The cases and adventures of the police forces in and around Sparta, Mississippi.The cases and adventures of the police forces in and around Sparta, Mississippi.The cases and adventures of the police forces in and around Sparta, Mississippi.
- Won 1 Primetime Emmy
- 4 wins & 11 nominations total
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe season 7 episode "Every Man's Family" was meant as the pilot for a proposed spinoff for the character of Bubba Skinner. The network did not have any available slots at the time it was first broadcast and In the Heat of the Night ended soon after, so the spinoff never materialized. It would have been set in Atlanta.
- GoofsIn the final season, all of the major long time characters are now senior police officers holding the ranks of Sergeant through Captain. In most every police department, these are "desk jobs" which hardly ever leave the police station, yet in order to keep the action with the main characters, the show has these senior police officials performing routine tasks such as street patrol and first responding to crimes.
- Quotes
Virgil Tibbs: I want to like you people; and I want you people to like me. But there can't be liking without respect, and until there is that respect you will call me MISTER TIBBS!
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 41st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1989)
- SoundtracksIn the Heat of the Night
Music by Quincy Jones
Lyrics by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman
Arranged by Christopher Page (as Chris Page)
Performed by Bill Champlin
Featured review
Taking Residence
21 years after Rod Steiger won an Academy Award as gum chewing police chief Bill Gillespie of Sparta Mississippi and Sidney Poitier told the world that in his city, THEY CALL ME MISTER TIBBS, the film was adapted into a successful television series about the new American South.
If you remember in the film Rod Steiger has the murder of a rich northern industrialist on his hands and reluctantly uses the expertise of visiting homicide detective Sidney Poitier to solve the murder. Now years later, Virgil Tibbs formerly of the Philadelphia PD Homicide Squad and now played by Howard E. Rollins, Jr. has responded to an offer from Chief Gillespie. Gillespie is now Carroll O'Connor and has made a place for Tibbs on the Sparta, PD as a newly made detective. Rollins IS the Detective Division of the Sparta, PD.
Because this show clicked so well these characters were fully developed over the seven year run of the series. We got to know everybody in the small town of Sparta, Mississippi and even the most minute characters were three dimensional, the writing on this show was so good. O'Connor alluded to his racist past and we saw a man in Chief Gillespie who was a work in progress. In the end he fell in love with black city council member Denise Nicholas.
Rollins had to adjust too, things don't quite work the same way in Sparta, Mississippi as they do in Philadelphia. And I'm not speaking necessarily of racial attitudes. Alan Autry played Bubba Skinner and he was something of a protégé of O'Connor's and he thought he ought to have been the detective. He was not a stupid guy either by any means. He and Rollins gradually developed a working relationship over the course of the show.
Gunsmoke was the first show to put the main characters within the context of the town they lived in. Beyond James Arness and the other principal cast members, Dodge City had a nice group of recurring regular citizens. That was nothing though like Sparta, Mississippi. Watching In The Heat Of The Night was like taking residence in that town for an hour each week.
In The Heat Of The Night was television series at its best, sad that it came to an end because of the health and other problems of its two lead cast members. It could still be running today.
If you remember in the film Rod Steiger has the murder of a rich northern industrialist on his hands and reluctantly uses the expertise of visiting homicide detective Sidney Poitier to solve the murder. Now years later, Virgil Tibbs formerly of the Philadelphia PD Homicide Squad and now played by Howard E. Rollins, Jr. has responded to an offer from Chief Gillespie. Gillespie is now Carroll O'Connor and has made a place for Tibbs on the Sparta, PD as a newly made detective. Rollins IS the Detective Division of the Sparta, PD.
Because this show clicked so well these characters were fully developed over the seven year run of the series. We got to know everybody in the small town of Sparta, Mississippi and even the most minute characters were three dimensional, the writing on this show was so good. O'Connor alluded to his racist past and we saw a man in Chief Gillespie who was a work in progress. In the end he fell in love with black city council member Denise Nicholas.
Rollins had to adjust too, things don't quite work the same way in Sparta, Mississippi as they do in Philadelphia. And I'm not speaking necessarily of racial attitudes. Alan Autry played Bubba Skinner and he was something of a protégé of O'Connor's and he thought he ought to have been the detective. He was not a stupid guy either by any means. He and Rollins gradually developed a working relationship over the course of the show.
Gunsmoke was the first show to put the main characters within the context of the town they lived in. Beyond James Arness and the other principal cast members, Dodge City had a nice group of recurring regular citizens. That was nothing though like Sparta, Mississippi. Watching In The Heat Of The Night was like taking residence in that town for an hour each week.
In The Heat Of The Night was television series at its best, sad that it came to an end because of the health and other problems of its two lead cast members. It could still be running today.
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- bkoganbing
- Oct 11, 2008
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By what name was In the Heat of the Night (1988) officially released in India in English?
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