‘Heat’ Will Fade Into The Night Seven-Year Series Offered Realistic Look At Struggles In Modern South

The final curtain falls on one of television’s most satisfying dramatic shows Tuesday night at 9 on CBS (KREM-Channel 2 out of Spokane).

“In the Heat of the Night” ends its network run with a two-hour farewell.

Premiering in March 1988 on NBC, the series was met with some skepticism because of its origin. It was based on the 1967 Oscar-winning movie of the same name in which Rod Steiger played Police Chief Bill Gillespie and Sidney Poitier was Detective Virgil Tibbs.

TV shows based on old movies usually fall far off the mark.

In this case that didn’t happen.

With Carroll O’Connor taking on the Steiger role and Howard Rollins subbing for Poitier, the show clicked almost immediately with viewers. Gillespie, the white chief in the small town of Sparta, Miss., reluctantly accepted the help of the black Tibbs during a murder investigation.

Tibbs, a former Sparta resident, had come home from Philadelphia, where he had learned big-city police methods. He signed on as chief of detectives with Gillespie’s force.

During the series’ first season, Gillespie and Tibbs gradually built a mutual respect for each other and a friendship blossomed.

“In the Heat of the Night” also represented something of a breakthrough for Hollywood television productions. After decades of watching bumbling yokels such as Jethro Clampett and Eb Dawson, viewers finally were presented with a thoughtful portrait of the modern-day South with both blacks and whites trying to work together.

As in real life, there were some characters who found it difficult to shake old prejudices. Often such situations resulted in some of the show’s finest moments.

Early in the series a member of Gillespie’s department, Bubba Skinner (played by Alan Autry), confronted his own past feelings, conquered them and went on to become a champion for racial harmony.

The only reality stretch during the series’ run was the number of crimes that popped up each week in a small town such as Sparta. But then, had interesting things not been popping in Sparta, the series would have died within a year.

NBC dropped the series in 1992, but CBS quickly moved in to give it a home. Eventually the weekly format was abandoned and was replaced periodically by twohour movies such as Tuesday’s finale, “Grow Old With Me.”

That the show was able to maintain high quality throughout its run is no doubt a credit to the determination of O’Connor. He had several problems to deal with.

Rollins, a fine actor who had scored in the movie “A Soldiers’ Story,” allegedly fought a drug problem.

O’Connor was one of his biggest supporters and several times gave him time off to seek help. Eventually, however, Rollins was replaced by Carl Weathers, who plays Chief Hampton Forbes.

In retrospect, we understand even more why O’Connor showed such compassion to Rollins. O’Connor’s own son, Hugh, who played officer Lonnie Jamison on the show, was having his own struggle with drugs.

Earlier this year, that struggle cost Hugh O’Connor his life. Hugh makes a brief appearance on Tuesday’s episode.

And during all this, O’Connor suffered a heart attack and had to undergo surgery. Despite the setback, he didn’t stay away long from the production unit in Commerce, Ga.

O’Connor believed in the show’s message.

Several summers ago during a luncheon break in Los Angeles, he elaborated on that message.

“It shows,” he said, “that despite all our differences, we can find a common ground as human beings and work and play together.”

It’s a message that Hollywood should never tire of.