Battle of the 80's Crimefighters, Round Two
The second phase of the 80's crimefighters faceoff begins now. I can see already that there will be some hard-fought battles this round. Let's get started.....
Magnum, P.I. vs. Simon and Simon
The two most popular and longest-lasting detective shows are already facing off in the second round. These two series complemented each other nicely on CBS, and owned Thursday nights for the network for four seasons until The Cosby Show dethroned them both. Ultimately, it's very hard to choose which of these series should advance to the next round, and it comes down to choosing between quality versus endurance. Magnum, P.I. had some exceptional hours of television in its prime, far exceeding anything produced in eight seasons of Simon and Simon. But Magnum grew weary after in its final seasons and stuck around at least two seasons (and probably three) longer than it should have, and its decline in ratings directly paralelled its energy level. When a series exceeds its natural lifespan as long as Magnum, P.I. did, it stains its legacy a bit. On the other hand, Simon and Simon held its ground quality-wise right up until the weak and shortened eighth season. Many of its best episodes, in fact, were in the sixth and seventh seasons. However, Simon and Simon didn't have as many blockbuster episodes as Magnum, P.I. did even at its prime.
Given that the contest between these series is essentially a draw up to this point, I'll break the tie on the basis of production quality. Magnum, P.I. was dazzlingly produced, its lush Hawaiian setting and brilliant array of colors giving it the best look of any crimefighter series until Miami Vice premiered. Simon and Simon, on the other hand, had an undistinguished look. It's not that it was poorly produced, it just paled in comparison to Magnum, P.I.'s production values. For that reason, a very narrow victory goes to Tom Magnum.
Round 1 goes to Magnum, P.I.
Hart to Hart vs. Remington Steele
Another matchup without a clearcut advantage. Both shows had their pros and cons (mostly pros), both lasted about the same amount of time, and neither crashed-and-burned with a Nielsen thud or a serious decline in quality that way many 80's crimefighter shows did. Both series were creative and fun until the end. The only tiebreaker I can come up with to put a little distance between the two is the ambitious on-location tour of Europe that Remington Steele took in the first half of the third season. Both Steele and Scarecrow and Mrs. King did grand tours of Europe in 1984, which added some international flavor to the proceedings. While Scarecrow's European journey was not as successful in generating the caliber of adventure stories the series had otherwise established, Remington Steele rose to the occasion and had a successful stretch of episodes filmed in Europe to kick off its third and most successful season. Hart to Hart never did anything that ambitious, and the happenstance circumstances in which the Harts tumbled into high adventure week after week was less credible than the format in which Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist encountered danger and intrigue. Another hard choice between two great shows, but Remington Steele gets it by a hair.
Round 2 goes to Remington Steele.
MacGyver vs. Matlock
Here's the first slam-dunk faceoff of the round so far. MacGyver was a fiendishly clever action-adventure series with solid writing, excellent production values, and one of the most recognizable characters in television history. Matlock was a star vehicle that hinged entirely around the charm of Andy Griffith. Had Griffith not been the series' protagonist, Matlock would have been lost in the shuffle of superior crimefighter shows from its era. That's not to say Matlock wasn't an entertaining show, but comparing it to MacGyver is like comparing a Chevy to a Cadillac.
Round 3 goes to MacGyver.
Mike Hammer vs. Sledge Hammer!
The Hammers face off, and as their names suggest, both guys are tough as nails. Stacy Keach's rough-and-tumble Mike Hammer was an entertaining detective series with some undeniable atmosphere to help it stand out in the crowd, but it wasn't the breath of fresh air that Sledge Hammer! was when the latter series premiered in the fall of 1986. While Sledge Hammer! was ultimately a one-joke show (a satire of over-the-top cops), writers and producers squeezed everything they could out of that joke for two seasons, the second of which was not near as memorable. The creative approach and the clever spoofs (which are more relatable to me now as an adult watching SH! on DVD than it was when I was nine and watching the show on network television) helped make Sledge Hammer! a cult classic that stands out as first-rate television two decades after its original run despite horribly low ratings.
Round 4 goes to Sledge Hammer!
