Jessica Fletcher’s Contemporaries Part 5: Detective shows during the 1988-1989 TV season

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This post is the fifth in a series looking at what I like to call “Jessica Fletcher’s Contemporaries” — i.e. the detective shows that aired alongside Murder, She Wrote during its original run. Last month’s post looked at detective shows that aired during Murder, She Wrote‘s fourth season. In this month’s post, I focus on the shows that aired during Murder, She Wrote‘s fifth season (i.e. from Fall 1988 through Spring 1989). As always, I will be paying particular attention to those shows that either ended their run or premiered during that year.

The purpose of this series of posts is to (1) document the trends in television at the time, (2) to shed a light on Murder, She Wrote‘s unique appeal, and (3) perhaps revive some interest in other shows of the same era. So without further ado, here are the detective shows that aired during the 1988-1989 US TV Season…

The detective shows that continued through the season

Continuing the trend established in the previous season, there were fewer established shows that would endure into the subsequent season. In 1988-1989, there were only 7 series that started in previous years and would be renewed for a subsequent season:

As I noted in my post from last month, one notable trend is that the majority of the most enduring shows listed above had ties to previously popular movies or series, and they starred (mostly older) actors who were popular in the 60s and 70s. (It could be argued that even the relatively younger Fred Dryer–the star of Hunter–fit the bill to some extent as he was a highly popular football player in the 1970s.)

The detective shows that came to an end

On the other hand, there were 6 shows in total that were cancelled at the end of this season:

  • The Equalizer (1985-1989) [available on DVD]
  • Hooperman (1987-1989)
  • Miami Vice (1984-1989) [stream on Amazon] [purchase on DVD]
  • Moonlighting (1985-1989) [stream on Hulu]
  • Simon & Simon (1981-1989)
  • Sonny Spoon (1988) (endured for two half-seasons)

The majority of these were fairly well-established shows. But notably–in contrast to the shows listed in the previous section–these tended to target a much younger audience.

The (less than) one season wonders

By this point, network execs seemed to scale back a bit and were more conservative in the type and the number of new detective shows that premiered in the 1988-1989 season. There were just 5 new shows that premiered and were subsequently cancelled within the same year: Jesse Hawkes (a spin-off of the equally short-lived High Mountain Rangers); Knightwatch; A Man Called Hawk (a spin-off of Spenser: For Hire); Murphy’s Law; and Unsub.

One other notable (but ultimately short-lived) addition to the TV scheduled in the 1988-1989 season was a sequence of 5 TV films that served as a reboot/sequel to the 1970s detective series Police Story.

The detective shows that endured

As evidenced by the preponderance of classic TV actors and series reboots, by this point in time we had entered an era of nostalgia for the detective genre. Therefore, it is not surprising to see some of the shows that premiered in the 1988-1989 season and which (rather than being cancelled the same year) were renewed for a subsequent season:

  • The ABC Mystery Movie (1989-1990) << a reboot of the wheel series popular in the 1970s, this served as an umbrella title which contained TV movies featuring Columbo, among others. For details, you can read my post about Weekly Mystery Movie wheel series.
  • Father Dowling Mysteries (1989-1991) << a series starring Tom Bosley, who left his regular role on Murder, She Wrote to star in his own detective show
  • Midnight Caller (1988-1991) 
  • Mission: Impossible (1988-1990) << a sequel of the 1966-1973 series

With that said, although nostalgia for the detective genre was deeply entrenched in the successful scripted TV shows of the era, it is notable that the 1988-1989 TV season also marked the premiere two detective-related reality/documentary shows:

  • COPS (1989-present)  
  • Unsolved Mysteries (1987-present) << began as a series of seven specials beginning on January 20, 1987 before becoming a full-fledged series on October 5, 1988

As we will eventually see, the nostalgia for classic (and old-style) detective shows will give way to a trend towards “ripped-from-the-headlines” series in the 1990s.

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