MovieChat Forums > Classic TV: The 70s > Your favourite 70's TV Detectives?

Your favourite 70's TV Detectives?


They can either be Police Detectives or Private Detectives. I love the following.

Kojak
Mannix
Mike Stone
Steve Keller
Starsky
Jack Regan
Columbo
Barnaby Jones
Jim Rockford



Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .

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so I guess you weren't too crazy about Hutch either, huh?



I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!

Hewwo.

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so I guess you weren't too crazy about Hutch either, huh?

What gave it away?  Seriously though I like Hutch but Starsky will always be my favourite.


Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .

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Harry Orwell
Jim Rockford
The whole 12th Precinct squadroom (Okay, Barney Miller was a comedy, but I guess they count--they did solve some crimes, lol)
Columbo
Baretta
McCloud (I didn't greatly care for this one when it first aired, but I find the reruns a hoot)

And I'm with y'all about Starsky--David Soul was just too full of himself.

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Great choices amy. I still need to watch McCloud and Baretta.

As for Starsky he was funny and seemed like someone you would want to hang out with. Plus he was hot!

Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .

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Baretta's interesting mainly for watching Robert Blake just sort of being Robert Blake. Most of the stories are pretty standard issue 70's tv drama, but he lends a kind of 'loose cannon' note that's fun to witness.

McCloud's at it's best when it's Dennis Weaver's laconic cowboy slowly killing the great J.D. Canon (his superior on the police force). Canon's slow burns that turn into mini-strokes as he deals with Weaver's almost slow-wittedly laid back style are hilarious.

And from what I've read I think IRL Paul Michael Glaser was a rather nicer and more down-to-earth sort than Soul, which seemed to show in his performance. He definitely was the better looking of the two in my opinion .

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There was a poll (don't remember who commissioned it) that questioned police as to the most authentic cop show. Barney Miller won, because it was the show that demonstrated the job was mostly paper work. No shoot-outs, no car chases.

But throughout it all, my motto was "Dignity! Always dignity!".

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I think it still gets voted by police as one of the most realistic shows to depict the actuality of police work. And I find it doesn't really date much, even taking into account the fashions and the obvious lack of high-tech gizmology. Many of the stories are just as pertinent today; the sort of topicalities they dealt with have, in many cases, not really changed so much over the years. And the humor is timeless.

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Columbo - big daddy of them all
Starsky (& Hutch) - Yes, I liked Starsky better too. I was just a small kid & remember seeing *ALL* of their episodes during the 1st run.
Banacek - but he was only around for 1 season (I think)

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