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- Initiators / Followers
- Capsule Pitch Description: Description
- Implementation: Implementation
- Kojak (1973-78) / Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974) & Kodiak (1974)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Crime drama brought to you by the letter "K"
- Implementation: All are crime-solving tough guys with similar bookended monikers.
- Taiyo Ni Hoero (1972)/ Tokusou Saizensen (1977)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Ensemble cast Japanese cop shows taking place in Tokyo with a good dose of Character Development, Character Focus, and Crime Time Soap
- Implementation: Taiyo concentrates more on everyday detectives and policework, Saizensen moreso on more high-profile investigations. Taiyo rewrote the rules of Japanese police procedurals by specifically concentrating on the personal character arcs of its cast, who generally rotated in the Character Focus spot in every episode and try to solve to with their own personalities and quirks in play. Saizensen on the other hand, places special emphasis on the soap-opera elements of Crime Time Soap, more than Taiyo usually does. Focus detectives of the week will often form emotional connections to the case and take said cases personally, - moreso if their personal lives get intertwined with the crime-of-the-week.
- Tatort (1970-present) / A Case for Two (1981-2013; 2014-present)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Long-running crime & punishment German series dating back to West Germany.
- Implementation: Tatort is a police-focused show produced by ARD has had multiple leading investigators and has expanded in pretty much every major German city. A Case for Two doesn't directly involve the police (the heroes are a private detective and an attorney), kept the same leading private investigator from 1981 to 2013 and it has only one location (Frankfurt am Main).
- Sherlock Holmes (1984) and Poirot (1989)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Adaptations Britain's two most famous private detectives both set as authentic period dramas of their respective eras. Both were also aired on ITV.
- Implementation: Jeremy Brett's Sherlock is seen by some as the definitive Holmes; likewise Suchet's method acting is regarded as having nailed down Poirot's mannerisms down to a T. The two series also had the estates of the detective's creators well involved with production - Brett sought permission with Arthur Conan Doyle's estate to have Holmes end his cocaine addiction, while the Christie estate recommended Suchet be cast as Poirot.
- Inspector Morse (1987) / The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Series of respected novels about middle aged culturally literate detectives solving crimes through thinking instead of fisticuffs adapted for TV
- Implementation: Inspector Morse premiered in January 1987. The Ruth Rendell mysteries (featuring Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford' premiered in August 1987. Both series lasted until 2000 with Inspector Morse ending definitively with the death of the titular character, while Wexford ending less definitively and future episodes were only finally prevented by the death of star George Baker in 2011.
- Law & Order (1990) / JAG (1996)
- Capsule Pitch Description: American legal drama shows that both spawned successful television franchises (with both their first spin-offs eventually eclipsing them) respectively created by television law enforcement show juggernauts Dick Wolf and Donald P. Bellisario.
- Implementation: Law & Order and its spin-offs are about the police force and judicial system, while JAG and its spin-offs are about the military, specifically the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marines.
- Angel Street (1992) / Homicide: Life on the Street (1993)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Rival cop shows set in the inner cities (Chicago in the former, Baltimore in the latter) with eerily similar premises.
- Implementation: Homicide (based on a book by David Simon) was greenlit first but Angel Street (shot under the name Polish Hill) hit the airwaves first. A screening of the pilot revealed similarities between the two shows, leading Simon and producer Barry Levinson to consider a plagiarism lawsuit.
- Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) / NYPD Blue (1993)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Gritty, inner-city Cop Show.
- Implementation: Both started in 1993, though Homicide had the jump on NYPD Blue by eight months. Homicide lasted to 1999, its rival to 2005. NYPD Blue proved to be the bigger hit, although Homicide was critically lauded for its realistic tone. Homicide character Det. John Munch subsequently appeared in eight different series, and is now a regular in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
- LA Heat (1996) / Nash Bridges (1996)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Cop shows set in California. The former takes place in Los Angeles and San Diego while the latter takes place in San Francisco.
- Implementation: Both started in 1996. While Nash Bridges aired on CBS and L.A Heat never got the backing of a North American television network, it aired in Europe before making its American debut on TNT in 1999, the same year when the show was cancelled.
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) / NCIS (2003)
- Capsule Pitch Description: The respective Darker and Edgier More Popular Spin-Off of Law & Order and JAG that became a major franchise after both parent series' conclusion. Both series also starts off with a retired U.S. Marine as the male lead and a (relatively) New Meat as the female lead. Both shows also have Diane Neal playing a major character.
