Who is your favorite TV cop?

[exitseven]

There have been dozens of cops on TV bringing the bad guys to justice in 60 minutes. Who is your fave?

Columbo

Starsky and Hutch

Police Woman (Pepper Anderson)

Baretta

Steve McGarrett

Leroy Jethro Gibbs

Who else?

Updates

1 y

There was a show that nobody watched called Life On Mars. It starred Jason O'Gara as a cop that gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973. It had a couple of good storyline and some Sci fi as well. Too bad it was only on for a year.

[Sparkie460]

My favorite woman is Mariska. My favorite guy is Voight. My old favorite is starsky and hutch

[exitseven]

did you know she is Jayne Mansfield's daughter?

[Sparkie460]

I heard that a while ago but I didn't know if it was true.

Thanks for the mho

[abc3643]

Detective Robert Goren of the NYPD's Major Case Squad on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent".

[NamerOfStars]

It may be an age thing, but I was always partial to Lennie Briscoe:

[exitseven]

Lennie was the most realistic cop on TV. An ex boozer with 3 ex wives.

[SnowedIn]

Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby from Midsomer Murders.

[smahala1991]

Andy Taylor, Sgt Friday, The Criminal Minds Italian guy

[CaptainSmartass]

The guy off Criminal Minds is the fella who played Fat Tony in The Simpsons, hence I now call him Fat Tony.

[WhiteSteve]

I had a pretty traumatic experience with a police officer as a young child that sort of turned me sour on law enforcement from a very young age, so they’ve rarely been characters I root for, I’ve never really seen them as unequivocal “good guys”, they can be just as bad as anyone else. Don’t need to have a whole to-do about my unconventional social views for the umpteenth time, lmao, I just say that to preface my answer, as it’s tough for me to find heroic police figures between my childhood experience and then later endeavors as an adult made us natural enemies in the wild. And nowadays, they wouldn’t even care about said endeavors, they’d be legal, and that further bolsters my feelings of how arbitrary the “laws” are. Ok, I’ll shut up about that now, but I guess I’m just saying a cop character needs to be cool as hell for me to get invested in them, because these are people aiming to take away people’s freedom, and that offends me, regardless of most behaviors.

Ok, shut up already about your Wild West dreams, Steve-O😂😂😂 Anywhoooooo… Chief Wiggum definitely gets strong consideration. I liked some of the cops on The Wire, and I appreciated that there were good and bad cops, and good and bad players in the drug trade. I thought that was more true-to-life, I get very bored by the “cops = good; criminals = bad” trope on TV. It’s just been done so many times, you know? I thought McNulty was an absolutely jabroni, despite being marketed as the most intriguing character. I’m also pretty worn out by the “rogue cop who bends the rules but means well”, that’s wicked tired. But guys like Det. Freamon and Lt. Daniels seemed mostly on the up-and-up. I *almost* liked Hank on Breaking Bad, but again, for all he was likable, I keep coming back to “a good day at work for this guys is robbing other humans of DECADES of freedom. Short of rape or diddling little kids, there aren’t a lot of offenses where I’m comfortable with that being the punishment.

These guys run afoul of those principles too, for me, but I’m going to overlook it and make Hanson and Penhall *as the McQuaid Brothers* on 21 Jump Street. I love that these dudes just infiltrate the school, not as wallflower students, but as obnoxious bullies😂😂😂 Again, air quotes “drug dealers” aren’t really the people I’m looking to clean out of society. People love drugs, they sell themselves, and if you can make it happen without getting violent (which, contrary to popular belief, is the norm, not the outlier), then I really don’t trip about that, especially as long as alcohol is such an accepted fabric of our social scene. I’ve seen a whooooolllllleeeee heck of a lot more families damaged by alcohol than literally any other substance. So it’s really tough to root for the cops on that front, for me, anyway. That said, I love the 80s bully vibe of “the McQuaid Brothers”, even though I don’t necessarily agree with what supposed crime they’re trying to stop in most of the cases. Also, these are the dumbest drug dealers ever. Gradually escalating orders from two new dudes who just showed up at school? Have some goddamn street smarts for me one time😂

https://www.youtube.com/embed/uSouFFfO8to

[Lliam]

