In the Heat of the Night
In the Heat of the Night is a 1967 film which tells the story of a Northern African-American police detective who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a small Southern town. Approximately 20 years later, a television series based on the movie was made, and ran for seven seasons.
Film
The movie starred Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs, Rod Steiger as William Gillespie, Warren Oates, Lee Grant, Larry Gates, James Patterson, William Schallert and Beah Richards.
The movie was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the novel of the same name by American author John Ball. It was directed by Norman Jewison.
It won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Rod Steiger), Best Film Editing, Best Picture, Best Sound and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. It was nominated for Best Director and Best Effects, Sound Effects.
In the Heat of the Night was followed by two sequels, They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! in 1970, and The Organization in 1971.
In 2002 the United States Library of Congress deemed the original film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Television series
In 1988, a television series based on the movie premiered, starring 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. Gillespie was a crusty small town police chief.
The show dealt with a variety of issues. These included racism, drug abuse, rape, murder, incest, government corruption, drunk driving, among others.
The television series also starred,
- 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. Althea did not reappear for the seventh season, and her character was written out as Althea had divorced Virgil and moved back to Pennsylvania.
- 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.
- David Hart played Parker Williams. Parker generally sat behind the dispatcher's desk.
- Lois Nettleton played Joanne St. John from 1989 to 1990. She was the owner of the Magnolia Cafe, a popular eatry in Sparta. After it was revealed that she was once a prostitute, Joanne 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 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 as 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.
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 highway 20, while the real town is nowhere near an interstate. During the first season, Hammond, Louisiana was the site of the show's production. In the second season, the show was moved to Covington, Georgia, and it remained there for the rest of its run.
The show used creative measures to explain the abscences 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. During this time JoeDon Baker was brought in to replace him as the acting chief.
In the seventh and final season of the series, a number of changes were made to the show. Both Anne-Marie Johnson and Howard Rollins had left the show, and their characters were written out of the series. 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.
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 lymphona. Finally, on June 28, 2001, Carroll O'Connor, who had been suffering from diabetes, died after having had a heart attack.
