Who was the best TV detective?

[debodun]

Choose your favorite gumshoe.

 

[MACKTEXAS]

Columbo. It was clear and easy to follow. I don't like any of today's detective shows. They are frustratingly confusing.

 

[Olivia]

l liked Joe Friday. He was so direct. He didn't waste time with alot of words.

 

[OldFeller]

Columbo. It was clear and easy to follow. I don't like any of today's detective shows. They are frustratingly confusing.

I can watch this show anytime. It always keeps my attention. It's because solving the case is secondary to the details involved in the story.

Most shows, where you're not supposed to know who the suspect really is, it ends up being the really nice guy who delivered the flowers in the first half of the show.

 

[debodun]

l liked Joe Friday. He was so direct. He didn't waste time with alot of words.

"Just the facts, Ma'am."

 

[debodun]

The COZI TV channel shows a lot of Columbo episodes on Saturdays.

 

[dilettante]

Sam Spade, Batman, Peter Gunn

 

[-Oy-]

Columbo by a mile!

If you get chance read Peter Falk's Autobiography "Just one more thing." Fascinating and funny in parts.

 

[dilettante]

Sam Spade, Batman, Peter Gunn

Oops! TV. Ok but Gunn was on TV at least.

 

[OldFeller]

Columbo by a mile!

If you get chance read Peter Falk's Autobiography "Just one more thing." Fascinating and funny in parts.

I've seen him tell his story of becoming an actor in interviews. He's a good story teller.
When I see him as the cab driver in It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World and playing a gangster in Murder, Inc, I would never have foreseen him becoming such a good actor in the role as Columbo.

 

[RadishRose]

Adrian Monk

 

[Rae]

James Garner in Rockford files and Tom Selleck in Magnum PI were the ones I liked.

 

[Trade]

Joe Friday was the best IMO.

But I would also give honorable mention to Sonny Crockett and Lieutenant Castillo from Miami Vice and Angel Batista from Dexter.

​

 

[Aunt Bea]

I liked them all, also Mr. Lucky, The Saint, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Mannix, and probably many others that I can’t recall.

 

[Jules]

There aren’t many detective shows that I didn’t like.

 

[chic]

If Sherlock Holmes counts then he has always been my favorite and no one has played him as well as Jeremy Brett. For purely tv detectives I've got to say Peter Falk as Columbo.

 

[Marie5656]

Mr Monk is my favorite

 

[Kaila]

Perry Mason?

(Raymond Burr)

I know, specifically was a defense lawyer, but did the detective work for his own cases.

 

[jlhog]

Sonny Crocket did not make the list?

 

[ChiroDoc]

Sam Spade, Batman, Peter Gunn

Heh, heh. I don't know if Peter Gunn (Craig Stevens) was the best TV detective, but no one was even close to his sizzling relationship with his drop dead alluring girlfriend, Edie Hart (Lola Albright)!.. What chemistry!

 

[MarkinPhx]

Gillian Anderson playing detective Stella Gibson on The Fall. I have my reasons why

 

[Trade]

Debra Morgan on Dexter. She was actually my favorite character on the whole series.

 

[JustDave]

I'm not a fan of the genre, but I chose Joe Friday, because about the time he was on, he not only dominated TV detective shows, he also stood out as the most important thing on prime time television, at least in my young mind. I got a bigger kick out of Columbo, and I almost chose him, but there was also better stuff on TV during his reign.

 

[Nathan]

Actually Andre Braugher, as Detective Frank Pembleton in "Homicide:Life on the Streets".

 

[Naturally]

William Conrad ~ Cannon 1971-1976
... he drove a nicer car than Columbo