The Dukes of Hazzard vs. Hardcastle and McCormick
Another easy decision for me. As I said in round one, I never got into The Dukes of Hazzard during its original run, making me about the only seven-year-old boy in America who wasn't. I temporarily reacquainted myself with the series on reruns during my college years to see if had been missing out on the campy fun that I would more appreciate as a quasi-adult, but my opinion didn't change. While The Dukes had its own style, that wasn't enough to save a mediocre series when it faces Hardcastle and McCormick, one of the decade's most entertaining yet underrated crimefighter shows. The buddy relationship between H & M was more three-dimensional and satisfying than anything I ever saw between the Duke brothers, and from what I can recall of H & M, having not seen it since 1989, better-crafted crimefighter stories than The Dukes.
Round 5 goes to Hardcastle and McCormick.
The Equalizer vs. The Greatest American Hero
Talk about the lighthearted versus the the gritty. While The Greatest American Hero had an amusing run, a great theme song and a cute young Connie Selleca isn't enough to slip it past that shadow-dwelling badass Robert McCall this round. While The Equalizer at times had some of the same problems that nearly all CBS shows did then and now (blase scripts and faceless production values from the Murder, She Wrote boilerplate) but those episodes were the exception. At its best, The Equalizer was the darkest show on television of its time. In fact, a good decade would pass before network television delved into the abyss of substantive and stylistic darkness that The Equalizer did on a routine basis in all four of its seasons on CBS. The series was hit or miss, but mostly hit....and a much more significant contribution to television than The Greatest American Hero.
Round 6 goes to The Equalizer.
Misfits of Science vs. The Fall Guy
Now I haven't seen Misfits of Science since it went off the air in February 1986, and I was only eight years old at the time. I have seen The Fall Guy since its 1986 network demise, and while some of the sillier moments of that series were cringeworthy, its lengthy run, clever writing, and ambitious stunts certainly elevate it above a cult sci-fi-adventure show that lasted only 16 episodes. I'd love the opportunity to see Misfits again, even though I probably won't get that opportunity, but it seems incredibly unlikely that five seasons worth of Fall Guy adventures would be upstaged by the critically panned Misfits. Beyond that, Heather Thomas in her prime (even though she was a cokehead) was much hotter than Courtney Cox as a teenager.
Round 7 goes to The Fall Guy.
The A-Team vs. Knight Rider
Two of the favorites of pre-teens from the mid-1980's, my selection here goes to the show that holds up best for an adult viewer. Both shows often require the viewer to turn back their internal clock to when they were 10 to fully appreciate, but there is much more for an adult viewer to work with on The A-Team. In its first couple seasons, The A-Team was a relentless binge of formulaic fun, and it was clear that producers had a solid handle on the characters and their various quirks right from the get-go, which wasn't always the case for series of the time. The third season was a trite bore, but the fourth and fifth seasons represented a creative rebound where writers tried to send the series in different directions, but that didn't come until after the series lost much of its former top-10-sized audience. By contrast, Knight Rider was very hit or miss, took quite a bit of time to hit its stride, and even at its best was cheesy as hell. The series was saved by clever gauntlets for KITT to get through, some imaginative banter between the car and Michael, and in his own way, David Hasselhoff, who was the only kind of "actor" capable of making a show like this work. As a rule, however, The A-Team holds up much better than Knight Rider two decades later, but both series get high marks for production values and aggressive stuntwork that, unlike today's programs, involved actual cars crashing rather than fancy computer graphics.
Round 8 goes to The A-Team.
Airwolf vs. Miami Vice
Considering the limited creative boundaries of a series where every climactic action sequence involved a super helicopter swooping into the rescue, Airwolf had a pretty solid run. It was aided by solid action-show plotlines that were darker and had fewer corny detours than most of its contemporaries. The execution helped the series last three strong seasons (four if you count the Canadian-produced season that most true blue fans are trying to forget). But those accomplishments aside, Airwolf was hardly a revolutionary show in the way that Miami Vice was. Through all the series' creative peaks and valleys, Miami Vice's contribution to the crimefighter genre is epic. Without Vice's hard edge, the genre would have likely run completely out of gas in the mid-1980s as viewers were rapidly tiring of the more lighthearted action show fare that dominated the airwaves when Vice premiered. Without Miami Vice, darker-themed shows of the late 1980's like The Equalizer, Crime Story, and Wiseguy may never have come about. Further, Vice's slick style and aggressive edge clearly inspired the few well-produced crime dramas of the 1990's, such as New York Undercover and cable's La Femme Nikita. The influence is even felt in this decade's most stylized action show efforts like Alias and 24. Perhaps another series would have arisen that brought feature-film quality production values to the small screen the way that Miami Vice did in the 22 years since the show's premiere had Vice never made the 1984 fall schedule (which it came dangerously close to missing according to then NBC President Brandon Tartikoff), but there's no guarantee of that considering how much tighter network budgets got only a few years after Vice. Even though there were crimefighter shows more consistently entertaining than was the hit-or-miss Vice, there were no other crimefighter shows that raised the bar for network television production values the way that Vice did.
