Was anyone else a fan of "Cold Case"?

[t_smitts]

Just bringing up what was one of my favorite series. I think the show's main audience may have skewed a bit older, but I was in my 20's for the show's entire run and was a loyal viewer for most of that time.

For those that don't know, the show admittedly stuck pretty closely to a formula, as much as any Law & Order episode, but it was a formula that worked fairly well. Rather than having the murder victim just be a body at a crime scene, we flashbacks of a time when the victim was alive, recounted through the people the detectives interview. The show made excellent use of period music to set the tone for the flashbacks, as well as ending the show with a somber montage showing the killer(s) being arrested, the various other witnesses going on with their lives, and the victim being "seen" either by one of the detectives or someone close to the victim before they "move on", with their murder having been solved.

The show had a couple of Trek connections, the two most notable of which being Roxann Dawson being a director/producer on the show for a few years, and John Billingsley's extraordinarily creepy role in two episodes as a serial killer who abducts women, takes them into the woods, and "hunts" them with a rifle.

Unfortunately, all that expensive music is apparently the reason why DVD's for the show have never seen the light of day, though I've managed to get every episode on my hard drive.

Anyone else see this one when it was on?

 

[John Clark]

It's repeated fairly regularly here on one channel. I haven't sat down and watched it on a regular basis, but did enjoy what I saw of it.

 

[Starbreaker]

My mom is a huge fan of the show. I've seen most of the first two seasons and several episodes from then on. The quality is all over the place, but I always enjoyed the music and the montages.

 

[MacLeod]

It was an enjoyable enough show.

 

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

Glad you asked because to this day I am still teed off at CBS at cancelling this when it still had stories to tell and decent ratings. In fact the ratings would have been a lot better if it wasn't the sacrificial lamb on Sunday night in the 10 oclock slot that woudl push it past 11PM when there was football and golf.

What I appreciated most about COLD CASE was getting a chance to look back at eras that I had lived in when I was younger and to ones I had never experienced from before I was born. Anything 1980's and before were especially interesting...the cases in the 1990's and 2000's were too recent to really differientiate them from any other procedural on the air..especially since the flashbacks used the same actors just with different hair styles.

 

[Greg Cox]

I always thought it was a shame that nobody licensed COLD CASE novels. The historical flashback structure would have lent itself well to books . . . .

 

[t_smitts]

Glad you asked because to this day I am still teed off at CBS at cancelling this when it still had stories to tell and decent ratings. In fact the ratings would have been a lot better if it wasn't the sacrificial lamb on Sunday night in the 10 oclock slot that woudl push it past 11PM when there was football and golf.

What I appreciated most about COLD CASE was getting a chance to look back at eras that I had lived in when I was younger and to ones I had never experienced from before I was born. Anything 1980's and before were especially interesting...the cases in the 1990's and 2000's were too recent to really differientiate them from any other procedural on the air..especially since the flashbacks used the same actors just with different hair styles.

The show really did get screwed over by the network in its seventh season. I didn't have a problem with the show moving from an 8 to 9 PM timeslot. I actually thought being on later might give the writers a bit of creative freedom.

Unfortunately, you're right about it being preempted constantly by sports, sometimes by as much as 45 minutes (I think they even delayed an episode by a whole week once because of it).

Now personally, being Canadian, I was lucky enough to have a station that aired it on time, but Canadian viewership wasn't gonna keep CBS from pulling the plug.

Besides that, the show had narrowly escaped the chopping block at the end of season six ("Without a Trace", which had been on a year longer at that point, took the hit instead). The actors' contracts were up at the end of season 7 and would've had to have been renegotiated. They also got their budget cut in the last season, which not only meant no more going to Philly for exterior shots, but it meant some of the actors having to cut back on the number of episodes they were in (this is why you got stories like Kat being temporarily reassigned or Vera getting hospitalized).

Also, frankly I was a bit underwhelmed with some of the cases in season 7. I felt like some of them were retreads or just not covering anything too compelling. Given all this, I could see the writing was on the wall in terms of the show continuing or not.

I did like, however, that they started setting up more multi-episode story-lines in season 7. Some of them, like Lilly's feud Moe the military guy fizzled out (it ended with a lame "deus ex machina" moment), but others were more compelling like Lilly connecting with her father's new family or Stillman having to deal with his shady boss Doherty breathing down his neck

I always thought it was a shame that nobody licensed COLD CASE novels. The historical flashback structure would have lent itself well to books . . . .

To both of you, I would say, for what it's worth, I did write a few fan stories for the show, which I tried to keep as faithful to the show's narrative as possible. I wrote them in five-chapter stories like the five acts of a TV episode and tried to make the characters sound like they did on the show (which I think I got better at with time). I even listed period music for flashback scenes and endings that I thought the show would use if this were a live-action episode.

