History YMMV / InTheHeatOfTheNight

** Neither Music/QuinceyJones' score, nor Music/RayCharles' theme song were nominated.

* AwardSnub: Modern viewers will probably be shocked to find out that Creator/SidneyPoitier wasn't even nominated for a Oscar for portraying Mr. Tibbs.

* {{Narm}}: The fight between Virgil and the first racist mob is choreographed fairly awkwardly, with four men doing nothing but harmlessly whapping on Virgil's pole.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: Gillespie's reaction to Tibbs hanging a big picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. up on one of the walls of their shared office at the end of "Pilot."

* {{Squick}}: Even a few of his fellow officers are grossed out when Tibbs shoves a pencil into a corpse's bullet wound (to calculate things like the height of the killer) in "Don't Look Back." The same episode also has a cut out heart being mailed to Gillespie.

** [[SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny Ashe Crowe]], from season 5's "Obsession", is a twisted puritan who was discharged from the army after he was outed as a [[ThePeepingTom Peeping Tom]]. [[StalkerWithACrush Becoming obsessed]] with a Sparta schoolteacher named Jeanette, Crowe begins stalking her, with his harassment of her alternating between affectionate gestures like sending her gifts to manic SlutShaming. After he murders one of her lovers, Crowe meets with Jeanette, and makes it clear to her that he has no actual affection for her, he merely wants total dominion over a woman who he is sexually attracted to due to being a misogynist ControlFreak. Eventually deciding that Jeanette is a lost cause, Crowe tries to kill her by planting a military-grade bomb in her classroom, without any care at all for all of the people that it will maim and kill alongside Jeanette.
** [[DarkMessiah Marcantony Appfel]], from season 7's two-part finale "Give Me Your Life", is the {{narcissist}}ic leader of the [[{{Cult}} Church of the Celestial Influence]]. Appfel has his followers sign all of their possessions over to him, and keeps his congregation compliant with drugs, which he also uses to [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape]] his devotees' [[WouldHurtAChild children]], with his latest sexual abuse victim being a girl named Clarice. After Clarice is saved from him and outs him as a predator, Appfel barricades himself and his disciples in his church, and has two of his subordinates kidnap Clarice. Appfel then has his men execute a captured reporter and engage in a gun battle with the Sparta PD. It is soon revealed that Appfel intends to martyr himself by blowing himself and all of his mostly oblivious followers up with a bomb; while the police are able to defuse the bomb and save most of the church members, several are still killed when a hidden second bomb is detonated by Appfel.

* {{Squick}}: Even a few of his fellow officers are grossed out when Tibbs shoves a pencil into a corpse's bullet wound (to calculate things like the height of the killer) in "Don't Look Back." The same episode also has a cut heart being mailed to Gillespie.

* {{Squick}}: The cut out heart in "Blind Spot."

* ValuesResonance: Tibbs is an intelligent, well-spoken, brave African-American detective who called out racism (or, in some cases, slapped racists) with no offensive stereotypes and being a well-written, complex character.

%%* AdaptationDisplacement:

** Similarly, "Bow-Legged Polly and Knock-Kneed Paul" (which Officer Wood listens to while patrolling the neighborhood in his car) is a thinly-disguised rewrite of Roger Miller's "You Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd"..

** Similarly, "Bow-Legged Polly and Knock-Kneed Paul" (which Officer Wood listens to while patrolling the neighborhood in his car) is a thinly-disguised rewrite of Roger Miller's "You Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd".
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
** The old-fashioned cola bottles, including the weird folded-out paper cup that Sam pours his Coke into.
** Colbert's car receives a 30-second sequence dedicated to its motorized convertible roof, something that was quite novel at the time, but these days just comes across as filler.

* AdaptationDisplacement:

* EarWorm: The theme song by Music/RayCharles (which became a moderate pop hit at the time) and "Foul Owl on the Prowl" (later covered by Norah Jones and her AlternativeCountry band The Little Willies).
* HoYay: "You ever get lonely, Virgil?"