Round 9 goes to Miami Vice.
Hill Street Blues vs. Wiseguy
Both of these series were worthy of their wide acclaim, but one of them better meets my personal preferences as a viewer regarding content. Hill Street Blues was very progressive for its time with its three-dimensional characters and controversial storylines, but the action element was rather conventional of the cop show genre and usually played second fiddle to the character development. There's nothing wrong with this, but looking back on the series, it doesn't stand out as different in the way that Wiseguy does. With its story arcs that lasted up to a half-season long, Wiseguy was neither a serial or a self-contained episodic series, but something in between. Its first season was unforgettably good, with subsequent seasons more hit-and-miss, but even the weaker story arcs contained moments of white-knuckle intensity that I don't get from watching Hill Street reruns. Hats off to two great shows of the decade, but at least for me, Wiseguy wins the purple ribbon in this round.
Round 10 goes to Wiseguy.
Crime Story draws a bye in Round 11.
So there are the results of the second round of the battle of the 80's crimefighters. Feel free to share any thoughts, suggestions, or snide remarks. Here are the upcoming faceoffs slated for next week's third round:
Magnum, P.I. draws a bye.
Remington Steele vs. MacGyver
Sledge Hammer! vs. Hardcastle and McCormick
The Equalizer vs. The Fall Guy
The A-Team vs. Miami Vice
Wiseguy vs. Crime Story
Magnum, P.I. vs. Simon and Simon
The two most popular and longest-lasting detective shows are already facing off in the second round. These two series complemented each other nicely on CBS, and owned Thursday nights for the network for four seasons until The Cosby Show dethroned them both. Ultimately, it's very hard to choose which of these series should advance to the next round, and it comes down to choosing between quality versus endurance. Magnum, P.I. had some exceptional hours of television in its prime, far exceeding anything produced in eight seasons of Simon and Simon. But Magnum grew weary after in its final seasons and stuck around at least two seasons (and probably three) longer than it should have, and its decline in ratings directly paralelled its energy level. When a series exceeds its natural lifespan as long as Magnum, P.I. did, it stains its legacy a bit. On the other hand, Simon and Simon held its ground quality-wise right up until the weak and shortened eighth season. Many of its best episodes, in fact, were in the sixth and seventh seasons. However, Simon and Simon didn't have as many blockbuster episodes as Magnum, P.I. did even at its prime.
Given that the contest between these series is essentially a draw up to this point, I'll break the tie on the basis of production quality. Magnum, P.I. was dazzlingly produced, its lush Hawaiian setting and brilliant array of colors giving it the best look of any crimefighter series until Miami Vice premiered. Simon and Simon, on the other hand, had an undistinguished look. It's not that it was poorly produced, it just paled in comparison to Magnum, P.I.'s production values. For that reason, a very narrow victory goes to Tom Magnum.
Round 1 goes to Magnum, P.I.
Hart to Hart vs. Remington Steele
Another matchup without a clearcut advantage. Both shows had their pros and cons (mostly pros), both lasted about the same amount of time, and neither crashed-and-burned with a Nielsen thud or a serious decline in quality that way many 80's crimefighter shows did. Both series were creative and fun until the end. The only tiebreaker I can come up with to put a little distance between the two is the ambitious on-location tour of Europe that Remington Steele took in the first half of the third season. Both Steele and Scarecrow and Mrs. King did grand tours of Europe in 1984, which added some international flavor to the proceedings. While Scarecrow's European journey was not as successful in generating the caliber of adventure stories the series had otherwise established, Remington Steele rose to the occasion and had a successful stretch of episodes filmed in Europe to kick off its third and most successful season. Hart to Hart never did anything that ambitious, and the happenstance circumstances in which the Harts tumbled into high adventure week after week was less credible than the format in which Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist encountered danger and intrigue. Another hard choice between two great shows, but Remington Steele gets it by a hair.
