Night Heat

• Scott Hylands as Detective Kevin O'Brien
• Jeff Wincott as Detective Frank Giambone
• Allan Royal as columnist Thomas J. Kirkwood
• Sean McCann as Lieutenant James Hogan
• Eugene Clark as Detective Colby Burns
• Stephen Mendel as Detective Freddie Carson
• Susan Hogan as Nichole Rimbaud
• Louise Vallance as Detective Stephanie "Stevie" Brody (season 1)

• Wendy Crewson as Prosecutor Dorothy Fredricks (season 1)
• Lynda Mason Green as Detective Fleece Toland (season 1)
• Tony Rosato as Arthur "Whitey" Morelli
• Clark Johnson as Detective David Jefferson
• Deborah Grover as Prosecutor Elaine Jeffers
• Laura McKinlay Robinson as Detective Christine Meadows
• Robert Morelli as Joey Sanza

Night Heat was conceived by Sonny Grosso, a former New York City Police Department detective.[3][10][16] Grosso served was the show's executive producer along with his partner, Larry Jacobson.[3][4]

Grosso had over 20 years experience in law enforcement, later working as a narcotics detective.[3][7][10][13] He and his former NYPD partner, Eddie Egan, were the detectives responsible for bringing an end to the infamous drug smuggling ring known as the French Connection.[10][16][17] Grosso served as technical adviser on the film based on the investigation.[3] He also worked as a consultant for the film The Godfather and as story editor for the TV series The Rockford Files, Kojak and Baretta.[3][18]

Grosso and Jacobson were originally approached by CBS to produce a docudrama series following actual police officers, but they considered the potential risk in filming people who had not yet been convicted of a crime and decided against it.[19] Grosso came up with the idea of creating a police series that would feature a realistic look at police work in a documentary style, similar to the 1950s/1960s police drama Naked City.[4][20] He wanted to depict the life of the everyday police officer, in contrast to the slicker, high-action, high-drama, yuppie-oriented police series of the time such as Miami Vice and Hill Street Blues.[3][13][14] The pilot episode was written by Don Flynn, a crime reporter with the New York Daily News.[7][21]

The cast of Night Heat. From left to right, Stephen Mendel, Sean McCann, Eugene A. Clark, Louise Vallance, Scott Hylands, Jeff Wincott, and Allan Royal.

Grosso and Jacobson decided to produce their show in Toronto, Canada, as otherwise the production costs would have been too expensive for CBS's late-night budget.[7] At the time one could film in Toronto for less than half the cost of a major American city—Canadian union scale was lower and the American-to-Canadian dollar exchange rate was also favorable.[4][7][9] The show featured an all-Canadian cast and crew and was partially funded by the Government of Canada.[6][16][17] For Hylands, a 21-year veteran actor, frequently seen playing villains in U.S. TV shows during the 1970s and early 1980s, this was the first time he had been given a leading role, or the role of a "good guy." [12]

The series was shot entirely at night between the hours of 6pm and 4am, which also made it easier to film since there was less traffic and it was easier to close down streets.[4][22] The lower budget also meant that the show did not contain high speed car chases or shootouts with heavy calibre weapons.[2][4][13] As a result, the show was more reliant on story and dialogue to capture audiences.[2][4]

Night Heat was filmed on 16mm film using hand-held cameras, instead of the Hollywood-standard 35mm film, giving the series a grainy, documentary-style look.[10][17][23] Much of the show was shot at the site of the former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital, which served as the series' police station;[3][16] described as a "grim and forbidding setting," the hospital fit in with the gritty look that the show's producer, Robert Lantos wanted.[3][24]

Filming a police drama aimed at both Canadian and American audiences in an unidentified city presented a unique set of challenges: The crew had to avoid capturing shots of landmarks and other objects that would give away that it was not an American city, such as Toronto Police cars, Esso stations and the CN Tower.[6][18] While much of the show's dialogue included American law-enforcement terminology (for example: they referred to police "precincts" instead of "divisions", and characters had ranks such as officers, detectives and lieutenants instead of constables, sergeants and inspectors), they avoided terms from the American criminal justice system such as "grand jury" or "district attorney".[2][6] In addition, the officers were never seen reading Miranda rights to suspects since there is no Miranda law in Canada.[18] The writers also made a concerted effort to avoid using words that Canadians have a distinctive way of pronouncing, such as the words "out" and "about".[6] Given Toronto's relative cleanliness when compared to larger American cities, the film crew would sometimes throw additional garbage onto the set during street scenes. Grosso, Hylands and Jacobson have all said in separate interviews that there was a time when the garbage that they had strewn about for a Night Heat shoot had been cleaned-up by city sanitation crews while the film crew was on break.[18][25][26]

Night Heat received good ratings for CBS; the show drew an average of 20% of TV viewers in its timeslot[2] and at times the show even outperformed NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in such markets as New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago.[7][9][32]

In Canada Night Heat attracted a million viewers a week.[2] Critics in Canada were generally enthusiastic about Night Heat and were proud of the fact that it was being shown on American television.[33] Critics such as Rick Salutin of The Globe and Mail expressed disappointment that the show hid or downplayed the fact that it was Canadian in order to appeal to US audiences: "they never say it's Toronto. It's just the city."[34]

Night Heat won the award for Best Drama Series at the 1986 Gemini Awards.[35][36] At the 1987 Gemini Awards the series again won the award for Best Drama Series, actor Eugene Clark won the award for Best Performance by a Supporting Actor and writer Bob Carney won the award for Best Writing in a Dramatic Series for the episode titled "The Hit".[5][37] Night Heat also won the 1987 Gemini award in the category of TV Guide's Most Popular Program, an award based on ballots submitted by the magazine's readers in Canada.[5]

At the 1988 Gemini Awards writers Tim Dunphy and Peter Mohan won the award for Best Writing in a Dramatic Series and Night Heat again won TV Guide's Most Popular Program award.[38][39] In 1989 the series writer Chris Haddock won the Gemini Award for Best Writing in a Dramatic Series for the episode titled "False Witness".[40]