Virgil Tibbs returns to Sparta and joins the police force as chief of detectives.His arrival is met...

The investigation into the brutal murders of a young girl and the suspect in her death, leads Tibbs...

The affair between the husband of a wealthy woman and her distant cousin leads to her murder. Virgil...

Racial tensions run high when a married white woman has an affair with a black businessman from New...

Virgil refuses to let go of a grudge against a wealthy former classmate who cheated him out of a sch...

An angry Gillespie seeks answers when an old friend is shot.And Virgil narrowly escapes death after...

In this humorous episode Virgil and the Chief arrest a man for bigamy.It soon becomes a polygamy cas...

The Sparta police search for a killer and his girlfriend.But the case becomes personal when they tak...

A copycat recreates a shocking unsolved murder from the past.Gillespie feels threatened after Ted Ma...

Tibbs,Gillespie and Bubba pursue different leads in a bizarre murder case and the Chief realizes tha...

The murder of well respected man turns up a shocking secret about his family.

Virgil is delighted when Matthew his former partner from Philidelphia comes to visit.But he soon lea...

Sweet risks his life to prove that the Sheriff of a neighboring county is guilty of the racially mot...

Bubba is seduced by an alluring writer who has more on her mind than romance.Bill and Virgil worry t...

Virgil is forced to shoot a suspect in an armed robbery.He has trouble dealing with the consequences...

Virgil's visiting niece and Bubba's nephew team up in an effort to escape the boredom of small town...

Gillespie suspects that JoAnn's new cook is connected to the murder of a young prostitute.But Virgil...

A minister who was integrating his church(by inviting Virgil and Althea to attend services)is poison...

In this thought provoking episode.Gillespie is surprised when a man he arrested asks to see him on t...

The past comes back to haunt JoAnn in the form of an escaped convict.

The police search for a burglar who preys on elderly women.And the prime suspect is the son of a cit...

The investigation of a possible assault brings back nightmarish and confusing childhood memories for...

A vivacious socialites return to Sparta delights her ailing father and childhood friend Virgil, but...

A bitter strike leads to a murder investigation on a snowy day in Sparta.

Bubba tries to rescue a woman from a rapist, but she mistakes him for her attacker.Gillespie tangles...

Sparta grieves after a drunk driver causes a fatal crash with high school cheerleaders on their way...

With the Chief in Quantico Bubba and Virgil try to catch a serial arsonist.Things get complicated af...

It seems that a serial killer has been burying his victims in a wooded area owned by a wealthy hermi...

After being released by his captors, the chief discovers that his abduction is part of a plot to ass...

Virgil struggles to help Althea after she is raped by a fellow teacher.Darnell does not think they c...

A beauty contest is marred by blackmail and the ambitious mother of a contestant.

An unhappy wife asks her lover to place a bomb in her abusive husband's truck.

Sparta P.D. gets it's first black policewoman.

Someone is selling crack to teenagers and Sweet tries desperately to save a young addict.

After a private investigator searching for a missing child is found dead, the evidence points to a l...

An outlaw family seeks revenge against Bubba after he is forced to shoot one of them during a holdup...

A young refugee claims to be the son of a Sparta cop who died in the war.But quickly becomes a suspe...

The F.B.I. tries to talk an ex-boxer into testifying against a mobster he once worked for, but the f...

A long time friend of the Chief makes threats against a doctor he believes is responsible for his wi...

A man murders his wife and her lover after he catches them together,then flees to a remote cabin wit...

Bubba refuses to believe that a former teamate embezzled funds from the bank where he worked.And set...

The Sparta police investigate a suspicious death in a nursing home.

Darnell plans on indicting a teenager for murder after her father is found in the basement and her m...

Someone abandons a baby at Bubba's door.

Maybelle the madam returns to Sparta with her "" nieces "".And sets up shop just out of Gillespie's...

First the mother,then the father of two young children are murdered.Althea takes responsibility for...

Althea does not realize that an old friend from Philly is hiding a dark secret, nor does Sweet who h...

Racial tensions run high when a white cabbie is murdered in the bottoms.

