An odd show, if you watch it closely. First of all, it ran from 1958 until 1963 and it was about honest cops in New York City. It had some great performers, but some of the scripts, especially those done by Sterling Silliphant, were a little pretentious bordering on klutzy. Not as stilted, formulated, pretentious or klutzy as Dragnet, but borderline. The other thing interesting is in the episodes done in 1961 the detectives drove brand new Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs but the blue suits guys drove 1953-54 Fords. In one episode the mean hit man, whose speciality was killing people with a car, drove a 1950 or 1951 Buick chasing the cops who were in a 1950 Oldsmoblie. Now that's low budget. The character of the main focus, a hard working detective played by James Franciscus, is a little too introspective and self doubting to be a good New York street cop. The same demeanor was carried on by Paul Burke. A cop in New York with those kinds of hang ups would have lasted about one month. New York City, even in those days, was a lot more interesting than the show is able to present it. No real New York native characters. Just the mysterious Emerald City and hard working, deticated public servant cops putting it all on the line. That and Wheaties is as all-American as in got on TV back then. Good show for car buffs who like to see the old machines in action again, though.
Review of Naked City