* AdaptationDisplacement

* {{Narm}}: The fight between Virgil and the first racist mob is choreographed in such a way that, despite being four on one, all the goons ever do is whap on Virgil's pole with a shovel and take harmless swipes at him. [[spoiler:This is because Tibbs is trapped, which means they can wait for him to get tired.]]

** Similarly, "Bow-Legged Polly and Knock-Kneed Paul" (which Officer Wood listens to while patrolling the neighborhood in his car) is a thinly-disguised rewrite of Roger Miller's "You Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd".

* {{Narm}}: The fight between Virgil and Endicott's goons is choreographed in such a way that, despite being four on one, all the goons ever do is whap on Virgil's pole with a shovel and take harmless swipes at him. It's more like a schoolyard play fight than anything.

** Similarly, "Bow-Legged Polly and Knock-Kneed Paul" (which Sam Wood listens to while patrolling the neighborhood in his car) is a thinly-disguised rewrite of Roger Miller's "You Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd".

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Norman Jewison wanted the song on the diner jukebox to be "Li'l Red Riding Hood" by Sam The Sham & The Pharoahs, but they couldn't get the rights (licensing pop songs for movies being almost unheard of in 1967), so composer Quincy Jones and lyricists Alan & Marilyn Bergman wrote the new but very similar "Foul Owl on the Prowl" for the diner scene.

* HeartwarmingMoments:
-->'''Gillespie:''' Virgil? ... You take care, y'hear?

* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: In addition to declaring the page quote to a skeptical Gillespie in the beginning (in response to "Jus' what do they call you up there, anyhow?"), Tibbs also strikes back at a bigot for hitting him. For an audience in 1967, this was ''really'' daring for an African-American.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Norman Jewison wanted the song on the diner jukebox to be "Li'l Red Riding Hood" by Sam The Sham & The Pharoahs, but they couldn't get the rights (licensing pop songs for movies being almost unheard of in 1967), so composer Quincy Jones and lyricists Alan & Marilyn Bergman wrote the new but very similar "Foul Owl on the Prowl" for the diner scene.

[[AC:TV Series]]
* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: An episode in which they arrest a serial polygamist, who used his charm and career as a travelling Bible salesman to maintain what turns out to be at least seven or eight households... all of whom descend upon the Sparta jail ''en masse'' bearing goodies... [[FromBadToWorse then he gets poisoned]].
-->'''J.J.:''' Well, you know [[AsTheGoodBookSays what the Lord says]] -- [[ExactWords go forth and multiply!]]
-->'''Gillespie:''' But I don't think He meant for you to do that by yourself.

-->'''Gillespie:''' Virgil? ... You take care, you hear?

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Norman Jewison wanted the song on the jukebox to be "Li'l Red Riding Hood" by Sam The Sham & The Pharoahs, but they couldn't get the rights (licensing pop songs for movies was almost unheard of in 1967), so the film's composers (Quincy Jones, Alan & Marilyn Bergman) wrote the new but very similar "Foul Owl On The Prowl" for the diner scene.

-->'''J.J.:''' Well, you know what the Lord says -- go forth and multiply!

* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: An episode in which they arrest a serial polygamist, who used his charm and career as a travelling Bible salesman to maintain what turns out to be at least seven or eight households... all of whom descend upon the Sparta jail ''en masse'' bearing goodies... [[ItGotWorse then he gets poisoned]].

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: In addition to declaring the page quote to a skeptical Gillespie in the beginning (in response to "Jus' what do they call you up there, anyhow?"), Tibbs also strikes back at a bigot for hitting him. For an audience in 1967, this was ''really'' daring for an African-American.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: An episode in which they arrest a serial polygamist, who used his charm and career as a travelling Bible salesman to maintain what turns out to be at least seven or eight households... all of whom descend upon the Sparta jail ''en masse'' bearing goodies... [[ItGotWorse then he gets poisoned]].