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For other things named In the Heat of the Night, see In the Heat of the Night (disambiguation).

In the Heat of the Night
Format	Crime / Drama
Starring	Carroll O'Connor Howard E. Rollins Jr. Alan Autry David Hart Hugh O'Connor
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	142
Production
Running time	60 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC / CBS
Original run	March 6, 1988 – May 16, 1995
External links
IMDb profile

In the Heat of the Night is a television series based on the motion picture, In the Heat of the Night that ran from 1988 to 1994. It starred Carroll O'Connor as William Gillespie and Howard Rollins as Virgil Tibbs. Tibbs had traveled to the Sparta area for his mother's funeral. He was persuaded to remain by the city government, who had felt the need to make the city's police department more diverse.

William "Bill" Champlin of the band Chicago sings the opening theme song.

The series originally ran on NBC for five seasons, premiering in March 1988 and running there until it was dropped from the NBC lineup in the spring of 1992. CBS then picked it up for two more seasons, with the series coming to an end in May 1994.

Contents 1 Overview 1.1 Commonly dealt issues 1.2 Second season 1.3 Seventh season 2 The cast 2.1 Recurring cast 3 Episodes 4 Locations 5 External links

The show dealt with a variety of issues. These included racism, drug abuse, rape, murder, incest, government corruption, drunk driving, among others.

The show used creative measures to explain the absences of its key characters at times. Howard Rollins also had problems of his own with drugs. While Rollins was in rehab, Rollins absence was explained as Virgil being in New Orleans doing work with the FBI. When Carroll O'Connor had open heart surgery during the closing weeks of the second season, his absence was explained as Gillespie having traveled out of town to attend a police convention as well as being kidnapped by white supremacists. During this time Joe Don Baker was brought in to replace him as the acting chief.

The second season ended in a cliffhanger in which Gillespie had been kidnapped by white supremacists. The second part of the cliffhanger was delayed because Carroll O'Connor wanted first to have the episode shown in which Althea Tibbs was raped shown at the beginning of the third season. This second part of the cliff hanger - "Anniversary" - was shown several weeks later as a flash back in which Gillespie was discussing with a government official the aftermath of his kidnapping at the end of the second season.

In the seventh and final season of the series, a number of changes were made to the show. Anne-Marie Johnson had left the series to star on In Living Color, and Howard Rollins had been dropped from the show due to continued legal problems. Their characters were written out of the series. (Howard Rollins would make a few more guest appearances until further legal troubles led to his being banned entirely from the county where the series was filmed). The police uniforms had undergone subtle alterations. Gillespie was finally fired by the city council after several of its members conspired to remove him from the police force. Gillespie was replaced by former FBI agent Hampton Forbes, played by Carl Weathers. Gillespie was soon appointed Sheriff by the county after the previous Sheriff had become too ill to continue his duties. Also, in the opening, instead of still drawings of the cast, the images were now chroma-keyed moving images.

