1960s Crime TV Shows

When an assassin's bullet confines him to a wheelchair for life ending his career as Chief of Detectives, Robert T. Ironside becomes a consultant to the police department. Detective Sergeant Ed Brown and policewoman Eve Whitfield join with him to crack varied and fascinating cases. Ex-con Mark Sanger is employed by the chief as home help but eventually becomes a fully fledged member of the team also. Officer Whitfield leaves after 4 years service, and is replaced by Officer Fran Belding.

Adam-12 is a television police drama that followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12.

Mannix is an American television detective series that ran from 1967 through 1975 on CBS. Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller, the title character, Joe Mannix, is a private investigator. He is played by Mike Connors. Mannix was the last series produced by Desilu Productions.

Mission: Impossible is an American television series that was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicles the missions of a team of secret government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force. In the first season, the team is led by Dan Briggs, played by Steven Hill; Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, takes charge for the remaining seasons. A hallmark of the series shows Briggs or Phelps receiving his instructions on a recording that then self-destructs, followed by the theme music composed by Lalo Schifrin. The series aired on the CBS network from September 1966 to March 1973, then returned to television for two seasons on ABC, from 1988 to 1990, retaining only Graves in the cast. It later inspired a popular series of theatrical motion pictures starring Tom Cruise, beginning in 1996.

A continuation of the anthology series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, hosted by the master of suspense and featuring thrillers and mysteries.

A quirky spy show of the adventures of eccentrically suave British Agent John Steed and his predominantly female partners. Jonathan Steed - an urbane, proper gentleman spy - teams with various assistants throughout the series' run, including Dr. David Keel, Cathy Gale, Emma Peel and Tara King, to repeatedly save the world from diabolical schemes plotted by equally diabolical evil-doers (among them robots and man-eating monsters).

The F.B.I. is an American television series that was broadcast on ABC from 1965 to 1974. It was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, and the characters almost always drove Ford vehicles in the series. Alcoa was co-sponsor of Season One only.

Homicide was an Australian television police drama series The series dealt with the homicide squad of the Victorian Police force and the various crimes and cases the detectives are called upon to investigate. Many episodes were based on real life crime cases.

After discovering that his late father has gone through most of the family fortune, Tod Stiles hits the title trans-America highway in his Corvette in search of adventure with friend Buz Murdock, a survivor of New York's mean streets. The two work odd jobs as they meet and interact with colorful characters and find themselves plunged into one situation after another, some of them romantic, some of them very dangerous. Later, Linc Case, a Vietnam war hero trying to find himself, takes over as Tod's travel companion.

Simon Templar is The Saint, a handsome, sophisticated, debonair, modern-day Robin Hood who recovers ill-gotten wealth and redistributes it to those in need.

Aktenzeichen XY … ungelöst is a German television programme broadcast since October 1967 on ZDF that aims to combat and solve crimes. Until 2003 it was produced in co-operation with the Austrian public service broadcaster ORF and Schweizer Fernsehen, a division of the Swiss public broadcaster SRG SSR idée suisse. It was the basis for the BBC show Crimewatch, the Dutch show Opsporing Verzocht and its US equivalent America's Most Wanted.

Police Detective Sgt. Joe Friday and his partners investigate crimes in Los Angeles.

Der Kommissar is a German television series about a group of detectives of the Munich homicide squad. All 97 episodes, which were shot in black-and-white and first broadcast between 1969 and 1976, were written by Herbert Reinecker and starred Erik Ode as Kommissar Herbert Keller. Keller's assistants were Walter Grabert, Robert Heines, and Harry Klein who, in 1974, was replaced by his younger brother Erwin Klein.

Thriller is an American anthology television series that aired during the 1960–61 and 1961–62 seasons on NBC. The show featured host Boris Karloff introducing a mix of self-contained, macabre weird-horror and morbid, hitchockian crime stories, in some of which he also starred.

Arrest and Trial is a 90-minute American crime/legal drama series that ran during the 1963-1964 season on ABC, airing Sundays from 8:30-10 p.m. Eastern.

