29 Years Ago In TIME

TV crime dramas are multiplying this season. Not all are as cuddly as Columbo, but the trend is a familiar one, dating back at least as far as TIME's 1973 cover on the profusion of COP SHOWS.

A crowded police-court docket, said Mark Twain, is the surest sign that trade is brisk and money plenty. The current season would seem to bear him out, with a slight twist. There is brisk betting and plentiful money riding on a schedule that is up to its antenna in crooks and crime, cops and private eyes, crusading attorneys and special investigators. In all, there...

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