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Post by PreachCaleb on Apr 27, 2017 19:31:54 GMT
Almost every decade has a wave of shows from a particular genre that catch fire. Detective shows were it for the 70s.
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Post by Salzmank on Apr 27, 2017 22:32:50 GMT
I wonder if this question is perhaps connected to the larger revival of crime fiction as a whole in the '70s. I know for a fact, for instance, that the puzzle plot (a sub-genre [or maybe not a genre per se at all but rather a mode of writing] in which I'm interested) had a revival in the '70s. I wrote something about this subject to telegonus on a different forum: Now, I would count some of these '70s detective/cop shows (e.g., Columbo, Ellery Queen) as examples of puzzle plots, and some ( Hawaii Five-O, Adam-12) as pure police procedurals, and most to straddle the middle in that general "mystery" area. But, either way, I wonder if my musing above is connected to the rise of so many detective programs. |
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Post by camimac on Apr 28, 2017 2:25:25 GMT
Movies with detectives and cops like, Dirty Harry, The French Connection and Shaft just to name a few were big box office during the '70s. I think television followed that lead, and since success breeds success, the number of those shows increased.
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Post by geezer on Apr 28, 2017 4:14:06 GMT
So many of those shows were identical. The success was all built upon the charisma of the lead actor and his character. Other than that, the plots were all the same and no one can really distinguish an individual episode. I really don't like the current "procedural" crime shows, (multiple CIS and Law and Order), many of those shows' characters have NO charisma or drawing power for me.
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Post by telegonus on Apr 28, 2017 7:22:45 GMT
I agree, Geezer. Those Seventies cop and private eye series for the most part didn't do it for me. Also, the color was bad, the lighting too bright; they featured too many scenes of people getting in and out of cars or driving-racing them around cities and highways. The issues, such as they can be called, were same old, same old, often with drugs a major theme. In other words, not much in the way or originality, ambiance, style, in other words; or characterization, and more specifically, character development. Also, they tended to use the same guest stars as villain-victims-clients. Cookie cutter stuff.
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Post by Richard Kimble on Apr 29, 2017 10:52:28 GMT
The Universal factory made something of an industry in the '70s out of cop shows with popular male stars: Columbo, McCloud, McMillan, Banacek, Rockford, Baretta, Quincy... Some of them were not always completely cooperative on the set, leading Jack Klugman to wisecrack: "I'm not difficult, I'm just taking Peter Falk lessons from Robert Blake!".
Blake was in fact considered one of the most difficult actors in TV at the time, along with George Peppard and Jack Lord of the non-Universal Hawaii Five-0.
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Post by geezer on Apr 30, 2017 11:39:29 GMT
Robert Blake....wow, that guy deserves his own thread. He was truly a nut!
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2017 3:33:34 GMT
I think there were so many detective-cop TV shows in the 70's partially because of nostalgia for the detective-cop radio shows of the 30's, 40's and 50's.
All the kids an young adults that listened to:
Boston Blackie,
Sam Spade,
Johnny Dollar,
Broadway is my Beat,
Let George do it,
Richard Diamond,
Dragnet,
and so many more shows were the adults watching TV in the 70's. The genre wasn't new, it was just that the 70's was the time for it's revival.
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Post by vrkalak on May 9, 2017 17:07:21 GMT
Rockford Files was very good.
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Post by telegonus on May 9, 2017 23:29:13 GMT
The Universal factory made something of an industry in the '70s out of cop shows with popular male stars: Columbo, McCloud, McMillan, Banacek, Rockford, Baretta, Quincy... Some of them were not always completely cooperative on the set, leading Jack Klugman to wisecrack: "I'm not difficult, I'm just taking Peter Falk lessons from Robert Blake!". Blake was in fact considered one of the most difficult actors in TV at the time, along with George Peppard and Jack Lord of the non-Universal Hawaii Five-0. Truly, it seemed that Uni ruled where detective shows were concerned in the Seventies, but wasn't Quinn Martin up there as well?
I know about Peppard, and Blake was legendary, but I've read some good things about Jack Lord (loyal, decent, honest), but yes, apparently a piece of work on the set. The guy was a good businessman, owned a piece of the show, retired wealthier than most TV stars when H50 went off the air.
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Post by Richard Kimble on May 10, 2017 9:26:49 GMT
The Universal factory made something of an industry in the '70s out of cop shows with popular male stars: Columbo, McCloud, McMillan, Banacek, Rockford, Baretta, Quincy... Can't believe I forgot Kojak. Ol' Telly wasn't always the most cooperative actor himself. The Universal factory made something of an industry in the '70s out of cop shows with popular male stars: Columbo, McCloud, McMillan, Banacek, Rockford, Baretta, Quincy... Some of them were not always completely cooperative on the set, leading Jack Klugman to wisecrack: "I'm not difficult, I'm just taking Peter Falk lessons from Robert Blake!". Blake was in fact considered one of the most difficult actors in TV at the time, along with George Peppard and Jack Lord of the non-Universal Hawaii Five-0. Truly, it seemed that Uni ruled where detective shows were concerned in the Seventies, but wasn't Quinn Martin up there as well?
I know about Peppard, and Blake was legendary, but I've read some good things about Jack Lord (loyal, decent, honest), but yes, apparently a piece of work on the set. The guy was a good businessman, owned a piece of the show, retired wealthier than most TV stars when H50 went off the air.
Read the TV Guide cover story from '71. Jack wasn't nicknamed "The Lord" for nothing. Our old friend Clore actually had a run in with Lord himself as a teenager. Clore also tells of how Lord went berserk when he heard a relative came on the 5-O set to visit her son w/o Lords permission. That no good b____ Helen Hayes... It's rumored that Lord was such a pain early in 5-O's run he came close to being replaced by Lloyd Bridges. There's an old Hollywood line that I first heard in this version: "Jack Lord is known for three things: his demands, his demands, and his demands". |
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Post by telegonus on May 10, 2017 14:34:15 GMT
I guess Jack Lord was that bad, Richard. Sorry to hear. Maybe it was something about the star system nature of the way those cop/detective shows were put together. As packages, I mean. They were like a throwback to the studio days, with their once (seemingly) indispensable stars. Feature films had begun moving away from that. There were blockbuster films with second tier stars, character stars or just one big one.
Who were the superstars in The French Connection or The Exorcist? A couple of Mel Brooks pictures back to back made a ton of money...starring Gene Wilder? Not to denigrate Wilder but while very good he wasn't a "money in the bank" guy. Even the hugely popular Godfather pictures began with second rank or non-star players with, in the case of the first one, ex-superstar Marlon Brando on the comeback trail.
On the small screen the shows featuring the Saturday Night Live gang, Laugh-In (early in the Seventies), such top players as Carol Burnett and, lest we forget, Flip Wilson, were dependent on their star players. Some of them could survives losses, especially of supporting players in an ensemble series, but it was dicey, soo, anyway, those shows (seemingly) dependent on just one star could be turned upside down by one star.
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Post by sweetpea on May 10, 2017 15:26:03 GMT
NBC Mystery Movie Night-for some they knew how to promo it by grouping these together. There was a similar one in the 80's then in the 90's. But then networks really expanded, so people weren't relegated to a few stations. As some noted it helped to have the right characters played by the right actors. The cop era is not really different then the medical shows era, then the law shows era. Procedurals are easy to follow. And you didn't have to watch it every week necessarily.
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