Twenty-year veteran Detective Sergeant Sam Stone is paired with rookie Briggs in a large Western metropolis.

Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort was an East German television series.

Checkmate is an American detective television series starring Anthony George, Sebastian Cabot, and Doug McClure. The show aired on CBS Television from 1960 to 1962 for a total of 70 episodes and was produced by Jack Benny's production company, "JaMco Productions" in co-operation with Revue Studios. Guest stars included Charles Laughton, Peter Lorre, and Lee Marvin, among many other commensurately prominent performers.

BBC series based on the novels by Georges Simenon which starred Rupert Davies as Inspector Maigret, a French police detective who preferred to watch and listen in order to solve crimes. The series ran from 1960-63 on British television.

87th Precinct is an American crime drama starring Robert Lansing, Gena Rowlands, and Ron Harper, which aired on NBC on Monday evenings during the 1961–1962 television season.

Softly, Softly is a British television drama series, produced by the BBC and screened on BBC 1 from January 1966. It centred around the work of regional crime squads, plain-clothes CID officers based in the fictional region of Wyvern, supposedly in the Bristol area of England.

Das Kriminalmuseum was a German television series. It ran from 1963 to 1970 on ZDF and was one of its first programs. Each episode began with a tracking shot through an unspecified crime museum, stopping at one of the displays, whose story was then told. Each episode was between 60 and 75 minutes long and featured different actors as the criminal commissioner. The best known was Erik Ode, who in 1969 moved to Der Kommissar, appearing in 97 episodes. The theme music of the series was written by German composer Martin Böttcher, who also composed the complete scores for five episodes.

Target: The Corruptors! is an American crime drama series starring Stephen McNally which aired on ABC from September 29, 1961 to June 8, 1962. The series was produced by Dick Powell's Four Star Television.

Public Eye is a British television drama broadcast from 1965 to 1975 on ITV1. Produced by ABC Television for three series, and Thames Television for a further four, the programme follows the investigations and cases handled by the unglamourous enquiry agent Frank Marker.

'Zero One' is the call sign of the International Air Security Board, an international security network dedicated to the safety of air travel all around the world, with its HQ at London Airport. Airline detective Alan Garnett is called upon to combat hijackers and smugglers, prevent disasters, and generally preserve peace in the air and at airports.

A police drama based on the fictional Melbourne suburb of Yarra Central.

The Green Hornet is a television series on the ABC US television network that aired for the 1966–1967 TV season starring Van Williams as the Green Hornet/Britt Reid and Bruce Lee as Kato.

The Rogues is an American television series that appeared on NBC from September 13, 1964, to April 18, 1965, starring David Niven, Charles Boyer, and Gig Young as a related trio of former conmen who could, for the right price, be persuaded to trick a very wealthy and heinously unscrupulous mark. Although it won the 1964 Golden Globe award for Best Television Series, the show was cancelled after one season consisting of thirty episodes.

A BBC anthology series featuring adaptations of detective stories over 45 episodes in three seasons that ran from 1964 to 1969. As with many BBC programmes made before the early 1970s, many of its episodes no longer exist. Of the eighteen episodes from the first season only twelve are currently known to exist; likewise six of the sixteen editions from the second run are considered lost, and just one of the final ten survives in the archives.

No overview available

The half-hour The Secret Squirrel Show included three individual cartoon segments: "Secret Squirrel", "Squiddly Diddly" and "Winsome Witch".