Harriet's sister is murdered on the orders of the wealthy white man who fathered her child.

Harriet's efforts to bring V.J. Trundel to trial are fruitless.The Chief does not believe they will...

Virgil goes to Philadelphia to investigate a friends death.And Bubba (reluctantly) fills in as Althe...

Virgil is framed for murder and Gillespie travels to Philly to help him clear his name.

Gillespie sends Parker to confirm suspicions that a local truck stop is really a front for a prostit...

A mild mannered school teacher is accused of child molestation.

Gillespie and his officers are outraged when a drug courier who ran down the son of Virgil's next do...

Bubba is reunited with his high school sweetheart, but his happiness is short lived after she resort...

The investigation into the death of an abandoned infant leads to a mentally handicapped teenager.

A lawyer has personal reasons for trying to gain early release for a man who was sent to prison afte...

Harriet and Eugene are devastated after Gene's father is arrested for murder.

Sweet is heartbroken when an elderly woman who befriended him is murdered in her bookstore.

Virgil's dream of a better relationship with his Aunt Ruda and her son is shattered when his cousin...

Gillespie receives word that a former Spartan is wanted for the murder of a socialite in Houston.But...

In this Christmas episode the officers share memories with a reporter from the Sparta Herald.

A bottle of spiked moonshine leads to an accident that claims the life of one teen and blinds anothe...

A psychiatrist tells Gillespie that one of her patients has confessed to a crime that another man is...

A story of two brothers one an honor student that Althea has great plans for, the other a dangerous...

Virgil soon regrets telling an old friend that his new business partners are being investigated by t...

Parker protects a blind woman who heard her neighbors murder.

A serial rapist stalks Sparta.

Bubba travels to Los Angeles to arrest an arsonist.When the man is murdered to keep him from talking...

Harriet tries to keep Eugene from giving up when his father faces the death penalty.And the police s...

Althea thinks Virgil needs a new line of work after seeing the aftermath of a deadly shooting at a r...

Gillespie's old flame returns to Sparta to settle some business matters and see Bill. When she is mu...

After Bubba's cousin adopts a baby her husband is blackmailed by the child's real parents - they wan...

A flirtatious schoolteacher is stalked by a madman.

A game of high stakes poker ends in murder.

Virgil's Aunt Ruda is the only witness to a struggle between Bubba and a young robbery suspect that...

Bubba returns to Los Angeles to testify at a murder trial and is reunited with Pat Day as they try t...

A man murders his business partner and frames the man's illegitimate daughter for the crime in an at...

The lyrics to a blues song recall a murder that happened 50 years earlier.The victim - Sweet's grand...

A deputy provides protection for a cotton grower who is running a pot growing operation.But the depu...

The father of a man Gerard prosecuted kidnaps the DA's daughter.

Lonnie makes a heartbreaking discovery about a woman he dated in high school.

A drug dealing slumlord is murdered by his accomplices.

A doctor plots to eliminate his wife -- and his mistress.

Parkers investigation into a purse snatching reveals an abused woman.

Racists target a ceremony honoring a civil rights pioneer.

Althea fears for one of her students after her mother's boyfriend is linked to a criminal operation...

A restaurateur and her mechanic boyfriend plot to eliminate her husband, but their scheme backfires....

V.J. Trundel's widow takes Harriet to court to gain custody of Eric.But Harriet is determined that h...

Gillespie learns that the son of an old friend is a compulsive gambler.The young man wants his fathe...

An ex-convict attempts to retrieve his loot from his wife and her new husband in this tongue-in-chee...

A political prisoner who entered the country illegally,seeks sanctuary in a monastary.Gillespie and...

Gillespie,Tibbs and Father DiMarco must stand trial for harbouring a fugitive and obstructing justic...

Big city crack dealers invade Sparta.Eugene witnesses the drive by shooting of a friend and his offe...

The police wage war against the big city drug dealers who have moved into Sparta.Eugene identifies t...

Louann's ne'er-do-well brother returns home after being paroled.

