SYNOPSIS

One of the more realistic police shows to be seen on TV was Police Story, created by former Los Angeles policeman Joseph Wambaugh. After retiring from the force, Wambaugh had written two highly successful novels about police operations, The New Centurions and The Blue Knight (The Blue Knight also became a TV series.) Joseph was a consultant on the show, insuring that everything was treated with authenticity.

Stories revolved around the more mundane aspects of police work as well as the excitement. They touched on psychology of individual officers and even dealt with their home lives, how there jobs affected their families, and personal problems such as drinking, forced retirement and injuries suffered on the job.

Although Police Story was an anthology, characters occasionally made return appearances. The most notable were: Tony Lo Bianco as Tony Calabrese and Don Meredith as Bert Jameson. Two episodes from Police Story went on to become series of their own, "The Gamble" was aired on March 26, 1974 with Angie Dickinson in the role of policewoman Lisa Beaumont. That fall, with her name changed to Pepper Anderson, she became Police Woman. "The Return of Joe Forrester" aired on May 6, 1975 and became Joe Forrester that fall, with Lloyd Bridges re-creating his role.

NBC aired occasional two-hour specials after the series ended its weekly production. More than 10 years after leaving NBC, ABC aired four new Police Story movies at the beginning of the 1988-1989 season, using scripts from the original production to fill in for its strike-delayed ABC Saturday Mystery Movie. There were no recurring characters. The leads included Ken Olin as a troubled cop, Jack Warden as a cop who didn't want to retire and Robert Conrad as an imprisoned cop.