History of TV Crime Drama

In the mid-20th centuries late 20th and, TV crime dramas were a different kind of show compared to today.

Dragnet first premiered on the radio in the late 1940s and then on TV in the early 1950s. At the time, Dragnet was the first of its kind with in-depth police investigations. Each episode focused on the police investigating the crime and subsequently arresting the perpetrator. Simple, no mess and no fuss.

With the advent of the 1960s, TV crime dramas began to evolve. In late 1968, Hawaii Five-0 brought the intrigue of the Hawaiian Islands to the screen. The show brought on a female detective in the last season. Then, the dynamic changed. Cagney and Lacey, in the early 1980s, showed female detectives not only as leads, but also that women could do any job any man could.

But what none of the viewers saw coming was what was about to happen - one that would drastically change the face of TV crime drama forever, and it was on the horizon.

In 1990, innovation began. Law and Order premiered in September 1990. It brought more depth to police investigations, and it also involved the court of law with Judges, District Attorneys, and defense lawyers. It didn’t take long for more subgenres of crime dramas to emerge.

In 1990, Law and Order premiered, and it wasn’t just police detectives investigating crimes, but also the DAs prosecuting the suspects. However, no one realized that Law and Order set off a domino effect and that more changes in crime TV were on the horizon.

As the 1990s progressed, various subgenres of TV crime dramas began to emerge. In 1996, the police procedural began to take shape. JAG debuted, and a few years later, NCIS debuted, adding a military spin to police detective work.

 In 2000, CSI ushered in a new era of crime show drama. The CSI franchise modernized crime-solving by involving scientific analysis in the overall investigation. When Criminal Minds debuted in 2005, it added another layer to crime TV dramas, allowing viewers to see how the FBI works in catching criminals. Since then, more crime TV dramas have debuted, ranging from those with a psychological aspect to international versions of crime dramas, such as NCIS: Sydney.

TV Crime Dramas have evolved since their debut, and as the years go by, TV crime dramas will continue to evolve and grow a bigger following from fans.