Stagecoach West is an American Western drama television series which ran for thirty-eight episodes on the ABC network from October 4, 1960, until June 27, 1961. Characters Luke Perry and Simon Kane operate the Timberland Stage Line from fictitious Outpost, Missouri to San Francisco, California. Simon's 15-year-old son, David "Davey" Kane, joins the two as they face stagecoach robbers, murderers, inclement weather, and human interest stories. Perry and Kane, who are both deputy U.S. marshals, had been on opposite sides of the American Civil War; Kane, a captain in the Union Army, while Perry had fought for the Confederate States of America. The one-hour black-and-white program was offered at 9 p.m. Eastern on Tuesdays opposite NBC's Thriller, hosted by Boris Karloff, and CBS's The Red Skelton Show. Rogers became well-known a dozen years later on M*A*S*H, and Bray later portrayed the forest ranger Corey Stuart on Lassie from 1964–1969, both on CBS. Child actor Richard Eyer had starred in a number of films in the 1950s, including Friendly Persuasion and Desperate Hours. Stagecoach West was produced by Dick Powell's Four Star Television. It is believed that the series was cancelled despite the high quality of its production because of the glut of westerns on television at the time that it aired. The same fate had fallen on CBS's Johnny Ringo, a 1959 one-season spin-off of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater.

The Scales of Justice is a series of thirteen British cinema featurettes produced from 1962 to 1967 for Anglo-Amalgamated at Merton Park Studios in London. The first nine were made in black and white, and the last four in colour. The finale, Payment in Kind, was Merton Park's final production. Episodes were based on criminal cases, and each film was introduced by criminologist Edgar Lustgarten. The series derives its title from the symbolic scales held by the statue of Justice, situated above the dome of London's Central Criminal Court, The Old Bailey. The opening narration describes her as having "in her right hand, the Sword of Power and Retribution, and in her left – The Scales of Justice".

The concept of the series was the showing of unaired and unsold television pilots that did not make the television lineup for CBS. The show was successful during its first few seasons due to the fact that the show's concept, airing unsold and unaired television pilots, was a popular concept in the 1960s. But during its last two seasons on the air, the series did find some trouble due to the fact that the series were running out of pilots to air and, in their 4th season, they began airing repeats from the three seasons prior. During its 1966 summer run, the series aired eights new pilots and two repeats and during its last year airing five new pilots and four repeats.

The Man in Room 17 is a British television series which ran for two seasons in the mid-1960s, produced by the Northern ITV franchise, Granada Television. Key to the series' success was the involvement of writer/producer Robin Chapman. The show was set in Room 17 of the Department of Social Research, where former wartime agent-turned-criminologist Edwin Oldenshaw solved difficult police cases through theory and discussions with his assistants. The novelty of the series was that Oldenshaw and his colleagues never needed to leave their office in order to resolve cases, preferring to spend their time playing the Japanese board game of Go. They simply provided their prognosis and left the police to do the cleaning up. Different directors were often appointed to film the Room 17 and outside-world scenes independently, to maintain a sense of distance between the two worlds.

Softly, Softly: Task Force is a police based drama series which ran on BBC 1 from 1969 to 1976. It was a revamp of Softly, Softly, itself a spin-off from Z-Cars. The change was made partly to coincide with the coming of colour broadcasting to the BBC's main channel BBC1. The programme was due to be called simply Task Force, but reluctant to sacrifice a much-loved brand the BBC compromised this so it became Softly, Softly: Task Force.

Johnny Midnight is an American crime drama that aired for one season in syndicated from January to December 1960. The series stars Edmond O'Brien as the title character.

Orlando is a British young adult detective thriller series transmitted for four series between 1965–1968. Produced by Associated-Rediffusion for ITV, it stars Sam Kydd in the title role, which he reprises from the adult television series Crane. Orlando O'Connor is an ex-Foreign Legionnaire who has picked up a magic talisman, the 'Gizzmo'. Following the dissolution of his boat building firm, he travels to London's Docklands to meet an old Navy comrade Tony, seeking work, only to find Tony has been killed. He links up with siblings David and Jenny, who have inherited a detective agency from their uncle. Of the 76 produced episodes, only four are believed to survive.

Die fünfte Kolonne is a German television series.

Graf Yoster gibt sich die Ehre [French title: Le comte Yoster a bien l'honneur] is a TV series which followed the adventures of the title’s amateur gentleman detective. It was a success in particular in Germany and in France. Originally the show was a German production in black-and-white but it evolved into a European co-production in colour.