TV Critic Lee Siegel was interviewed about the evolving
television landscape on NPR's "Talk of the Nation"
yesterday.
Someone asked him what happened to the Private Eye driven
shows. Siegel said that Cowboy shows were replaced by PIs -
PIs by "realistic" cop shows driven by the success NYPD Blue
- and that this has since splintered into "realistic" cop
shows by actual police in "Cops" and hyper-real shows like
CSI, Law and Order, and (in a much different way) The
Shield.
His observations about Westerns was the Sheriff represented a
man working within the law (while wearing over-sized hats) -
PIs fit a time when the law itself was often suspect so you
needed an outsider (often sans hat) to do the job - and NYPD
Blue eliminated the need for outsiders because they were
already there - on the squad. Plus, NYPD Blue often featured
folks with no hats, pants, shirts or blouses.
The NPR wesite features an excerpt from his book, a chapter
on Why Cop Shows Are Eternal
John Stickney
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