87th Precinct

87th Precinct
Premiere	September 25, 1961
Finale	April 30, 1962
Based on	characters created by Ed McBain
Network/Provider	NBC
Style	60-minute police drama
Company	Hubbell Robinson Productions, Revue Studios
Seasons	1
Episodes	30 (List of episodes)
Origin	USA

87th Precinct is a police drama that aired on NBC. The weekly one-hour series was based on a series of crime novels written by Evan Hunter (under his Ed McBain pseudonym) that were set in the borough of Isola in an unnamed American city (that clearly was based on New York City). It followed the dedicated police detectives of the 87th Precinct, who wore out much shoe leather trudging from one clue to the next in pursuit of murderers, rapists, robbers and other criminals. Action scenes were few, and clues rarely fell into the detectives' laps. Using tenacity and good old-fashioned police work, the 87th Precinct cops managed to--usually--get their man. In the 87th Precinct, as in real life, sometimes the bad guys got away with it. "Dragnet" with humor is a good way to describe the "87th Precinct" TV series.

Detective Steve Carella (Robert Lansing) was the show's leading man. Tough, handsome, sensitive and very smart, Carella was usually partnered with Bert Kling (Ron Harper), a rookie detective with blond hair. Meyer Meyer (Norman Fell) was the squadroom's comic relief, and big Roger Havilland (Gregory Walcott) provided muscle. Occasionally seen was Carella's wife Teddy (Gena Rowlands), a deaf-mute.

Seasons

Season	Premiere	Finale				#
NBC
Season One	September 25, 1961	April 30, 1962				30

In-Depth

• At a Glance: Additional information about the series

DVD Releases

Title			Release			Discs
Complete Series  (Region 1)
The Complete Series			June 26, 2012	purchase		6

External Sites

• 87th Precinct on IMDb

• 87th Precinct" novels article on Wikipedia

• Ed McBain's official Web site