- Implementation: As above, SVU is about the police force and judicial system, while NCIS is about the military, specifically the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marines.
- El Comisarionote (1999, T5) / Policías: En el corazón de la callenote (2000, A3) & Mi Tenientenote (2001, TVE)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Spanish cop shows.
- Implementation: El Comisario is the most classic police procedural, centered on the titular commissioner and the detective job of a few cops in his station. Policías is more action oriented and includes a couple of paramedics in its cast. Mi Teniente follows an unit of Spanish Gendarmerie (Guardia Civil) rather than the National Police Corps like the others.
- Cold Squad (1998) / Waking the Dead (2000) & Cold Case (2003)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Cop Show featuring a team of detectives reopening and cracking cases long forgotten.
- Implementation: Each show was produced by a different country. Cold Squad in Canada, Waking the Dead in U.K. and Cold Case in the U.S.
- CSI (2000) / NCIS (2003)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Again, forensic specialists team up with the police to solve crimes.
- Implementation: Both shows have a work-driven dynamic: while CSI tackles street-level crimes, NCIS (which is a spin-off of JAG) is based on the real-life eponymous agency, investigating crimes in the Navy and Marines.
- CSI (2000) / Bones (2005)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Forensic specialists team up with the police to solve crimes.
- Implementation: Bones has considerably more emphasis on the UST than CSI...
- The Shield (2002) / The Wire (2002)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Dark, gritty police procedural shows about a task force special unit that handles violent crime that wreaks destruction and damage upon a major city
- Implementation: The Shield aired on FX and focuses on the corruption within the Los Angeles Police Department while The Wire debuted on HBO and focuses on both the cops and the criminals of Baltimore.
- Bones (Fox, 2005) / Castle (ABC, 2009)
- Capsule Pitch Description: UST-laden police procedural shows.
- Implementation: As below, the UST on Bones is between two characters whose professions mesh (Forensics specialist and FBI agent), while Castle's characters are from different worlds (writer vs. police detective). Both shows' male leads got their starts on shows created by Joss Whedon, while their female leads were virtually unknown beforehand.
- Psych (USA, 2006) / The Mentalist (CBS, 2008)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Phony Psychic solves actual crimes not through ESP, but an unusually sharp ability to observe and deduce.
- Implementation: Very different in tone, which defrays some of the cries of "ripoff" from Psych fans.
- The Mentalist (2008) / Castle (2009)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Famous, eccentric civilian male helps no-nonsense Action Girl detective solve crimes.
- Implementation: The Mentalist is a phony psychic who uses his Hyper-Awareness to help the CBI
(later FBI); Castle is a crime novelist looking for inspiration in a NYPD unit where his wild imagination and pop culture knowledge prove as useful. Both shows mix the Victim of the Week and Myth Arc formats, but Castle is more lighthearted.
- The Unusuals (2009) / Southland (2009)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Ensemble cop shows centering on a Non-Idle Rich rookie.
- Implementation: Series launched within days of each other. ABC's The Unusuals takes a quirky, comedic approach, while NBC's Southland is a grittier kind of drama. Southland just got renewed for another season; Unusuals didn't. Then NBC canceled Southland before the second season started.
- Justified (2010) / Longmire (2012)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Dramas about misanthropic modern lawmen evoking The Wild West, both based on popular book series.
- Implementation:
- Sherlock (2010) / Elementary (2012)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Modern updates to the Sherlock Holmes stories.
- Implementation: Sherlock keeps many of the aspects of original stories, while still twisting the stories to surprise long-time fans. Elementary seems to be taking more risks, moving Holmes to New York, making Watson a woman and a rehab counselor.
- True Detective (2014) / Fargo (2014)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Prestige Cop show anthologies on critically beloved channels (HBO and FX respectively)
- Implementation: Both FX and HBO were in the bidding war to get True Detective, and failing to get it had a huge impact in FX launching Fargo. True Detective is a Southern Gothic flavored dark and brooding show in the vein of the Nordic Noir thrillers (Nic Pizzolatto was a writer on The Killing). Fargo is a sorta Spiritual Successor, sorta sequel to the beloved Coen Bros. film, taking influence from the entire Coen filmography.
