rpenland08 I have followed Carroll O' Connor for years. I have never seen him in a bad role. He even co-starred in a couple of films with the Original Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Potier) from the original "Heat" Movie(1967).The TV Series featured many famous co-stars from week to week, to include but not limited to, George C. Scott(Patton), James Best (Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane of the Dukes), Claude Akins(of Movin On fame as Sonny Pruitt- who also found fame as Sheriff Lobo), Ken Curtis (Festus Hagen of Gunsmoke), Joe Don Baker (of the Walking Tall series of movies where he played Sheriff Buford Pusser of TN), and many others. David Soul (of Starsky and Hutch fame) also directed one episode.Carroll Produced, Directed and co-wrote many of the episodes and the Casting Staff sure put together a winning hand with the cast.

djmadlad I see that there are still a lot of in "Heat" fans out there! My daughter ended up living in Covington, Ga. in 2007. I went looking for filming locations while I visited there. There is a report and guide on my findings on my web-site! I posted addresses that all fans can put in google maps "streetview" and see a picture of the actual location. I also took a few pictures while I was there. I also posted personal trivia about the show that I found out! Check it out at: www.djmadlad.com and click on "sparta, ms" My review is really on my web-site! I plan to visit Covington again soon, now that I have found more filming locations!

policy134 This show was the best movie to TV developed series as I can remember. The movie took place in the 60's and it was groundbreaking in the sense of being the first film to ever have a black man in a position of authority. Sidney Poitier was the most influential black actor then and Rod Steiger had the biggest role of his career.The series was more sanitized. You couldn't really have characters that looked like hillbillies on an 80's show. Therefore, most of the actors were rather good looking and were always impeccably dressed. The blue uniforms had neither stains nor sweat on them after the first season and the townspeople were not the mostly racist bigots you saw in the movie. The transformation was necessary for people to digest the show more easily for 80's audiences and it didn't affect the story lines which were for the most part exciting.Over the years, Carroll O'Connor's character developed into a grandfatherly figure and Howard Rollins', though arrogant at times, had a sense of humor I think the Sidney Poitier character lacked. The supporting actors were all fine, although I think Hugh O'Connor was too wooden (a shame about his premature death though). The addition of the wife, well played by Anne-Marie Johnson, was well thought out. It gave the producers a chance to have Virgil spar with someone other than Bill and especially Bubba, who developed into an enlightened man too.Every time you saw this show you felt that you were in the presence of a family unit who cared about each other and that was very comforting and it too helped to digest the rather nasty cases they would be involved in. Even though, almost a decade has passed since the show was canceled, it will always be a fond memory for me.

huge520 in the heat of the night will always be my favorite show ever, i loved that show and still catch the syndicated shows, they show on tnt here in nyc, i wish they would come out on DVD already cause id buy the whole set in a second, chicef bill gillespie, was the greatest sheriff i have ever seen and the show as a hole was awesome, i remember waiting all week to see the next weeks episode, great great great show, bubba, virgil, jamieson, and all the rest did a great job on a great show, if anyone knows of DVD release of that TV show, please let me know asap..... thank you.... its a shame that virgil, howard rollins had 2 die, to bad he was mixed up w/that junk, and the day carroll o'connor died was a very sad day for me and for all fans, of the heat and all in the family and many other shows he did,