When the show ended, me and a couple of other fans even attempted to create a "virtual season eight" with our own episode. That attempt fell apart pretty quickly, but I did manage to write a season premiere that I'm very proud of, which follows up some of the plot threads left over from the last season.

If either of you care to read any of it, let me know.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'm just going to hazard a guess that the producers of Cold Squad were not fans of Cold Case.

Now personally, being Canadian, I was lucky enough to have a station that aired it on time, but Canadian viewership wasn't gonna keep CBS from pulling the plug.

So are you, as a Canadian, not concerned with the American "Case" possibly ripping off the Canadian "Squad"? The producers of Squad considered legal action, in fact. (I don't know the current status of that.)

 

[t_smitts]

I'm just going to hazard a guess that the producers of Cold Squad were not fans of Cold Case.

Now personally, being Canadian, I was lucky enough to have a station that aired it on time, but Canadian viewership wasn't gonna keep CBS from pulling the plug.

So are you, as a Canadian, not concerned with the American "Case" possibly ripping off the Canadian "Squad"? The producers of Squad considered legal action, in fact. (I don't know the current status of that.)

Not the slightest bit. I never saw a single episode of "Cold Squad" and I'm skeptical of them having much in common other than the basic premise.

Frankly, I've never gotten into Canadian TV.

 

[Orac Zen]

Yeah, I always liked it. The characters were interesting and that's essential for me - if I can't get interested in a show's characters I generally won't much like the show. The soundtrack was almost always brilliant and the "flashbacks" almost always worked.

It was a victim (so to speak) of poor and irregular scheduling here, with the result being that I've probably seen only a fraction of the episodes. It would be great if it saw a DVD release at some point, but music licensing nonsense will probably preclude that.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I really liked the premise of the show and enjoyed the story lines of the episodes that I watched. Unfortunately, I never really liked the main character, so I didn't get into watching the show regularly. Her acting was too transparent to me, it would take me out of the story and remind me that she was just acting. And her hair was awful for a while there, I literally couldn't focus on anything else when she was on screen.

 

[bbailey861]

Yes, both my wife and I enjoyed this show. I liked the flashbacks and in the end always enjoyed the reveal of the past/present following the solving of the crime.

 

[Greg Cox]

Unfortunately, you're right about it being preempted constantly by sports, sometimes by as much as 45 minutes (I think they even delayed an episode by a whole week once because of it).

This is actually why I stopped watching the show. You never knew, from week to week, what time it would start and it just got to be too much of a hassle.

And this was back before DVRs, mind you, so it completely messed up whatever other TV plans you had for Sunday night. God help you if you wanted to watch another program on another network that came on after COLD CASE was supposed to end. And trying to set a VCR to tape it was a major headache, too.

I liked the show, but the erratic scheduling drove me away.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

It was enjoyable enough when I watched it, although that wasn't very often. It was fun to look back into slices of time and its entire atmosphere (complete with music). They often did a good job having the younger and older actors look similar. It was also one of the few shows set in Philadelphia (although not filmed there) so I appreciated that connection.

Did they ever solve the DVD issue?

 

[t_smitts]

Unfortunately, you're right about it being preempted constantly by sports, sometimes by as much as 45 minutes (I think they even delayed an episode by a whole week once because of it).

This is actually why I stopped watching the show. You never knew, from week to week, what time it would start and it just got to be too much of a hassle.

And this was back before DVRs, mind you, so it completely messed up whatever other TV plans you had for Sunday night. God help you if you wanted to watch another program on another network that came on after COLD CASE was supposed to end. And trying to set a VCR to tape it was a major headache, too.

I liked the show, but the erratic scheduling drove me away.

Actually that mainly only happened in the last season and I'm pretty sure they had DVR's in 2010 but I do see your point.

Moreover, you could simply download the eps a few hours after they aired, as I did.

 

[Greg Cox]

Unfortunately, you're right about it being preempted constantly by sports, sometimes by as much as 45 minutes (I think they even delayed an episode by a whole week once because of it).

This is actually why I stopped watching the show. You never knew, from week to week, what time it would start and it just got to be too much of a hassle.

And this was back before DVRs, mind you, so it completely messed up whatever other TV plans you had for Sunday night. God help you if you wanted to watch another program on another network that came on after COLD CASE was supposed to end. And trying to set a VCR to tape it was a major headache, too.

I liked the show, but the erratic scheduling drove me away.

Actually that mainly only happened in the last season and I'm pretty sure they had DVR's in 2010 but I do see your point.

