Night Heat is a Canadian police crime drama series that aired on both CTV in Canada and CBS in the United States. Original episodes were broadcast from 1985 to 1989. Night Heat was the first Canadian original drama series that was also aired on a United States television network during its original broadcast. It was also the first original, first-run drama series to be aired during a late night time slot on a television network in the United States.
During its original run it was the highest-rated Canadian-produced original series in Canada. The show won the Gemini Award for Best Drama Series in both 1986 and 1987.
The show stars Scott Hylands and Jeff Wincott as police detectives Kevin O'Brien and Frank Giambone who work the graveyard shift in an unnamed northeastern North American metropolis. The series follows their nightly police beat as it is chronicled by journalist Tom Kirkwood (Allan Royal) in his newspaper column titled "Night Heat".
Synopsis
Allan Royal plays Tom Kirkwood, a journalist who writes a newspaper column titled "Night Heat" where he chronicles the nightly police beat of detectives Kevin O'Brien, played by Scott Hylands, and Frank Giambone, played by Jeff Wincott. O'Brien is a tough, cynical, veteran police officer and Giambone is his younger, hot-tempered partner. Kirkwood also serves as the show's narrator; his voice-over commentary starts and ends each episode, recapping the lessons learned and acting as a sort of Greek chorus.
The name of the city in which the show takes place is never mentioned. Each episode represents a single night's shift and, as a result, crimes often remain unresolved by the end of the show.
Cast
Main
Scott Hylands as Detective Kevin O'Brien
Jeff Wincott as Detective Frank Giambone
Allan Royal as columnist Thomas J. Kirkwood
Sean McCann as Lieutenant James Hogan
Eugene Clark as Detective Colby Burns
Stephen Mendel as Detective Freddie Carson
Susan Hogan as Nichole Rimbaud
Louise Vallance as Detective Stephanie "Stevie" Brody (season 1 and part of season 2)
Recurring
Wendy Crewson as Prosecutor Dorothy Fredricks (first 6 episodes of season 1) Lynda Mason Green as Detective Fleece Toland (first 6 episodes of season 1) Tony Rosato as Arthur "Whitey" Morelli Clark Johnson as Detective David Jefferson Deborah Grover as Prosecutor Elaine Jeffers Laura McKinlay Robinson as Detective Christine Meadows Robert Morelli as Joey Sanza
Production
Concept and development
Night Heat was conceived by Sonny Grosso, a former New York City Police Department detective. Grosso served was the show's executive producer along with his partner, Larry Jacobson.
Grosso had over 20 years experience in law enforcement, later working as a narcotics detective. He and his former NYPD partner, Eddie Egan, were the detectives responsible for bringing an end to the infamous drug smuggling ring known as the French Connection. Grosso served as technical adviser on the film based on the investigation. He also worked as a consultant for the film The Godfather and as story editor for the TV series The Rockford Files, Kojak and Baretta.
Grosso and Jacobson were originally approached by CBS to produce a docudrama series following actual police officers, but they considered the potential risk in filming people who had not yet been convicted of a crime and decided against it. Grosso came up with the idea of creating a police series that would feature a realistic look at police work in a documentary style, similar to the 1950s/1960s police drama Naked City. He wanted to depict the life of the everyday police officer, in contrast to the slicker, high-action, high-drama, yuppie-oriented police series of the time such as Miami Vice and Hill Street Blues. The pilot episode was written by Don Flynn, a crime reporter with the New York Daily News.
Filming
Grosso and Jacobson decided to produce their show in Toronto, Canada, otherwise the production costs would have been too expensive for CBS's late-night budget. At the time one could film in Toronto for less than half the cost of a major American city—Canadian union scale was lower and the American-to-Canadian dollar exchange rate was also favorable. The show featured an all-Canadian cast and crew and was partially funded by the Government of Canada. For Hylands, a 21-year veteran actor, frequently seen playing villains in U.S. TV shows during the 1970s and early 1980s, this was the first time he had been given a leading role, or the role of a "good guy."