8 Procedurals From the ’90s Dying for a Revival (PHOTOS)
Murder, She Wrote
This CBS series starring Angela Lansbury as a widowed mystery writer-turned-crime solver ran for 12 years between 1984 and 1996 (and almost got a reboot starring Octavia Spencer a few years ago). Lansbury, for one, seems game for a revival. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we got together just one more time,” she told the Sunday Post in 2017.
Homicide: Life on the Street
This seminal crime drama, which ran on NBC from 1993 to 1999, has been ranked on multiple “best of all time” lists. Plus, it introduced Detective John Munch, a character Richard Belzer played across all seven seasons of Homicide and the first 15 seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Walker, Texas Ranger
Speaking of eponymous crimefighters, we’d be remiss to mention the one and only Chuck Norris, who starred in this action crime drama for its run on CBS between 1993 and 2001. Besides, fans need some sort of resolution for that cliffhanger in the 2005 TV movie Trial by Fire.
Silk Stalkings
For eight seasons between 1991 and 1999 on CBS and USA, this procedural followed a coterie of detectives — played by the likes of Rob Estes and Mitzi Kapture — as they investigated sex crimes in Palm Beach, Florida. A revival is necessary… if only because Mitzi Kapture is a name that needs to be on TV.
Third Watch
Why limit a show to just cops or just firefighters or just paramedics when you could have all three? Plus, this NBC show — which ran from 1999 to 2005 on NBC — starred a ton of TV favorites, including Grey’s Anatomy‘s Kim Raver, Boardwalk Empire‘s Bobby Cannavale, Take Two’s Eddie Cibrian, and NCIS: Los Angeles’ Nia Long.
Nash Bridges
Before he was the co-showrunner of Lost, Carlton Cuse was the creator of this San Francisco-set police drama, which starred Miami Vice alum Don Johnson as the titular police inspector and comedian Cheech Marin as his partner. The show ran for six seasons between 1996 and 2001 on CBS.
Matlock
TV legend Andy Griffith returned to the small screen for this NBC-turned-ABC show, playing a nattily-dressed, hot-dog loving, Crown Victoria-driving Atlanta defense attorney across nine seasons between 1986 and 1995. Griffith passed away in 2012, but perhaps Matlock’s lawyer daughter could carry a reboot?
Diagnosis: Murder
Matlock’s hot dog fixation was explained in an episode of this CBS medical crime drama, which ran from 1993 to 2001, with Mary Poppins star Dick Van Dyke and his son Barry as a father-son crime-solving team. And no shade to McSteamy, but Dick Van Dyke was the original Dr. Mark Sloan!
The NCIS franchise is paying homage to the show from which it spun off a decade and a half ago, staging a JAG reunion with both David James Elliott and Catherine Bell reprising their roles as Navy Captain Harmon Rabb Jr. and Lieutenant Colonel Sarah “Mac” MacKenzie this season on NCIS: Los Angeles.
Might this nostalgia rush actually be a backdoor pilot for a JAG revival? One can only hope! But while we’re on the topic of 1990s procedurals, here are eight more we’d like to see back on the TV lineup.
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