Round 2 goes to Remington Steele.
MacGyver vs. Matlock
Here's the first slam-dunk faceoff of the round so far. MacGyver was a fiendishly clever action-adventure series with solid writing, excellent production values, and one of the most recognizable characters in television history. Matlock was a star vehicle that hinged entirely around the charm of Andy Griffith. Had Griffith not been the series' protagonist, Matlock would have been lost in the shuffle of superior crimefighter shows from its era. That's not to say Matlock wasn't an entertaining show, but comparing it to MacGyver is like comparing a Chevy to a Cadillac.
Round 3 goes to MacGyver.
Mike Hammer vs. Sledge Hammer!
The Hammers face off, and as their names suggest, both guys are tough as nails. Stacy Keach's rough-and-tumble Mike Hammer was an entertaining detective series with some undeniable atmosphere to help it stand out in the crowd, but it wasn't the breath of fresh air that Sledge Hammer! was when the latter series premiered in the fall of 1986. While Sledge Hammer! was ultimately a one-joke show (a satire of over-the-top cops), writers and producers squeezed everything they could out of that joke for two seasons, the second of which was not near as memorable. The creative approach and the clever spoofs (which are more relatable to me now as an adult watching SH! on DVD than it was when I was nine and watching the show on network television) helped make Sledge Hammer! a cult classic that stands out as first-rate television two decades after its original run despite horribly low ratings.
Round 4 goes to Sledge Hammer!
The Dukes of Hazzard vs. Hardcastle and McCormick
Another easy decision for me. As I said in round one, I never got into The Dukes of Hazzard during its original run, making me about the only seven-year-old boy in America who wasn't. I temporarily reacquainted myself with the series on reruns during my college years to see if had been missing out on the campy fun that I would more appreciate as a quasi-adult, but my opinion didn't change. While The Dukes had its own style, that wasn't enough to save a mediocre series when it faces Hardcastle and McCormick, one of the decade's most entertaining yet underrated crimefighter shows. The buddy relationship between H & M was more three-dimensional and satisfying than anything I ever saw between the Duke brothers, and from what I can recall of H & M, having not seen it since 1989, better-crafted crimefighter stories than The Dukes.
Round 5 goes to Hardcastle and McCormick.
The Equalizer vs. The Greatest American Hero
Talk about the lighthearted versus the the gritty. While The Greatest American Hero had an amusing run, a great theme song and a cute young Connie Selleca isn't enough to slip it past that shadow-dwelling badass Robert McCall this round. While The Equalizer at times had some of the same problems that nearly all CBS shows did then and now (blase scripts and faceless production values from the Murder, She Wrote boilerplate) but those episodes were the exception. At its best, The Equalizer was the darkest show on television of its time. In fact, a good decade would pass before network television delved into the abyss of substantive and stylistic darkness that The Equalizer did on a routine basis in all four of its seasons on CBS. The series was hit or miss, but mostly hit....and a much more significant contribution to television than The Greatest American Hero.
Round 6 goes to The Equalizer.
Misfits of Science vs. The Fall Guy
Now I haven't seen Misfits of Science since it went off the air in February 1986, and I was only eight years old at the time. I have seen The Fall Guy since its 1986 network demise, and while some of the sillier moments of that series were cringeworthy, its lengthy run, clever writing, and ambitious stunts certainly elevate it above a cult sci-fi-adventure show that lasted only 16 episodes. I'd love the opportunity to see Misfits again, even though I probably won't get that opportunity, but it seems incredibly unlikely that five seasons worth of Fall Guy adventures would be upstaged by the critically panned Misfits. Beyond that, Heather Thomas in her prime (even though she was a cokehead) was much hotter than Courtney Cox as a teenager.
Round 7 goes to The Fall Guy.
