TV’s “In the Heat of the Night” hits 35

We mark our lives in time by the passage of time. We celebrate birthdays and anniversaries and if we should hit longevity in our experiences, it generally involves many other people acknowledging the moment in our live.

In the United States, collectively, we just passed a marker in television history. The TV police drama series “In the Heat of the Night” debuted on NBC on March 6, 1988 – 35 years ago. A racially driven story line reaching back to the novels of John Ball and the Academy Award winning 1967 film by the same name but set in the 1980s South.

When it was started production only eight episodes were ordered. While creating so few is not unusual today, then a season order was 22 episodes. It gives me the feeling that those in charge at the networks didn’t really see the staying power of such a show and the appeal it would gain from the viewers.

Those eight episodes made the show a runaway hit appealing to the residents of small and medium size towns across the country and with them they took city viewers who connected with the small town experience.

In creating the show the developers working with MGM/UA selected Carroll O’Connor as “Chief Bill Gillespie” and Howard Rollins as “Det. Virgil Tibbs” to lead an amazing ensemble of actors who brought to life the fictitious town of Sparta, Mississippi. For those of you from that state, you likely know there is a crossroads community by that name but not like the community on the screen in the series.

Casting directors and producers found an amazing mix of actors to depict the characters created for the new series – Alan Autry as “Bubba Skinner,” David Hart as “Parker Williams,” Christian Le Blanc as “Junior Abernathy” and Hugh O’Connor as “Lonnie Jamison” and Peter Gabb as “Horace Goode.”

That was the original police cast that instilled a desire for viewers to tune in every week.

As the network locked in a second season of 22 episodes and MGM/UA moved its on location filming surroundings from Hammond, Louisiana to Covington, Georgia, they also changed up the cast a bit leaving the characters of Junior Abernathy and Horace Goode. They added actor Geoffrey Thorne as “Willson Sweet.”

Covington and Georgia welcomed the show as it began it’s second season filming in August of 1988 and many new adventures. Hosting a TV series was a major economic coup for both the state and a medium size town like Covington. So, all the cast moved to their new hometown crossing their fingers for continued success of all the team to create engaging stories that viewers would connect with.

And connect they did. The show became a mainstay in the top 30 weekly shows. Alongside “Matlock” and “Midnight Caller,” NBC’s Tuesday night lineup ruled the ratings.

Audiences tuned in to see a group of actors playing small town Southerners who each week reacted to the impact of the problems and topics every community across America was dealing with at some level. How the writers, actors and directors depicted these issues, offered America options in how to overcome such issues, how everyone can get along together no matter our differences, how to live together in a community, and how to succeed against adversities.

Yes, it was generally a weekly story about a crime, murder, solving mysteries, and hopefully getting the bad guys and girls. But we watched because we wanted to see how these characters that became beloved by audiences were impacted and responded to whatever faced them.

The show went on to produce what they described as eight seasons of hour episodes and a few movies filming from 1988-1994 while airing both on NBC and eventually moving to CBS. At it’s height of foreign first run, 150 countries were watching the guys and girls of Sparta and the show was top 10 in several nations. The cast and crew garnered numerous award nominations for the Golden Globes, Emmys, and Image and others. And they took home 2 Image Awards, and American Cinema Editors Award, and Carroll O’Connor received an Emmy.

“In the Heat of the Night” stands alongside the greatest police dramas in TV history, and among the few Southern dramas ever produced for episodic television. We tend to look back nostalgically, while looking more harshly at our current time. The period of this show was not an easy one in America, it was a racially centered drama in a time when our country was dealing with several racially centered issues that were dominating news cycles.

The show from my prospective was a release valve, that allowed us to collectively look at issues, and find the reality of our communities within the stories, and the strengths we have when working together rather than being divided. I am thankful for the writers who wrote the stories, the directors that guided their creation, the actors who were the face of the American South in that period and even today.

While I was not there in the beginning, in the fall of 1988, the directors and producers created a character for a young country music artist who had an earnest desire to act, I was that young actor and “Officer Randy Goode” was born giving me five years of working with “Bubba,” “Parker,” “Lonnie” “Willson,” “Chief Gillespie” and “Det. Tibbs” and all those who eventually joined the police cast, some among them: Crystal Fox, Dee Shaw, C.C. Taylor, Mark Johnson, Harvey Lee and Barbara Lee-Belmonte, Sharon Pratt and John Webb. I created with these amazing people and lived a life in Sparta, a favorite town for so many TV viewers.

As we mark the 35^th of the beginning, all I can say is it was “Sho nuff” a grand old time and I want to thank all of you who watched, laughed and cried along with our efforts while maybe playing some checkers along with me. Those who watched will get the last bit. You can learn more by visiting www.RandallFranks.com/in-the-heat-of-the-night or check out my Encouragers book series for more photos and in-depth experiences with stars and guest stars.