Tonight on most PBS stations, tune in as the latest intallment of "Pioneers of Television" takes a look at crime dramas, including Jack Webb (Dragnet), Desi Arnaz (The Untouchables), Bruce Geller (Mannix and Mission: Impossible), Bill Cosby, Angie Dickinson, Barbara Bain, Martin Landau and James Garner. From the show's blurb:
Pioneering television crime dramas established new rules for viewers, amping up the violence and the flash-quick dialogue; and delivering reluctant, but likeable, heroes who solve complex crimes in an hour of delicious television. Today, the genre has never been more popular, but it owes much of its winning formula to industry innovations developed in the 1950s and 1960s. For instance, the invention of the teleprompter helped actors deliver dialogue in quick, clipped sentences. New ways of shooting scenes, including the close-up and quick edits, ushered in new and exciting storytelling elements. Unlike Western, which tended to shoot panoramic scenes using wide shots that took in an entire landscape, crime dramas began to produce scenes that drew viewers close into an actor’s face, thus increasing the dramatic arc of the story. Several groundbreaking crime dramas also challenged stereotypes of the day, casting women and minorities in key roles.
That's followed by Frontline, an episode titled "Post Mortem," which looks into the dysfunctional system of forensic death investigation in the U.S. where "there are few standards, little oversight and the mistakes are literally buried."
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