The A-Team vs. Knight Rider
Two of the favorites of pre-teens from the mid-1980's, my selection here goes to the show that holds up best for an adult viewer. Both shows often require the viewer to turn back their internal clock to when they were 10 to fully appreciate, but there is much more for an adult viewer to work with on The A-Team. In its first couple seasons, The A-Team was a relentless binge of formulaic fun, and it was clear that producers had a solid handle on the characters and their various quirks right from the get-go, which wasn't always the case for series of the time. The third season was a trite bore, but the fourth and fifth seasons represented a creative rebound where writers tried to send the series in different directions, but that didn't come until after the series lost much of its former top-10-sized audience. By contrast, Knight Rider was very hit or miss, took quite a bit of time to hit its stride, and even at its best was cheesy as hell. The series was saved by clever gauntlets for KITT to get through, some imaginative banter between the car and Michael, and in his own way, David Hasselhoff, who was the only kind of "actor" capable of making a show like this work. As a rule, however, The A-Team holds up much better than Knight Rider two decades later, but both series get high marks for production values and aggressive stuntwork that, unlike today's programs, involved actual cars crashing rather than fancy computer graphics.
Round 8 goes to The A-Team.
Airwolf vs. Miami Vice
Considering the limited creative boundaries of a series where every climactic action sequence involved a super helicopter swooping into the rescue, Airwolf had a pretty solid run. It was aided by solid action-show plotlines that were darker and had fewer corny detours than most of its contemporaries. The execution helped the series last three strong seasons (four if you count the Canadian-produced season that most true blue fans are trying to forget). But those accomplishments aside, Airwolf was hardly a revolutionary show in the way that Miami Vice was. Through all the series' creative peaks and valleys, Miami Vice's contribution to the crimefighter genre is epic. Without Vice's hard edge, the genre would have likely run completely out of gas in the mid-1980s as viewers were rapidly tiring of the more lighthearted action show fare that dominated the airwaves when Vice premiered. Without Miami Vice, darker-themed shows of the late 1980's like The Equalizer, Crime Story, and Wiseguy may never have come about. Further, Vice's slick style and aggressive edge clearly inspired the few well-produced crime dramas of the 1990's, such as New York Undercover and cable's La Femme Nikita. The influence is even felt in this decade's most stylized action show efforts like Alias and 24. Perhaps another series would have arisen that brought feature-film quality production values to the small screen the way that Miami Vice did in the 22 years since the show's premiere had Vice never made the 1984 fall schedule (which it came dangerously close to missing according to then NBC President Brandon Tartikoff), but there's no guarantee of that considering how much tighter network budgets got only a few years after Vice. Even though there were crimefighter shows more consistently entertaining than was the hit-or-miss Vice, there were no other crimefighter shows that raised the bar for network television production values the way that Vice did.
Round 9 goes to Miami Vice.
Hill Street Blues vs. Wiseguy
Both of these series were worthy of their wide acclaim, but one of them better meets my personal preferences as a viewer regarding content. Hill Street Blues was very progressive for its time with its three-dimensional characters and controversial storylines, but the action element was rather conventional of the cop show genre and usually played second fiddle to the character development. There's nothing wrong with this, but looking back on the series, it doesn't stand out as different in the way that Wiseguy does. With its story arcs that lasted up to a half-season long, Wiseguy was neither a serial or a self-contained episodic series, but something in between. Its first season was unforgettably good, with subsequent seasons more hit-and-miss, but even the weaker story arcs contained moments of white-knuckle intensity that I don't get from watching Hill Street reruns. Hats off to two great shows of the decade, but at least for me, Wiseguy wins the purple ribbon in this round.
Round 10 goes to Wiseguy.
Crime Story draws a bye in Round 11.
So there are the results of the second round of the battle of the 80's crimefighters. Feel free to share any thoughts, suggestions, or snide remarks. Here are the upcoming faceoffs slated for next week's third round:
Magnum, P.I. draws a bye.
Remington Steele vs. MacGyver
Sledge Hammer! vs. Hardcastle and McCormick
The Equalizer vs. The Fall Guy
The A-Team vs. Miami Vice
Wiseguy vs. Crime Story
posted by Mark at 5:16 PM
1 Comments:
Oh, they're really getting weeded out now, aren't they? The decisions will get tougher from here on out, but I think my ex-judge/ex-con duo has at least one more round left in 'em.
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