# In the Heat of the Night (1988)

> A white police chief and a Black detective from the north team up to solve crimes in a small southern town riven by racial tension.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/814

## Facts

- Seasons: 8
- Episodes: 146
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: James Lee Barrett
- Network: NBC, CBS
- Cast: Carroll O'Connor, Howard Rollins, Alan Autry, Anne-Marie Johnson, Lois Nettleton, David Hart, Geoffrey Thorne, Hugh O'Connor
- TMDB rating: 7.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094484/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: earnest, gritty, warm, tense

## What critics say

Viewers broadly rate the series positively, praising its lead performances and its layered handling of race and policing in a small Southern town, while noting that it softened into a more conventional cop show over time.

## Synopsis

In the Heat of the Night (1988-1995) is an American network police procedural created by James Lee Barrett for NBC and later CBS, based on the film and novel of the same name. Carroll O'Connor plays stubborn white police chief Bill Gillespie, who reluctantly works alongside Howard Rollins as Virgil Tibbs, a sharp Black homicide detective from the North. Their uneasy partnership is the engine of the show: Gillespie must hold his small town together while Tibbs fights skepticism and prejudice in every interview and arrest. Alan Autry as Bubba Skinner and Anne-Marie Johnson as Althea Tibbs round out the cast of officers and family. Across eight seasons and roughly 146 hour-long episodes, the series mostly moves through standalone cases of the week, with the racial friction gradually easing into respect and friendship. The tone is earnest and grounded, with a warm, steady atmosphere of a close community under strain. Set in a fictional southern town during the civil rights era aftermath, the show carries the feel of a character-driven network crime drama. Fans of Hill Street Blues and the original film will find resonance here.

## Shows like In the Heat of the Night

- [Adam-12 (1968)](https://ember.film/tv/4436)
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- [The Mod Squad (1968)](https://ember.film/tv/3806)
- [Hardcastle and McCormick (1983)](https://ember.film/tv/1192)
- [The Streets of San Francisco (1972)](https://ember.film/tv/2342)
- [A Touch of Frost (1992)](https://ember.film/tv/2348)
- [Starsky & Hutch (1975)](https://ember.film/tv/1444)
- [Due South (1994)](https://ember.film/tv/1439)
- [Spenser: For Hire (1985)](https://ember.film/tv/935)
- [Simon & Simon (1981)](https://ember.film/tv/1993)

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