Actor	Role
Carroll O'Connor	Played the lead role of William O. "Bill" Gillespie. Gillespie was a crusty but honorable small town police chief. At first resentful of Virgil Tibbs he would later become very close to Virgil and the rest of the Tibbs family. For the first six seasons he was the chief of the Sparta Police Department until he was fired at the beginning of the 7th season. He would then become interim Sheriff after the previous Sheriff became too ill to continue his duties. Gillespie was married at one time to Anna, who became pregnant - both she and their son would die in childbirth. He also had an older daughter Lana by Georgia Farren. Gillespie eventually fell in love with Harriett DeLong.
Howard Rollins	Starred in the lead role of Virgil Tibbs. An African-American, he had grown up in Sparta but later moved north and became a police detective. He would later return to Sparta after being offered a job as chief of detectives with the city police department. At first Tibbs and Gillespie butted heads, but would soon become close friends - Gillespie even became a godfather to Virgil and Althea's twins. Even though some city council members wanted to make him chief, Tibbs firmly rebuffed their offers, preferring to work with Gillespie. After continued legal problems, Rollins was dropped from the series in 1993, and Tibbs was written out of the series as having left the community following his graduation from law school. Tibbs would return as a guest star several times during the 7th season in his new role as an attorney before Rollins was permanently barred from the county where the series was filmed after another arrest.
Anne-Marie Johnson	Starred as Virgil's wife Althea Tibbs. She starred in that role for six seasons. Althea's life in Sparta was very rough, having been raped at the beginning of the third season, and suffering a mental breakdown later after witnessing the suicide of one of her students. Althea did not reappear for the seventh season, and her character was written out as Althea had divorced Virgil and moved back to Pennsylvania. In reality, Johnson left the show for a role on the Fox Television sketch comedy show In Living Color.
Alan Autry	Played "Bubba" Skinner. Skinner was something of a redneck. He was also a sort of ladies man around town. He eventually became close friends with the Tibbs family. Skinner was from a large family. Eventually Skinner rose to the rank of Captain.
David Hart	Played Parker Williams. Parker generally sat behind the dispatcher's desk, although he would also be assigned to patrol duty. Parker was a Vietnam veteran.
Lois Nettleton	Played Joanne St. John from 1988 to 1989. She was the owner of the Magnolia Cafe, a popular eatery in Sparta (as seen in the show's opening). After it was revealed that Joanne was once a prostitute, she eventually left Sparta.
Hugh O'Connor	Played the role of Lonnie Jamison, an officer on the Sparta police force. O'Connor was the adopted son of Carroll O'Connor. O'Connor had gotten his son this role as a way of keeping Hugh close to him, and in the hopes of keeping him away from drugs.
Geoffrey A. Thorne	Joined the cast as Wilson Sweet in 1988. Aside from Tibbs, Sweet was one of the first African Americans to join the force.
Crystal R. Fox	Played Luanne Corbin. After the first African American woman to join the force died in the line of duty on her first day on the job, Corbin was recruited to take her place.
Carl Weathers	Joined the cast in the final season as Hampton Forbes. A former FBI agent, Forbes was picked to lead the department after the firing of Bill Gillespie. Forbes was the first African-American chief of the department. Forbes became friends with Gillespie, and would often work closely with him when Gillespie became sheriff. Weathers was a replacement for Howard Rollins, who had been dropped from the series after continued legal problems.

Actor	Role
Jen Harper	Dr. Day
Thom Gossom Jr.	Ted Marcus
Fran Bennett	Ruda Gibson
Karen Carlson	Sarah Hallisey
Rugg Williams	Eugene Glendon
Wallace Merck	Colmer
Christine Elise McCarthy	Lana Gillespie - Gillespie's daughter.
Bob Penny	Alvin Epp
Scott Brian Higgs	Randy Calhoun
Afemo Omilami	Jimmy Dawes
Burgess Meredeth	Judge
Stuart Culpepper	Judge
Joe Don Baker	Captain Tom Dugan - A retired police captain, Dugan appeared on the last four episodes of the second season. Baker was brought in as a stand-in for Carroll O'Connor while O'Connor was recovering from open heart surgery. Dugan was placed in the department by the FBI to uncover a plot by white supremacists to assassinate a civil rights leader. Dugan was murdered by these same white supremacists at the end of the second season. His nephew, who had become involved with these people, later agreed to help the police.
Ron Culbreth	Sheriff Nathan McComb - the former county sheriff. Culbreth appeared on nine episodes as Sheriff McComb. In the 7th season, McComb became too ill to continue his duties, and Gillespie was appointed as acting sheriff in his place. Prior to his appearances as McComb, Culbreth also appeared on the episode Missing in another guest role.
Maureen Dowdell	Tracy Boggs
Pat Hingle	Roy Eversole - Parker Williams' father. Hot tempered, Eversole had a great deal of difficulty maintaining steady employment. Eversole was once a murder suspect after getting into a heated argument with a former employer, who was subsequently found dead a short time later.

Three of the actors who played main characters in the series have since died. Hugh O'Connor, who had played Jamison, committed suicide on March 28, 1995, after having had problems with drugs for many years. He was then followed by Howard Rollins on December 8, 1996, who had died of complications from lymphoma. Finally, on June 28, 2001, Carroll O'Connor, who had been suffering from diabetes, died after having had a heart attack.

• Main article: In the Heat of the Night episodes

The television series also took place in a fictionalized version of Sparta, Mississippi. While there is a real Sparta, the version of Sparta shown on television is very different than the real town. For example, the TV Sparta is situated along Interstate 20, while the real town is nowhere near any interstate. During the first season, Hammond, Louisiana was the site of the show's production. In the second season, the show was moved to Georgia, and it remained there for the rest of its run. The principal area of Sparta was in fact downtown Covington, Georgia. Rural scenes were filmed in a wide surrounding area, in the Georgia counties of Newton (where Covington is located), Rockdale, Walton, and Morgan. In fact during the series's run many of the cast members had homes in the area and were often spotted in local restaurants and retail stores. The cast members would also go around to local schools to speak to students.

• In the Heat of the Night (TV series) at the Internet Movie Database