Wiseguy
An undercover agent left inside one organisation for a whole arc at a time, which is roughly where American television learned to serialise.
Wiseguy opens with a main title sequence of 76 seconds.
At 76 seconds, it opens well above the 47-second median for crime sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on CBS in 1987, when Candid Camera, Guiding Light and As the World Turns were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
76sFan upload. A producer's name card in it confirms the sequence; a small channel watermark sits in the corner.
More crime opening titles from the 1980s
1 sequenceMiami Vice
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1 sequenceMurder, She Wrote
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1 sequenceAgatha Christie's Poirot
Art Deco geometry and Christopher Gunning's theme — a title sequence that establishes the period, the register and the fastidiousness of the detective in one gesture.
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1 sequenceMagnum, P.I.
Hawaii, a Ferrari and a moustache, over a theme so brash it dates the decade to within about eighteen months.
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1 sequenceMatlock
Andy Griffith as a defence attorney in a grey suit, nine seasons long.
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1 sequenceIn the Heat of the Night
The 1967 film continued as a series, with Carroll O'Connor as the chief.
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