Althea places herself in harms way trying to help one of her students, a disturbed and violent young...

Althea has trouble dealing with the violent death of a student.Young Megan Fowler quickly finds hers...

Lana Gillespie comes to Sparta to claim her inheritance,but is stalked by a mobster who dated her mo...

A secretary takes drastic measures to protect herself from sexual harassment.

Virgil fears for his Aunt Ruda's safety after several killings occur in the hospital where she is be...

Singer Eddie Larran returns to Sparta for a concert,but not everyone is a fan.An angry man insists t...

A city councilwoman becomes dangerously obsessed with Bubba.

One of Virgil's classmates from law school is arrested following the death of his former girlfriend,...

A judge schemes to get rid of his wife after she tries to blackmail him into giving her a divorce an...

Sweet is the target of false accusations by two corrupt and racist car salesmen.

Parker's stepfather Roy threatens his former employer after an altercation.When the boss is murdered...

A woman asks Harriet to help her get an eviction order rescinded.The chief gives Parker a new radar...

A white supremacist politician plans to have his wife's lover murdered and blame it on black radical...

A white supremacist politician plans to have his wife's lover murdered and blame it on black radical...

A swindlers homecoming upsets his wife and the families of his victims - especially Etta.

A wealthy man plans to grant a promise made to a black sharecropper many years ago by giving land to...

Corrupt developers set their sights on Lana's farm. When she refuses to sell they enlist the service...

Bill discovers the motivation behind a crime syndicates attempt to muscle in on Sparta and the reaso...

Eugene hopes a well known minister can save his father from Death Row.But someone runs the Reverend...

Chief Gillespie is fired by the city council and Sparta's new police chief Hampton Forbes arrives in...

Hampton Forbes assumes the office of Chief of Police and Bill becomes the Sheriff of Newman county.F...

Wade and Sarah try to keep young Henry from being punished for a crime he did not commit and Forbes...

The daughter of an old friend asks Bubba to arrest the man who knowingly gave her AIDS.

A night of revelry at a local pond turns deadly.

Lana's ex- boyfriend comes to see her and brings a load of stolen rifles with him.

Luann moonlights as a singer at a nightclub and finds romance with the clubs owner.Her happiness is...

Attorney Virgil Tibbs returns to Sparta and is soon assigned his first case as a defense attorney.

Bubba travels to Atlanta to help his nephew after the boy overdoses on drugs.He soon teams up with a...

A neglected baby stirs maternal feelings in Luann.

Tragic story of an alcoholic teen who accidentally kills a little girl while she is drinking and dri...

Virgil defends Parker after he is falsely accused of police brutality by a drug dealer.The prosecuti...

Maybelle's new phone sex business is a great success - until one her girls decides to moonlight as a...

Forbes is delighted when his fiancee Angela comes to see him,but is disappointed when he realizes th...

Lonnie must protect his Aunt Cordelia when her cherished friendship with Ches Collins angers one of...

Virgil accepts a position at a prominent law firm.But as a former police officer he feels conflictin...

A Rabbi returns to Sparta after many years.Racists vandalize his synagogue and soon after their Tora...

Eugene tries to protect a friend who was an unwilling accomplice to a robbery and in doing so endang...

Harriet tries to stop an arrogant developer from destroying an important archeological site.

Comedic episode in which Parker's ne'er-do-well stepfather returns to Sparta with a new wife, a stol...

Bill and Harriet's wedding plans are interrupted by a sniper who mistakes Bill for Sheriff McComb.

In the Heat of the Night: Give Me Your Life is a film directed by Russ Mayberry released on May 11,...

Bill and Harriet return home.The cult kidnaps the girl from her foster home.And Forbes and his men a...

In the Heat of the Night: A Matter of Justice is a film directed by Reza Badiyi released on Oct 21,...

A famous Italian actress returns to Sparta to take care of some unfinished business and rescue her y...

Acting Sheriff Gillespie must decide whether he should run for sheriff or retire from law enforcemen...

Ex-cop Tom Harwood's happiness with his new bride is threatened by an old flame who sees an opportun...