15 Classic TV Detectives We Love
Police procedurals are some of the most popular shows on television today. One is hard-pressed to turn on any network, or log on to any streaming service, and not find at least one show centered around detectives and their crime-fighting exploits.
But police procedurals also aren’t a new genre of television. They’ve even older than the medium of television, beginning with the Keystone Cops of the silent film era in 1912.
More than 100 years later, though, some iconic police detectives have found their way into our living rooms and hearts. These 15 classic detectives defined the genre and became iconic characters whose names ring throughout the halls of history. Audiences can’t watch a police procedural without watching…
1. Lennie Briscoe (Law & Order)
If ever there was a classic TV detective that deserved all the accolades and flowers, it would be Det. Leonard “Lennie” Briscoe of Law & Order, played with fervent gusto by Jerry Orbach.
Originally joining the lineup in 1992 — more than 30 years ago — Briscoe was a stereotypical hardscrabble New York City Police Detective who led a life full of regrets (including a battle with alcoholism, two acrimonious divorces, and estrangement from his two daughters), but ultimately demanded justice for victims and hope for the future.
2. Richard Hunter & DeeDee McCall (Hunter)
Though mostly forgotten today, Hunter ranked as one of the most popular police procedurals of the 1980s.
Fred Dryer played Rick Hunter, a hard-scrabble Los Angeles Police Department detective whose life revolves around arresting LA’s worst of the worst. Hunter only sees the worst of life until he’s partnered with DeeDee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer), a no-nonsense female detective unafraid to go toe-to-toe with her new battle-hardened partner.
3. Jessica Fletcher (Murder, She Wrote)
Dame Angela Lansbury brought Jessica Fletcher to TV screens in the classic crime drama, Murder She Wrote.
For 12 seasons, Jessica Fletcher — a retired English teacher-turned-mystery crime writer — helped solve crimes in a sleepy coastal Maine town. And she often did it with more aplomb and calm than the actual police tasked with solving the crimes. Even now, decades later, Lansbury made Murder, She Wrote irresistible to viewers.
4. Frank Pembleton (Homicide: Life on the Street)
The late, great Andre Braugher played Homicide: Life on the Street Det. Frank Pembleton with such aplomb that he won his first Emmy for doing so.
Gritty, temperate, and dedicated to the Baltimore Police Department, Pembleton’s abrasive personality keeps him at arm’s length from the rest of the squad, but who had an unbelievable knack for solving crimes by the book.
5. Franklin Colombo (Colombo)
Peter Falk brought LAPD Det. Franklin “Frank” Colombo to the small screen. And what a character he created. At first glance, Colombo appears inept and bumbling, often showing up at crime scenes wearing a rumpled trench coat, asking inane questions, and driving a car that had seen better days.
But underneath that “everyman” demeanor lay a shrewd detective whose signature final question (“just one more thing”) snared the unsuspecting culprit.
6. Jonathan & Jennifer Hart (Hart to Hart)
The shamefully forgotten Hart to Hart starred Robert Wagner and Stephanie Powers as Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a married couple who served as detectives in their spare time.
Sure, the show required a bit of suspension of belief — why would a self-made millionaire and his journalist wife work as detectives in their free time, anyway? But the show offered plenty of fun and all but emblematic of the 1980s.
7. Joe Friday (Dragnet)
The original police procedural, Dragnet served as the template for every show from Hill Street Blues to Law & Order. And Jack Webb played Det. Joe Friday with believable LAPD vim and vigor.
Friday’s film-noir narration and his unconventional (and totally unacceptable by today’s standards) approach to crime-solving arguably made him the most influential police detective in television history.
8. Theodopolis “Theo” Kojak (Kojak)
“Who loves ya, baby?” Being a member of the NYPD is fine, but being a member of the NYPD with an immeasurable amount of “swag” before the word was even invented makes a character legendary.
With his chrome dome, a perpetual Tootsie Pop in his mouth, and an omnipresent velour fedora, the late Telly Savalas turned his signature character into a pop culture icon while solving New York City’s toughest crimes and snagging all the “dames.”
9. Mick Belker (Hill Street Blues)
Bruce Weitz brought Det. (later, Lieutenant) Michael “Mick” Belker to life on Hill Street Blues, and fans of police procedurals are all the better for it.
On the show, the scrappy, gruff, and tough-talking Belker (known as “The Biter” by his colleagues) always nabbed his suspect despite his unconventional ways. Despite his perceived toughness, Belker had a soft spot for his family.
10. James “Sonny” Crockett & Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs (Miami Vice)
Linen suits and luxe cars abounded in Miami Vice, where Miami-Dade detectives James “Sonny” Crockett and Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs battled Miami’s drug underworld and looked like rock stars while doing it.
The show featured a second-to-none production set against a neon backdrop with a soundtrack worthy of a 1980s pop-rock concert. Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas, who played Crockett and Tubbs respectively, also earned A-list status amongst the Hollywood glitterati for their roles in this iconic show.
11. Dave Starsky & Ken “Hutch” Hutchinson (Starsky & Hutch)
If Crockett and Tubbs were the definitive buddy cops of the 1980s, Starsky and Hutch were the definitive buddy cops of the 1970s.
Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul, who played the titular characters, traipsed all over Southern California in a luxe Ford Gran Torino, solving crimes and making each other crazy along the way. But Starsky & Hutch also popularized the “buddy cop” genre that continues to this day.
12. Christine Cagney & Mary Beth Lacey (Cagney & Lacey)
TV’s first female “buddy cops” followed the formula that served their male counterparts well.
Christine Cagney (Sharon Gless) was single and reserved, while Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly) was an extroverted wife and mother. On-screen, Cagney & Lacey always got their man. Off-screen, Gless and Daly always got their flowers: Gless won two Emmys, and Daly won four for their depictions of the classic detectives.
13. Remington Steele & Laura Holt (Remington Steele)
Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist) was a for-real investigator who faced sexism in the field. Her counterpart, the con man Remington Steele (Pierce Brosnan in his breakthrough role, in which The Washington Post foretold his future as “a young James Bond“), stole her boss’s identity.
Together, they formed a partnership laced with crime-fighting, friendship, and a “will they or won’t they” relationship that made Elliott Stabler and Olivia Benson’s chemistry look bland and conservative in comparison.
14. Philip Fish (Barney Miller)
Barney Miller‘s Philip “Phil” Fish, played by Abe Vigoda, wasn’t like any other NYPD Detective. He was elderly, curmudgeonly, and always on a variety of medications for a variety of maladies.
Det. Fish was a “career cop,” who was “riding the desk” (that is, not going out on any crime-solving missions) until his retirement, which he ultimately took after serving the NYPD for nearly 40 years. But, as he proved in his eponymous spin-off show, Fish had a heart, taking in foster children after his retirement so he and them had a purpose in life.
15. Vic Mackey (The Shield)
Unlike the other classic detectives on the list, LAPD Detective Vic Mackey of The Shield — played by Michael Chiklis — was violent, corrupt, and a vigilante whose motives weren’t always noble.
Det. Mackey had no issue planting evidence, violently beating suspects, and even committing murder throughout the show’s seasons — all of which he saw as a means to an end in his pursuit of justice. The truth is, not all cops are noble justice-seekers — and Det. Mackey reminded viewers of this cold, hard fact.