Night Heat

This lasted several years despite the late hour it was on.

Like a lot of 80's crime dramas, it looked cold. Both physically and figuratively. This isn't a bad thing though. And the (obviously) low budget actually worked in it's favor. Gritty during a time when 'slick' was in.

Allan Royal's wraparound segments as the news writer gave it a slight edge.

The only actors I remembered were Scott Nylands (Earthquake) and Tony Rosato (SCTV). The cast of barely knowns was a good thing because one could see the group as a whole and not as a bunch of people supporting a 'star.' And yes, that's a young Clark Johnson (Homicide) in a recurring spot.

I hope a DVD release is in the future. Someone out there wanna get on that?

Guess I'm biased! It was a great Canadian series, shot in Toronto (my birthplace). Being from Toronto, the background scenery was very familiar and added to the realism. My wife and I enjoyed all the actors, although some were being re-cast as different guest villains,etc. a little too much. We especially like the "confrontations" between cops "Kevin & Frank" and "Whitey".

I didn't start watching this show until the late 80s, but really enjoyed it. Very unique police program, and great cast as well. Eventually the show ended it's run, and the re-runs were hard to come by, so hopefully I can get a few on video. Very intriguing episodes, as they all occurred at night. While many of the actors, including Eugene Clark, Clark Johnson (Homicide fame) and Jeff Wincott.

It was definitely a break from the American cop shows, in that it had a certain mystique and roughness to it. Don't get me wrong..I love the American shows, but Night Heat more or less broke the mold. I also enjoyed other Canadian shows such as "Hot Shots" and "Diamonds".

Night Heat was an awesome police TV drama show. I liked the actors and they were well casted for their roles. Thats true that Jeff Wincott did not get much better roles as I thought he might get at the time. I was sure he will. Instead, this series started off well for other people and other shows.. such as several Law & Order series and NYPD. Night Heat was the pioneer of more realistic drama police show than others prior or during Night Heat.

Clarke Johnson was the actor from the series went on to another realistic police drama Homicide TV Series.

Yes, I agree that the series was filmed in Toronto since I recoginized so many places in this wonderful city near my birthtown in Upstate NY. This series brought more closer to home than Law & Order since the background and lifestyle was close to my hometown (Appx. 4 hours drive).

I would love to see reunion shows but I was disappointed not seeing the series in closed captioned for hearing impaired.

The series was on at the right time since I was busy in evenings and I was settled into bed watching the series.

This series really showed alot of hard work to make it successful made by the Canadians and I really liked their style of programming. Sadly, I dont see much of our neighbor's shows in the states. It would be nice to have their network aired in the states!

One drawback I didnt like that they had repeating guest stars playing roles of villians or victims. Perhaps there was a reason for this that I do not know.

Overall, the series was a 5 star out of 5. Why? It showed at different time (night time) of the detectives. That is original!

While I can empathize with Canadain viewers who like seeing Canadian actors in roles, and enjoy seeing Toronto and other major Canadian cities on American television, etc., I also can't get past being bothered when a show made anywhere in Canada pretends to be from a gritty American city like New York, especially the New York underworld which would generate the most activity for criminals and work for detectives. Sorry, but Canada is just too sanitized. I had the same problem with "Police Surgeon" in the 1970s. In any event, however, the theme music and opening of "Night Heat" was terrific. I still have a sound recording and play it, even though it runs less than a minute, just because I like it!