S. Hammer got me thinking with his thread (thanks).

Most realistic cop show ever – not the best or the coolest but the most realistic. Unfortunately, The Wire was HBO pay TV so lots of folks may not have seen it.

Pick and why.

The Wire – if you have seen it then I don’t have to say anything else. Brilliant in every way.

Barney Miller (1974 - 1982) hands down.

The Police Academy series

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Livin’ Life From The Blindside

Naked gun

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Offhand, the old, "FBI" series starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. comes to mind. You asked why. It just seemed more plausible than most and showed the Bureau as it probably was then, more or less. I think they had an FBI advisor, who was careful Not to Embarrass The Bureau!

One of the less realistic, although I (sort of) enjoy it is the current, "Hawaii Five-O". I can't stand the short jerk but like Grace Park and mourn the demise of Lauren German's role. The Navy Intelligence officer that McGarrett likes is okay, pretty cute. But McGarrett's tattoo is out of place. And they need to have done with Wo Fat or whatever the villain's name is and move on to other crooks.

"The Mentalist" has also grown on me. I dislike the hero's morals and style. But I like his harried female boss, and the Korean (?) guy, Cho, is okay. A bit too Joe Friday with his just-the-facts-ma'am style. But he's a good detective. (California Bureau of Investigation)

"Criminal Minds" is sometimes a little too over the top for me, and I dislike three characters, who are simply unrealistic. One is there mainly for PC reasons, and the other two are clowns in such roles. But Aaron Hotchner (played by Thomas Gibson) and Agent Rossi (Joe Mantegna) are among the best TV cops, ever, and are quite plausible in their roles. Hotchner is a bit too tightly strung, but by TV standards, good. The female agents are good. I especially like JJ. (Jennifer Jarreau.) I miss Emily. Her replacement is played by a superb actress, Jeanne Tripplehorn. But the character is getting a bit old for a major eye candy role. I liked her very much in "Basic Instinct". But it was filmed about 1992!

Last week's episode of, "Blue Bloods" disturbed me considerably, and I suspect that Tom Selleck wasn't too thrilled at what the script forced him to do. He seems less of a Hollywood liberal than are most actors. I can't discuss this episode due to board rules, but the theme stuck in my craw. (Whatever a "craw" actually is, the show stuck in mine. )

Absolutely!

Back in the late 1970's as a New Jersey cop. I was on "lend lease" as a Patrolman to the Detective Bureau for 2 years.

EXACTLY like Barney Miller. Especially night shifts. The patrol officers brought all their nut jobs in so they didn't have to deal with them.

FN in MT

No doubt about that.

I did become a huge fan of Reno 911

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Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

Southland. Followed by Robbery Homicide Division. RHD was a short lived CBS series starring Tom Sizemore. Great show. Regards 18DAI

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7 +1 Rounds of hope & change

Justified. Maybe not the most realistic U.S. Marshals , but the criminals seem real familiar to me.
Nick Searcy is good.

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Halfway and one more step

Justified is really good. I also think The Wire was good as well.

Dragnet. I guess that I'm just old fashioned.

Super Troopers!

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Since I've never been a LEO,how would I know? I always liked "Homicide: Life on the Streets".
f.t.

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South Carolina-God's country

COPS......Duh!

Cagney and Lacey.

Not realistic for US Marshal's is an understatement.....In fact any freewheeling in any agency would not be tolerated even in the old days much less now....Well maybe in Texas some Marshal's had a lot of leeway due to vast territory..Never like that TV show....You are talking about the US
government arn't you....

Barney Miller has to be #1

There was also a show called N.Y.P.D. that I watched as reruns when I was a kid in the 70s. It's been a very long time, but I remember it as having a real feel to it.

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My sgntr is mor thn 30 chrctrs

My father-in-law was a police sargent by day and a E-7 CID on weekends and summer drill. My wife and MIL sware that the most realistic show was Barny Miller. And knowing many of the cops and CID's I have to agree. Real gun play was way less than one day a year.

How would I know? I've never been a cop, in the unlikely event I ever become a cop I hope it's "Police Academy."

Barney Miller. No contest.

My LEO friends always said the most realistic show was Barney Miller, and from the short time I worked as a dispatcher I'd say they were right.

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Rick, W0FG
CTR2 68-72

Have to go with Barney Miller (of course). It's about the only show where cops spend most of their time talking to whack jobs and actually taking reports. That's more the reality of the job than car chases and gun fights.

Barney Miller and NYPD Blue. Lately been watching Alaska State Troopers.

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GUNS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM!

They all suck. Barney Miller, Hill Street Blues, and NYPD Blue suck the least.

New show called Adam-12 is pretty good. But i like Emmergency were all they do is direct traffic. But of course number one of all time C.H.i.P.S.

