What are your favorite US & UK made cop and public detective TV shows?

What are currently your 3 or 4 (or even 5, if not enough) personal
favorite older classic and / or recent classic (as in any shows made
from the 1980's up to present day)
US and UK made police drama - cop or public detective genre shows and
please say
why, for each show named. Any private detective genre shows are

jayembee...

Five Favorite Classic Cop Dramas:

(1) NAKED CITY
(2) THE UNTOUCHABLES
(3) COLUMBO
(4) THE F.B.I.
(5) HIGHWAY PATROL

Five Favorite "Recent" Cop Dramas (US):

(1) THE WIRE
(2) HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET
(3) THE SHIELD
(4) WISEGUY
(5) NYPD BLUE

Five Favorite "Recent" Cop Dramas (UK):

(1) CRACKER
(2) PRIME SUSPECT
(3) LIFE ON MARS
(4) BETWEEN THE LINES
(5) JERICHO

excluded.

Electric Frog...

1. Life on Mars
2. Hill Street Blues (I'm so enjoying the DVD's)
3. Law and Order (the early seasons, it's gone off now)
4. Sledgehammer

Electric Frog...

Actually I'd like to add "Inspector Morse", probably at #3

Dolemite...

The original 'Cracker' from the UK starring Robbie Coltrane and 'Wire in the
Blood' from the UK as well starring Robson Green.

jayembee...

Nonsense. *Some* of the UK police dramas "are for grown-ups". As
good as a number of them are (including the two you mention, there
are a number of others that, while still perhaps entertaining, are
just as silly and soap-opera-ish as their American counterparts.

And some US cop dramas like HOMICIDE, THE WIRE, and NAKED CITY
are as good as or better than anything from the UK (including the
two you mention).

The UK police/crime dramas blow away anything in the US. They are for
grown-ups.

Robert...

- Hill Street Blues

- Crime Story

hobbyfan...

PI's excluded? Are you daft, man?

Here's my list for your qualifications:

Dragnet
Adam-12
Starsky & Hutch
NYPD (Jack Warden)

J. C. Gilbert

Lokeli...

Hawaii 5-0

Steven L....

Besides "Adam-12" and "Dragnet," which others have already mentioned,
here are two more classics:

1. Naked City: It was a unique cop show, rarely equalled even today,
in that it had an almost sociological spin: The criminal actually lives
a real, dimensional life that we see; eventually he "interacts" with his
victim in a criminal act and we see the consequences. The cops and
their police work were actually secondary to seeing the motives and
psychology and drama of the "players"--the criminals and their victims.
But a cop show depicting criminals as real persons deserving of
understanding (and maybe even sympathy) didn't go over well with the
public and the show didn't last.

2. The Untouchables: It was the first gritty and realistic crime show.
The first couple seasons they actually dared to show organized crime
figures as obvious Italian-Americans (though they backed off later due
to political protests), and Walter Winchell's narration gave it a
realism that other cop shows didn't have. It was so action-packed and
violent that it is the source of all the controversy ever since over too
much violence on TV.