Where To Watch
7 forgotten, gritty cop shows of the 1960s
Where else could you find a boxing champion undercover and Spock in leather?
For the most part, 1960s television is not known for its realism. There is nothing wrong with that. Who needs realism when you have the giddy surrealism of Batman, The Monkees, Gilligan's Island, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Bewitched, The Munsters, etc.?
But one corner of network television grew grittier in the 1960s. That would be the ones involving law enforcement. In the 1950s, most TV characters wearing badges operated in the Wild West.
With the social changes of the Sixties, the action shifted to modern times, as tough urban cops became the norm in crime shows. Many of these series became lasting franchises — Dragnet, Adam-12, Hawaii Five-O, etc.
There were some, however, that failed to click with audiences, despite their quality and killer casts. Let's take a look.
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1. 87th Precint
Ed McBain belongs on the Mount Rushmore of police fiction. For half a century, the author (real name: Salvatore Albert Lombino) pumped out books in his 87th Precinct series at an astounding rate, more than one per year, from 1956 to 2005. By 1963, his 97th Precint works were already being adapted by legendary filmmakers, like Akira Kurosawa, who turned King's Ransom into High and Low. Before that, the best-sellers were spawning TV series, like this tough procedural set in the fiction metropolis of Isola. Norman Fell (future Mr. Roper) was in the cast, as well as the chiseled Robert Lansing, seen here. Would you mess with a brow like that?
Image: The Everett Collection
2. Lock Up
If you ever wondered what Leonard Nimoy might have looked like as the Fonz, track down this overlooked 1959-61 series. Sadly, hunting down episodes can be harder than cracking a 60-year-old cold case. The future Spock star turns up in denim and leather as a gang tough in "The Case of Frank Crotty," a.k.a. "Morality and the Shield." The casting agent on this show was knocking it out of the park, as the syndicated show also featured Mary Tyler Moore, Angie Dickinson, Gavin MacLeod, Ted Knight, Buddy Ebsen and more.
3. Miami Undercover
Few men have ever thrown a punch as well as Rocky Graziano. The boxing legend slugged his way to the title of world middleweight champion in the 1940s. After retiring from the sport, he transitioned to television, initially comedy, believe it or not. He partnered with "Take my wife — please" comedian Henny Youngman for The Henny and Rocky Show. Later, he turned into an action hero for this Flordia-set crime series. He played the strongman alongside P.I. Jeff Thompson (Lee Bowman). Pity the stuntman who might have accidentally caught one of his fists.
Image: The Everett Collection
4. The Asphalt Jungle
The 1949 novel The Asphalt Jungle inspired the 1950 film The Asphalt Jungle… and this television series 11 years later. That being said, the small-screen version had little in common with the source material aside from its gritty noir tone. Jack Warden (12 Angry Men, Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait) starred. After the show bombed — Candid Camera clobbered it in the ratings — the studio edited the pilot episode, "The Lady and the Lawyer," into a feature film, released in 1961 as The Lawbreakers.
Image: The Everett Collection
5. The New Breed
Leslie Nielsen's eventual evolution into a slapstick comedy star could not have come as more of a shock to 1950s and 1960s television viewers. The actor was best known for playing stern crimefighters, first on The Untouchables and later on this overlooked Quinn Martin. Martin would later create The Fugitive, The F.B.I., The Invaders, The Streets of San Francisco, Cannon and Barnaby Jones. Leslie Nielsen became the live-action Mr. Magoo.
Image: The Everett Collection
6. Arrest and Trial
Sorry, Dick Wolf, this show was Law & Order decades before Law & Order. Each episode split its crime story in half, first focusing on the police procedural before shifting the setting to the courtroom. Ben Gazzara (right) led the police part, while former Rifleman Chuck Connors put the crooks behind bars as criminal attorney John Egan. Despite four Emmy nominations, Arrest and Trial lasted just one season.
Image: The Everett Collection
7. N.Y.P.D.
Jack Warden clipped on a different badge for this 1967 police drama, which attempted to bring the real-world happenings of New York City policing — and cutting-edge urban social issues — to the smalls screen. Again, give a tip of the cap to the casting director, who booked future icons such as Al Pacino, Harvey Keitel and James Earl Jones.
Image: The Everett Collection
SEE MORE: 11 forgotten cop shows of the 1970s
Police were everywhere on TV, ranging from steely to silly. READ MORE
26 Comments
Lock Up is on DVD from a couple of sources. Alpha Video has a few single discs, each with about four episodes, but a better bet would be the 150 hours of detective shows box set from Millcreek, which would not only give you Lock Up, but also the only episode of Miami Undercover in circulation and quite a few other forgotten '50s and '60s crime series.
Among actually many others only forgotten because they are never fairly shown amongst the over shown and not really viewed because of it Over-Shown same ones! That's what all these stations need is the variety as I even can't stand what were favorites of mine after being shown more then one cycle!
I have actually stopped watching until they do show the many great different shows for the proper Variety of it! As they keep trying to milk the same batch since they started for a fact! They actually make you hate what you liked by the continuous airing of the same shows just rescheduled etc!
I remember shows that I Haven't seen since the 1960's Early 70's that deserve to be aired very well so showing in just weeks and months the same episodes every year is not doing a real viewer any good unless they have the memory of only a few months but they all need an injection of major variety! after all they have these show's in their libraries of film and can do that start showing the variety!
You misspelled it.
#5. "...and later on this overlooked Quinn Martin." Who overlooked Quinn Martin? The word series is left out.
Failing that, there should be a few episodes on YouTube.
On ARREST AND TRIAL, Chuck Connors was a defense attorney; he was trying to get the guys that Ben Gazzara was arresting acquitted.
I know this because I've got the series on DVD.
This dichotomy was probably why ARREST AND TRIAL was short-lived (that, and being on against BONANZA …)
