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Best TV Cop / Police Shows
Taggart (UK, 1983-present) - Taggart is a long-running Scottish detective television programme, created by
Glenn Chandler (who has written many of the episodes), and made by SMG Productions (STV) for the ITV
network. Taggart is a Glaswegian detective television programme, originally set and filmed in the area of Maryhill
police station in Glasgow, Scotland, but is internationally famous and is now translated into many languages
including Dutch, French and Japanese. The series revolves around a group of detectives in the Maryhill CID of
Strathclyde Police. It is the world's longest continually running police drama, although "Woodentop", the one-off
drama that later served as a the pilot for another ITV police drama, The Bill, aired one month before the first
episode of Taggart.  
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The Commish (USA, 1991-1995) - The Commish was a television series that aired on ABC in the United
States from 1991 to 1995. It also screened on KTN (Kenya Television Network) in Kenya, Nelonen in Finland,
NRK in Norway and the Nine Network in Australia, TV3 in Spain. It is still broadcasted on SBS Net in Denmark
and La7 in Italy.  The series starred Michael Chiklis as Tony Scali, a police commissioner in a small Upstate New
York town who worked through problems with humor and creativity more often than with violence or force.  
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The Thin Blue Line (comedy) (UK, 1995-1996) - The Thin Blue Line was set in the police station of the
fictional town of Gasforth. One of the main themes was the rivalry between the uniformed squad led by Inspector
Fowler (a sort of protagonist figure) and the CID led by Detective Inspector Grim (often Fowler's antagonist,
though they were on the same side of the law). DI Grim provided much of the humour through his mis-use of the
English language. Episodes frequently saw the uniformed branch and CID locking horns over similar, or in some
cases the same, issues while having conflicting views or methods of operation. Generally the uniformed section
triumphed over the Detectives, although not without their own foibles.  
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Third Watch (USA, 1999-2005) - Third Watch was an NBC television drama set in New York City that ran
from September 23, 1999 to May 6, 2005. It followed the exploits of a group of police officers, firefighters, and
paramedics in the fictional 55th Precinct and Fire Station 55 whose shifts fell between 3 p.m. and 11 p.m, the
"third watch." The precinct and fire station were located on the corner of King St. and Arthur St.; hence the
nickname "Camelot." Exterior shots of the 55th Precinct and the Firehouse were filmed in Long Island City,
Queens. Third Watch succeeded in presenting all three branches of New York City's emergency services in the
same show, reviving a failed attempt to do so nine years prior with the similarly-themed H.E.L.P. running for only
one season in 1990.  
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T.J. Hooker (USA, 1982-1986) - T. J. Hooker is a weekly American police drama television program starring
William Shatner. The series premiered as a mid-season replacement on March 13, 1982 on ABC-TV and ran on
ABC prime time through May 4, 1985. The show starred William Shatner in the title role as the 15-year veteran
police sergeant T. J. Hooker. The supporting cast included Adrian Zmed as rookie Officer Vince Romano, Heather
Locklear as Officer Stacy Sheridan (season 2 onwards), and Richard Herd as Captain Dennis Sheridan as
personnel in the fictional "LCPD" academy precinct. At the start of the show's second season, James Darren
became a regular cast member, as Officer Jim Corrigan.  
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True Files (Singapore, 2002-2007) - True Files (Chinese: 真实档案) is an English language television docu-
drama telecast on MediaCorp TV Channel 5, with each episode re-enacting some major cases of crime in
Singapore. When the inaugural season was telecast in 2002, its first episode was re-slotted to be telecast last,
when numerous public feedback was received by the station complaining that it was too graphic after watching
trailers for the pilot episode. The show was also pushed back to a 10 p.m. time slot from the second episode
onwards as a result. Nonetheless, the hype helped the show to enjoy favourable viewership ratings, and so far, five
seasons of this programme have been telecast.  