Moreover, you could simply download the eps a few hours after they aired, as I did.

Nah, I had bailed long before the last season--precisely because of the timing issue. And I was still using a VCR back then, although I'll grant that I may have been behind the times in that respect. (I'm not exactly an early adopter when it comes to new technology!)

But the sports-induced delays were always a problem, unless you wanted to stick to CBS all night!

 

[t_smitts]

This is actually why I stopped watching the show. You never knew, from week to week, what time it would start and it just got to be too much of a hassle.

And this was back before DVRs, mind you, so it completely messed up whatever other TV plans you had for Sunday night. God help you if you wanted to watch another program on another network that came on after COLD CASE was supposed to end. And trying to set a VCR to tape it was a major headache, too.

I liked the show, but the erratic scheduling drove me away.

Actually that mainly only happened in the last season and I'm pretty sure they had DVR's in 2010 but I do see your point.

Moreover, you could simply download the eps a few hours after they aired, as I did.

Nah, I had bailed long before the last season--precisely because of the timing issue. And I was still using a VCR back then, although I'll grant that I may have been behind the times in that respect. (I'm not exactly an early adopter when it comes to new technology!)

But the sports-induced delays were always a problem, unless you wanted to stick to CBS all night!

Please, you're speaking to a guy who's still never gotten a cell phone.

Shows being delayed once in a while because of sports have always been a nuisance, but I was a regular "Cold Case" viewers since about halfway through the third season and I honestly don't recall that being a problem on a regular basis until the seventh season.

 

[Greg Cox]

Actually that mainly only happened in the last season and I'm pretty sure they had DVR's in 2010 but I do see your point.

Moreover, you could simply download the eps a few hours after they aired, as I did.

Nah, I had bailed long before the last season--precisely because of the timing issue. And I was still using a VCR back then, although I'll grant that I may have been behind the times in that respect. (I'm not exactly an early adopter when it comes to new technology!)

But the sports-induced delays were always a problem, unless you wanted to stick to CBS all night!

Please, you're speaking to a guy who's still never gotten a cell phone.

Shows being delayed once in a while because of sports have always been a nuisance, but I was a regular "Cold Case" viewers since about halfway through the third season and I honestly don't recall that being a problem on a regular basis until the seventh season.

Ditto. I don't own a smartphone and have never texted, tweeted, or torrented . . .

All I can I say is I stopped watching long before the seventh season for exactly the reason I cited. It was a regular enough problem in the early seasons that I frequently bitched about it to my girlfriend and eventually gave up on the show because I never knew what time it would start--and it was messing up the rest of my Sunday night viewing.

If it actually got worse in the seventh season . . . good God!

 

[t_smitts]

Nah, I had bailed long before the last season--precisely because of the timing issue. And I was still using a VCR back then, although I'll grant that I may have been behind the times in that respect. (I'm not exactly an early adopter when it comes to new technology!)

But the sports-induced delays were always a problem, unless you wanted to stick to CBS all night!

Please, you're speaking to a guy who's still never gotten a cell phone.

Shows being delayed once in a while because of sports have always been a nuisance, but I was a regular "Cold Case" viewers since about halfway through the third season and I honestly don't recall that being a problem on a regular basis until the seventh season.

Ditto. I don't own a smartphone and have never texted, tweeted, or torrented . . .

All I can I say is I stopped watching long before the seventh season for exactly the reason I cited. It was a regular enough problem in the early seasons that I frequently bitched about it to my girlfriend and eventually gave up on the show because I never knew what time it would start--and it was messing up the rest of my Sunday night viewing.

If it actually got worse in the seventh season . . . good God!

Well, maybe your CBS affiliate did that more often than mine did.

If it's any consolation, I did write a number of fan-made episodes that I tried to keep as faithful to the show's characters and formula as possible. You're certainly welcome to read those on your own schedule.

 

[Greg Cox]

Please, you're speaking to a guy who's still never gotten a cell phone.

Shows being delayed once in a while because of sports have always been a nuisance, but I was a regular "Cold Case" viewers since about halfway through the third season and I honestly don't recall that being a problem on a regular basis until the seventh season.

Ditto. I don't own a smartphone and have never texted, tweeted, or torrented . . .

All I can I say is I stopped watching long before the seventh season for exactly the reason I cited. It was a regular enough problem in the early seasons that I frequently bitched about it to my girlfriend and eventually gave up on the show because I never knew what time it would start--and it was messing up the rest of my Sunday night viewing.

If it actually got worse in the seventh season . . . good God!

Well, maybe your CBS affiliate did that more often than mine did.

Maybe it's a time-zone thing? I was on the East Coast by then, and it seemed to be practically every week . . ..