Crime · 1970s
17 shows17 sequences
1 sequenceColumbo
1971–2003NBC / ABCCrime
Twenty-four seconds, and for much of the run no sequence at all — a series confident enough to open on the murder and let the detective arrive late.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Rockford Files
1974–1980NBCCrime
A telephone rings, an answering machine picks up, and a stranger leaves a message that is usually bad news and occasionally a joke at Rockford's expense. Then the theme starts. The private detective is introduced by the people avoiding him.
- Seasons 1–6
1 sequenceCHiPs
1977–1983NBCCrime
California Highway Patrol motorcycle officers, filmed almost entirely on freeways.
- Season 1
1 sequenceStarsky & Hutch
1975–1979ABCCrime
Two Bay City detectives and a red Ford Torino with a white stripe.
- Season 1
1 sequenceHart to Hart
1979–1984ABCCrime
A wealthy married couple who solve murders, introduced by their own butler in voiceover.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Sweeney
1975–1978ITVCrime
The Flying Squad in a Ford Granada, and the series that made British police drama violent.
- Season 1
1 sequenceS.W.A.T.
1975–1976ABCCrime
The original, cancelled after two seasons over its violence, and remembered mostly for a theme that reached number one.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Streets of San Francisco
1972–1977ABCCrime
Karl Malden and a young Michael Douglas, shot on location throughout.
- Season 1
1 sequenceQuincy, M.E.
1976–1983NBCCrime
A Los Angeles medical examiner who investigates, and the ancestor of every forensic procedural since.
- Season 1
1 sequenceBarnaby Jones
1973–1980CBSCrime
Buddy Ebsen as a retired investigator who comes back to work after his son is killed.
- Season 1
1 sequenceBaretta
1975–1978ABCCrime
An undercover detective and a cockatoo, with a Sammy Davis Jr. theme.
- Season 1
1 sequenceMcCloud
1970–1977NBCCrime
A New Mexico marshal seconded to the NYPD, part of the rotating NBC Mystery Movie wheel.
- Season 1
1 sequenceCannon
1971–1976CBSCrime
William Conrad as a private investigator, the first Quinn Martin series built around a heavy-set lead.
- Season 1
1 sequenceCharlie's Angels
1976–1981ABCCrime
Three detectives working for a voice on a speakerphone, and a title sequence that explains the entire premise in narration before a scene is played.
- Season 1
1 sequenceKojak
1973–1978CBSCrime
New York in the seventies, a lollipop, and a brass theme that has aged considerably better than the decade around it.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Professionals
1977–1983ITVCrime
Two CI5 agents and the controller who points them, in the ITV action series that spent a decade being complained about.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Protectors
1972–1974ITV (ITC)Crime
Robert Vaughn and Nyree Dawn Porter as international investigators, in half-hour episodes shot across Europe.
- Season 1