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Twin Peaks (USA, 1990-1991) - Twin Peaks is a television serial drama that follows the investigation of the
brutal murder of popular, respected teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), headed by
Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan).  After its debut episode on April 8, 1990, Twin Peaks became one
of that year's top-rated shows, a critical success both nationally and internationally.  
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The Untouchables (1959 TV series) (USA, 1959-1963) - The Untouchables is the name of a television
series that ran from 1959 to 1963 on the American Broadcasting Company. Based on the memoir of the same
name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition Agent,
as he fought crime in Chicago in the 1930s with the help of a special team of agents handpicked for their courage
& incorruptibility, nicknamed the Untouchables. It was remade into a 1987 film by Brian De Palma also called
The Untouchables, with a script by David Mamet.  
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The Untouchables (1993 TV series) (USA, 1993-1994) - Broadcast in syndication for two seasons
(1993–94), the series postulated that after being irritated by a loud party hosted by Capone, the President of the
United States orders that the U.S. federal government mount an all-out campaign, led by Eliot Ness.  As in the
1987 film version of The Untouchables, Ness is depicted as an agent of the Treasury Department, though, in real
life, at the time of the Capone investigation, the Bureau of Prohibition, Ness's employer, was part of the
Department of Justice.  
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Vanished (USA, 2006) - Vanished was a short-lived American television drama series of hour-long episodes
produced by Twentieth Century Fox. It premiered on August 21, 2006 on Fox and its last episode aired on
November 10, 2006. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, the series, in serial format, starts with the sudden disappearance
of a Georgia senator's wife, which quickly appears to form part of a wider conspiracy. The family of the missing
woman, a pair of FBI agents, a journalist and her lover/cameraman, are all drawn into an evolving mystery with
political and religious undertones. The show's creator is C.S.I. writer Josh Berman, and its executive producers
are Mimi Leder (John Doe, ER), who is also the show's director, and Paul Redford.  
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Vega$ (USA, 1978-1981) - Vega$ is an American detective television drama series that aired on ABC between
1978 and 1981. It was produced by Aaron Spelling. The series, (with the exception of special episodes in Hawaii &
San Francisco) was filmed in its entirety in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is believed to be the first television series
produced entirely in Las Vegas. The show starred Robert Urich as private detective Dan Tanna, who drove around
the streets of Las Vegas in a red 1957 Ford Thunderbird[1] solving crimes and making Las Vegas a better place
for residents and tourists alike. The series was one of the first shows to air on the FX Network when it began in
1994 but has not aired in the U.S. in over a decade.  
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Veronica Mars (USA, 2004-2007) - Veronica Mars is an American television series created by Rob Thomas.   
The series premiered on September 22, 2004, during UPN's last two years, and ended on May 22, 2007, after a
season on UPN's successor, The CW Television Network.  Balancing murder mystery, high-school and college
drama, the series features social commentary with sarcasm and off-beat humor in a style often compared to film
noir.  
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Waking the Dead (UK, 2000-present) - Waking the Dead is a British television crime drama series
produced by the BBC featuring a team of CID police officers, a psychological profiler and a forensic scientist. A
pilot episode was transmitted in September 2000 and there have been a total of seven series since. Each story is
split into two hour-long episodes, shown on consecutive nights on BBC One. A third series episode won an
International Emmy Award in 2004. The programme is also shown on BBC America in the United States as well as
UKTV (Australia and New Zealand) and the Nine Network in Australia, though the BBC America showings are
edited to allow for commercials.  
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Walker, Texas Ranger (USA, 1993-2001) - Walker, Texas Ranger is an American television
western/police drama series, created by Lesie Grief and Paul Haggis. It aired on CBS with three pilot episodes
followed by eight full seasons, from April 21, 1993 to May 19, 2001, was broadcast in over 100 countries, and has
since spawned at least one made-for-television movie. It was originally conceived on August 6, 1987. DVD sets of
the first, second, third, fourth, and final seasons have been released. At various times since 1997, reruns of the
show have aired, in syndication, on the USA Network, Showcase Action, and Hallmark Channel.  
