Jaywalking Through NBC’s Past

Ever since American TV network NBC announced earlier this month that it will give over its 10-11 p.m. ET/PT slot every weekday night to comedian Jay Leno, beginning in the fall, I’ve been wanting to look back at the list of programs--especially crime dramas--NBC has run during that time period over the years. It’s a pretty stellar rundown, even if I leave out non-crime/mystery shows such as ER and St. Elsewhere. Let’s imagine that Leno, whose work I consider less than consistently entertaining (I’m more of a David Letterman man myself), had been in possession of the 10 o’clock hour on NBC over the last four decades. These are just some of the series we’d have missed:

• Banyon (1971-1972), a tragically under-appreciated series starring Robert Forster as a 1930s L.A. private eye. An almost ideal role for him.
• Crime Story (1986-1988). What began as a show about a contingent of take-no-prisoners Chicago cops in the early 1960s morphed in its second season into a Las Vegas-based series that had the same stars--led by Dennis Farina, a former Chicago policeman himself--assigned to a federal crime-busting task force.
• Crossing Jordan (2001-2007), with the curvaceous Jill Hennessy as a Boston medical examiner who just cannot seem to let go of the mysteries she encounters in her day-to-day job, or those dogging her from her younger years.
• Hill Street Blues (1981-1987), the much-praised Steven Bochco ensemble series that focused on cases handled by cops in a never-identified U.S. industrial metropolis.
• Hunter (1984-1981)--definitely not my favorite cop drama of all time, but watchable for the presence of Stepfanie Kramer as the partner of Dirty Harry-wannabe Sergeant Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer).
• Joe Forrester (1975-1976), starring Lloyd Bridges as an aging plainclothes cop who voluntarily returns to uniform duty.
• L.A. Law (1986-1994), another Bochco show, this one about a fictitious and eccentric Los Angeles law firm.
• Law & Order (1990-present). Producer Dick Wolf has practically camped out in NBC’s 10 o’clock hour for many years, planting there not only the original L&O series, but also spin-off Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999-present).
• Miami Vice (1984-1989), which not only made Don Johnson a star, but created a fashion craze that had men everywhere donning rolled-sleeve sports jackets over T-shirts.
• Petrocelli (1974-1976), with Barry Newman as a young, Harvard-educated, and Italian-American attorney who gives up a profitable East Coast law practice to move with his wife to Arizona, where his city-slicker ways don’t always endear him to the locals.
• Police Story (1973-1978), an anthology series created by cop-turned-author Joseph Wambaugh. Both Joe Forrester and Police Woman were spun off from this series.
• Police Woman (1974-1978), featuring Angie Dickinson as a sexy undercover agent with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Criminal Conspiracy Unit.
• Private Eye (1987-1988). Anthony Yerkovich, who’d created Miami Vice, was responsible for this series as well. Michael Woods had the lead as a gumshoe in 1950s Los Angeles, with Josh Brolin playing his sidekick--Elvis Presley with a shotgun.
• Quincy, M.E. (1976-1983), starring former Odd Coupler Jack Klugman as a Los Angeles County medical examiner.
• Remington Steele (1982-1987). This lighthearted show made a star of Pierce Brosnan, playing a mysterious rogue who stepped into the polished shoes of a suave and supposedly fictional private eye. But Stephanie Zimbalist (the daughter of Efrem Zimbalist Jr., of 77 Sunset Strip and The F.B.I. fame) deserves considerable credit for making this series watchable, in more ways than one.
• Search (1972-1973), about a trio of highly technologized, troubleshooting secret agents in the employ of the shadowy World Securities Corporation. Starring Hugh O’Brian, Doug McClure, Tony Franciosa, and Burgess Meredith.
• Serpico (1976-1977), obviously based on the 1973 crime film of the same name, but starring David Birney instead of Al Pacino.

Frankly, I think NBC-TV is making a tremendous mistake by handing over its final prime-time hour every weeknight to Jay Leno. Who knows what fine scripted crime series we might miss seeing in the future, because he has control of that 10-11 slot?

READ MORE: “Hasn’t NBC Learned? Never Trust a Guy with the Last Name of Silverman,” by Richard Keller (TV Squad); “NBC Makes Historic Scheduling Change” (Television Obscurities).