Name: In the Heat of the Night
Released: 1988-03-06T00:00:00.000Z
Cast: Carroll O'Connor, Howard E. Rollins Jr., Anne-Marie Johnson

TV Show · Drama · Crime

Carroll O'Connor steps into the role of Bill Gillespie, a southern, white sheriff, and Howard Rollins takes on the mantle of Virgil Tibbs, an African American detective, who must put animosity aside to solve crimes in a racially-charged hamlet.

1988 · 51m

Starring Carroll O'Connor, Howard E. Rollins Jr., Anne-Marie Johnson

EPISODE 1

Pilot

(1/2) When Virgil Tibbs joins the Sparta, MI, police, resentment festers in Chief of Police Bill Gillespie. (2/2) After Nan and, subsequently, Willie Jones' murders, racial tensions are especially high in Sparta.
EPISODE 2

Pilot

Politics motivates the mayor to have Gillespie and newcomer Tibbs investigate, together, a high-school girl's murder.
EPISODE 3

Road Kill

Police Chief Bill Gillespie (Carroll O'Connor) and Chief of Detectives Virgil Tibbs (Howard Rollins) are at odds when Tibbs suspects that Gillespie's old friend, Sonny Mims, killed his wife because of his involvement with the dead woman's cousin.
EPISODE 4

Fate

Emotions run high when a black businessman (Randy Brooks) comes to Sparta to buy the town's newspaper, and it is suspected that he is romancing the paper's married white owner (Nana Visitor). Carroll O'Connor and Howard Rollins star.
EPISODE 5

Blind Spot

Sparta is overjoyed when a local boy turned, successful businessman offers to bring new prosperity to the Mississippi hamlet by moving his business interests back home. But all of his business interests may not be exactly legal. (Part 1 of 2)
EPISODE 6

Blind Spot

After Virgil (Howard Rollins) narrowly escapes death at the hands of Ritchie Epson's henchmen, Chief Gillespie (Carroll O'Connor) still does not have enough evidence to prove that former hometown boy Epson (Bill Sadler) is a major drug supplier.