

[Vombatus]

And Julie London. I always wanted that zipper to fail.

Hmm. She may be the cause of my nurses in uniform fetish.

 

[Bradley Guire]

Maybe Dragnet was punished for this:

 

[Riptide]

 

[justgladtobehere]

I will always remember Dragnet: The Movie for this line:

 

[outofplace]

I had forgotten how much I liked The Unusuals until I saw the list. Was also glad to see Happy Valley make it. That's a really good show.

Having SVU ahead of flagship L&O is a joke. Anybody remember the episode with the monkey in the basketball? What did that even have to do with sex crimes?

I don't even remember hearing about The Unusuals, which surprised me. Judging by the write-up and the cast, I think I would have liked it.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

The list is fail.

No Cop Rock.

 

[Batman]

Nearly 50 years later, this is still one of the greatest back-and-forth debates about the war on drugs I've ever seen.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I always love how he introduces her as a virgin to his mother in the restaurant.

 

[Starman]

Coming back from a day at college and not having cable I watched H50 a lot (since the alternatives were soaps, shopping networks and religious programming) - I was surprised how dark some of them were.

Five-O hit the skids badly in its last several seasons. The scripts got much more pedestrian and cliched. Supposedly the budgets were cut too and the shows started to look cheesy. Also H5O had been overtaken by rival shows and was no longer cutting-edge as it had been in its early seasons.

All that said, early-season H5O was awesome. The pilot episode with McGarrett being plunged by Wo Fat into the sensory deprivation tank was skin-crawling.

 

[Spartan Squad]

The lack of Dragnet is disturbing. And that's just the facts, ma'am. Also, SVU is getting crapped on pretty hard here. I'll concede that the original is better and should have been higher, but it isn't a bad show.

I also take issue with the lack of COPS. I know it's not a scripted TV show, but the amount of awesomeness and train wrecks aired can't be done by any other scripted show.

 

[heyabbott]

Kojak? Baretta?

 

[Buck]

Love this show and am now trying to get my hands on the Swedish series which friends say is even better. Unfortunately, it has been removed from Canadian Netflix.

More evidence of mounting Swedish-Canadian hostilities.
That's alarming.

 

[da man]

More evidence of mounting Swedish-Canadian hostilities.
That's alarming.

Blame Canada.

 

[HC]

More evidence of mounting Swedish-Canadian hostilities.
That's alarming.

Nah ... we're cool with the Swedes. We employ their hockey players and they sent us "Bron" (the original of "The Bridge"). We're all good.

 

[Starman]

A lot of Hawaii Five-O's decline, IMO, came from no other reason than Jack Lord's aging, mellowing and losing his edge.

He wasn't a spring chicken (47) when the show began, and after the show had been on the air six or eight seasons, more and more he seemed to just be going through the motions.

Really there's no huge mystery to it; almost all shows that last more than five years have two or three peak seasons when they were really on their game, and after that is a gradual decline.

 

[Bradley Guire]

Is The Equalizer a cop show? He was more of a PI like Magnum, right?

 

[YorksArcades]

For the most part, it wasn't a, "Ooh, look at me and the awesome shows I've seen that you never have" type of list.

That's what this place (and this thread) are for.

 

[Just the facts ma am]

Well you know.