Sheriff Andy Taylor

Jack Lord, Hawaii Five O

Were Charlie's Angels Cops? LOL
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Kate-Jackson-and-Jaclyn-Smith-and-Farrah-Fawcett-in-Charlie-s-Angels-iconic-hands-together-angels-pose-24x36-Poster/889000034?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=3139&adid=22222222227000000000&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=42423897272&wl4=pla-51320962143&wl5=9032555&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=127817710&wl11=online&wl12=889000034&veh=sem

[AviatorTom]

Mariska Hargitay - Law and Order

[MCheetah]

Damn. I just realize that woman has been a TV cop longer than most actual cops stay cops!
24 years; 526 episodes. God damn!
www.imdb.com/name/nm0002127/?ref_=tt_cl_t_1

[exitseven]

I always thought that Elliot Stabler was good on that show.

[MCheetah]

Carl Winslow (Family Matters.)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/JP7oMuQeeLE

And when you said "Police Woman," I thought you were referring to her by a generic title and I started cracking up! I didn't know that was an actual TV show. I thought you were like, "Oh, and let's not forget the chick! Female cop lady! The tits with a badge!"

[DenizLikesTennis]

He isn't really a cop but plays the similar role

Agent K from the movie Men in Black (Bad Boy personality, too)

[exitseven]

Tommy Lee was in the movie The Fugitive. He was a cool US Marshal in that.

[dustybiker]

Constable, Tom. From “800 words”.

[exitseven]

must be a new show?

[dustybiker]

No it’s from New Zealand/Australia. Been around a while. Think it had five seasons. Wish it was more.

They have the first couple seasons free on Roku app.

It’s my migraine show. If I’m going to have a 19 hour forced coma I binge it on dvd in the background. Very kooky. Love it.

[exitseven]

There are so many channels that I don't subscribe to I cannot keep them all straight.

[dustybiker]

Yeah. I get it.

[sage2021]

Joe Friday from Dragnet. That program comes on every weekday early in the morning. I still love watching it.

[exitseven]

Joe Friday was a classic cop. There was a Dragnet movie that was made before the Miranda Warning was a thing. Joe Friday was trampling all over some perp's rights. Ah , the good old days.

[USLegionary]

Colombo. I love how he plays stupid every episode and there's always the criminal who's a high society actor, Doctor, accountant, proffessor or something that hubris enough to think they can fool and outsmart him.

https://youtu.be/9rVc62E53tM

[Iron_Man]

I know they’re both a Tag Team two cops, but you forgot Chips motorcycle cops

[SnowedIn]

Ponch and John!!! AWESOME!

[exitseven]

@Iron_Man There were so many choices, Ponch and John just missed making the cut.

[Iron_Man]

Oh ok

[DaisyM23]

My favourite police drama is probably SVU so one from there, and I really like the squad in Brooklyn 99

[humanearth]

Joe Friday

[tfan1]

Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon on the original Dragnet tv show 👍🙂

[CaptainSmartass]

Bodie & Doyle:

But from your list, it'd be Gibbs and Chief Wiggum.

Simples...

[Guy13]

This girl I'm hanging out with. She's OCD and a "hunch type", not sneaky, and transparent... It's not psycho but don't forget or leave something laying around. There's no asking just a statement of considered Fact.

[Havthrills]

Out of all these, Columbo. He was amazing. I remember the one where he solved it by only finding a piece of cheese in the trash.

[FunkyMonkee]

In fact, I'm thinking about watching Columbo again, soon!!

[FunkyMonkee]

McGarrett? Wasn't that part of the Masters Of Cheese Collection?

[Kreneman]

My favorite is "Hunter" play by Fred Dyer.