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Water Rats (Australia, 1996-2001) - Water Rats was an Australian TV police drama broadcast on the Nine
Network from 1996 to 2001. The series was based around the men and women of the Sydney Water Police who
fought crime across Sydney Harbour and surrounding locales. The show was set on and around Goat Island in
Sydney Harbour.  
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The Wire (USA, 2002-2008) - The Wire is an American television drama series set and produced in Baltimore,
Maryland. Created, produced, and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series
was broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States. The Wire premiered on June 2, 2002 and
ended on March 9, 2008, with 60 episodes airing over the course of its five seasons.  
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Wire in the Blood (UK, 2002-present) - Wire in the Blood is an ITV television series, based on characters
created by Val McDermid, which teams a university clinical psychologist, Dr. Anthony "Tony" Valentine Hill
(Robson Green), with a tough female Detective Inspector, originally Carol Jordan (Hermione Norris) but replaced
by Detective Inspector Alex Fielding (Simone Lahbib) from series four onwards.  
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Without a Trace (USA, 2002-present) - Without a Trace is an American television show set in New York
City. The show is about a fictitious full-time FBI missing persons unit. (The real FBI has no such unit; it
investigates disappearances periodically as the situation warrants.)  Each episode usually follows the search for
one individual under tight time pressure. The stories also focus on the personal lives of the team members, and
illustrate how their different experiences give them insight—and sometimes traumatic reactions—to certain
cases.  
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Women's Murder Club (USA, 2007-2008) - Women's Murder Club is an American police procedural and
legal drama, which ran on ABC from October 12, 2007, to May 13, 2008. The series is set in San Francisco,
California and is based on the 'Women's Murder Club' series of novels written by James Patterson. Series
creators Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain also served as executive producers alongside Patterson, Joe Simpson,
Brett Ratner and R. Scott Gemmill. The latter also served as showrunner, with Gretchen Berg and Aaron
Harberts co-executive producing. The pilot was directed by Scott Winant.  
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Wycliffe (UK, 1994-1998) - Wycliffe is a British TV series, based on W. J. Burley's novels about Detective
Superintendent Charles Wycliffe. It was produced by HTV and broadcast on the ITV Network between 1993 and
1998. The series was filmed in Cornwall, with a production office in Truro. Music for the series was composed by
Nigel Hess, and was awarded the Royal Television Society award for the best television theme. Wycliffe is played
by Jack Shepherd, assisted by DS Doug Kersey (Jimmy Yuill) and DI Lucy Lane (Helen Masters).  Each episode
deals with a murder investigation. In the early series, the stories are adapted from Burley's books and are in
classic whodunit style, often with quirky characters and plot elements. In later seasons the tone becomes more
naturalistic and there is more emphasis on internal politics within the police.  
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The X-Files (USA/Canada, 1993-2002) - The X-Files is a Peabody, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning
American science fiction television series created by Chris Carter, which first aired on September 10, 1993, and
ended on May 19, 2002. The show was a hit for the Fox Broadcasting Company network, and its main characters
and slogans (e.g., "The Truth Is Out There", "Trust No One", "I Want to Believe") became pop culture
touchstones. The X-Files is seen as a defining series of the 1990s, coinciding with the era's widespread mistrust of
governments, interest in conspiracy theories and spirituality, and the belief in the existence of extraterrestrial
life.  
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Z Cars (UK, 1962-1978) - Z-Cars (sometimes written as Z Cars) was a British television drama series centred on
the work of beat police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool,
Lancashire in north-west of England. Produced by the BBC and screened on BBC Television (renamed BBC1 in
1964), it debuted in January, 1962 and ran for 16 years until September, 1978. Owing to an administrative quirk,
for the first few years it was produced by the BBC's documentary department rather than the drama department.  
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