Night Heat

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!

Night Heat is one of the best TV Series Cop Shows for sure. A great Canadian cast and was shot at night entirely all over Toronto,Ontario. I remember seeing the show being filmed all the time and for us that live in Toronto, it was always fun to figure out where abouts the scenes were shot when watching. Jeff Wincott stole the show with his under rated acting. Too bad that his brother Michael Wincott has been alot more successful that him. Scott Hylands, Sean McCann show there experiemce acting in the show as well. McCann is always great in whatever role he gets, also is a nice guy when you run into him on the streets of Toronto. The entire cast had great chemistry, one of those rare drama shows where the entire cast is talented. Too bad CBS scrapped thier CBS Late Night timeslot, but when they wanted in on the Late Night Talk Show circuit, well Night Heat had to be the sacrifice. Reruns are un up here in Canada I don't know about in the USA. One great thing about the show was they always had good guest stars like Danny Aiello, and Hector Elizondo and they were great with the cast. Another few Canadian shot shows to check out if you can are Hot Shots, Sirens and Diamonds. You will see the same Canadian actors playing bit parts in these ones. If you can catch the Night Heat reruns, I say do so. Not cheesy at all.

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?

I Feel the Niiiiiight Heat! I feel your HEEAAAAAAAAAART-beat! Something ain't right!" Theme song written by B.J. Cook from Skylark- David Foster's old band and wife. She also wrote the memorable theme from CBC's "Airwaves." OH Night Heat! What a program! Well-written, well-acted and totally classic. Crime solvers and a good team and a dash of humour at the end. I'd like to think this is really what detectives do/did. Giambone was a real favourite! On a Canadian tip, I learned EVERY Canadian actor's name and style from guest spots done on Night Heat. Everyone passed through the Night Heat set and like Law & Order, it was story-driven so you could just watch and enjoy without a lot of character melodrama.

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!