Aside from COPS, I've never seen a realistic cop show. If they're not spending 2/3rds of the show doing paperwork, it's not realistic, and showing cops doing paperwork don't sell commercials.

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Another vote for Barney Miller

In The Heat Of The Night. The TV version of course. As much as I dislike Carroll O'Connor, he had that small southern town, rural police chief role nailed!

CW

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I thought NYPD Blue sucked......Way too much drama...And if a cop was wrapped as tight as Sipowicz was, he would have stroked out in the first season or climbed a bell tower with a rifle or been sent to prison....

Not police but my grandfather was. He always Hill Street Blues(especially the roll calls) and Barney Miller were the ones to get it right, as well as Homicide Life on the Street. He passed before The Wire, but many of the same things he described doing as Homicide Detective remind me of Bunk from the The Wire, so I think he would have liked it as well.

Adam-12 for procedure, Barney Miller for the humor.

Never saw any that were realistic.......Barney Miller was OK for the laughs.


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I always had to do my own stunts......And it was un-scripted too!



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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

Longmire does OK in a rural sense. Nothing shows the security checks, dealing with fools who don't know what is missing, phone guys that call in someone starting tomato plants indoors as dope growers, illegals facing deportation and their employers trying to get them back, picking your friends up after they planted an airplane or they or their kid down the street didn't make the corner @ 100 mph+, County commisioneers believing they are exempt from DUI and when they are not taking it out on the Sheriff and his budget, feeding prisioneers, jail checks, blood runs to get blood to a hospital as fast as possible, trying to get some where in the 1800 square miles in the county with a total Dept force of 9 + 3 dispatchers. The boredom of Thursdays @ 4:00 AM, knowing things about your kids friends families that you would rather not know, survivng on a salary 40% below your county average @ local mines and mills. I could go on but I did move on.

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Front sight and squeeze

Me, too. But it seems like most of the "cop shows" are far more exciting than real life as a cop would be. Of course, most folks wouldn't want to watch what cops do day in and day out without editing out the boring parts, I guess.

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As much as I would like to say Adam-12 was the most realistic, I can't. Barney Miller would be #1 with Hill Street Blues #2.

Yeah, but I'll tell you . . . with 18 years under my belt the good parts more than outweight the boring and bad times. Boring is boring, and the bad stuff can be really bad, but the good parts are awesome.

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like I said, maybe not the most realistic, like, sledge hammer wasn't the most realistic.

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Halfway and one more step

Law & Order and Law & Order SVU followed by Hill Street and NYPD Blue. I always like Streets Of San Francisco although I can't stand Michael Douglas. Karl Mauldin was the best of the Duo.

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I Cor. 10:13 "1611KJV"

The Andy Griffith Show. That Barney was one tough dude.

Gunsmoke...

Well ....... Hands down it's Barney Miller!!!

2152hq thinks it's Gunsmoke!

Kinda like lawyer/court shows. The closest in my book would have been Night Court"

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Forum consigliere

Never saw "The Wire" but heard it was terrific. Of the fictional cop shows I loved "Barney Miller" and "Homicide".
The original "Law And Order" was pretty decent IMO, but the characters--cops and perps---in "Barney Miller" were wonderful.

These days I only watch "The First 48" with any regularity. It's refreshing, if disappointing, that they don't solve all their cases and frequently take months to close them. That's reality, and it's the only "reality" TV I watch. The rest is nauseatingly phony and staged. Doesn't ANYBODY have the stones to produce a so-called reality show that doesn't involve phony-assed conflict and backstabbing?

Sorry. Low BS tolerance in my old age.

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Oh well, what the hell.

Agreed! Throw in Dragnet w/ Jack Webb & you have the triple crown.

Car 54 gets an honorable mention for actually capturing the way police officers interact with each other as well as the daily life of patrol officers like Barney Miller did with detectives. Not to mention it was hysterically funny!!!

Had a Knoxville detective tell me Back In The Day that Barney Miller was about the most realistic cop show, and I will give Dragnet/Adam-12 Honorable Mention for the studied lack of violence and gunfights. Police work is a LOT more Procedure and Admin than shoot outs and car chases. Due to liability issues there are departments around that prohibit high-speed chases, and the VA State Police required a special Pursuit Driving course before they would turn a Trooper loose with a Hemi Charger when they first got them.

I've never seen one even close. If they're not spending at least 1/3rd of the shift doing paperwork, it ain't realistic.

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Definitely Barney Miller for the routine stuff.

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Even older, even crankier....

I can relate to the Frank Cannon series, a Lincoln was the smallest car he could get in & out of. some of the real stuff leos pull are funnier than fiction and would never be allowed on tv.an old friend a nypd sgt had a scrap book that would crack you up.

Barney Miller. Got the whole series on DVD.

"Barny Miller" hands down for the detective angle...Uniform patrol? Believe it or not, "Reno-911" was probably more realistic than a lot of them....