50 Fun Facts About In the Heat of the Night

Who directed the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night?

He later directed Fiddler on the Roof and Moonstruck.

Who plays Virgil Tibbs in the 1967 film?

He and Rod Steiger were old friends who had long wanted to work together, and both were first choices for their parts.

In the film, Virgil Tibbs is a homicide detective from which city?

In John Ball's novels he worked for the Pasadena police, and in the sequel films for San Francisco.

Who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for playing Chief Bill Gillespie?

The film took five Oscars from seven nominations, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.

How many Oscars did In the Heat of the Night win?

It beat Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate to Best Picture at the 40th Academy Awards.

In the film, the town of Sparta is in which state?

John Ball's novel had been set in the fictional Wells, South Carolina.

Where was most of the film actually shot?

The town was renamed Sparta so filmmakers could use existing signs, unaware a real Sparta, Mississippi existed.

Why did the film's star have reservations about the shoot?

Jewison shot part of it in Tennessee anyway, in Dyersburg and Union City.

Who is the murder victim whose body is found in the street at the start of the film?

He was a wealthy industrialist in town to build a factory, which the local plantation owner opposed.

How does Tibbs first come to the attention of the Sparta police?

Officer Sam Wood spots a black man with a fat wallet and hauls him in as the obvious suspect.

Which wealthy plantation owner slaps Tibbs during questioning, and gets slapped right back?

The return slap is not in the novel; Poitier insisted on it as a condition of making the film.

Who turns out to be the killer in the film?

He robbed Colbert to pay $100 for his girlfriend Delores Purdy's abortion.

How much money did Officer Wood deposit the day after the murder, making Gillespie suspect him?

Tibbs clears him by proving the murder happened at the factory site, so Wood could not have driven both cars back.

Where does Tibbs's famous retort about his name rank on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes?

It answers Gillespie's sneer about his first name, and Pumbaa quotes it in The Lion King.

Who composed the film's score?

Track titles include 'Peep-Freak Patrol Car', 'Cotton Curtain' and 'Mama Caleba's Blues'.

Who performed the film's title song?

With lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, it reached No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Cinematographer Haskell Wexler is credited with a first on this picture. What was it?

Standard strong lighting glared on dark complexions and blurred features, so he adjusted it for Poitier.

Who wrote the screenplay, adapting John Ball's novel?

He framed the story as a subversive Christian allegory with Tibbs as the messianic outsider.

John Ball's 1965 book In the Heat of the Night won which honour?

Ball wrote six more Tibbs novels, ending with Singapore in 1986.

In the novel, the small town is called Wells and is in which state?

The filmmakers renamed it Sparta so they could shoot in Sparta, Illinois using the real signage.

What was the title of the 1970 sequel starring Poitier?

Tibbs is now a lieutenant with the San Francisco police, and Quincy Jones's score went funk.

In the sequels, Tibbs works for the police of which city?

The second sequel, The Organization, followed in 1971; neither was based on Ball's novels.

Who played Chief Bill Gillespie in the 1988-1995 television series?

It was his first series since Archie Bunker's Place ended in 1983, and he was an executive producer.

Who played Virgil Tibbs in the TV series?

He was dropped after season six for health reasons and a short jail stint over traffic violations.

The series began on NBC in 1988 and later moved to which network?

It ran on the new network from October 1992 until May 1995.

In the TV series, why has Tibbs returned to Sparta in the pilot?

Unlike the film, the series makes Sparta his hometown, and the mayor talks him into staying as Chief of Detectives.

The character Courtney from the film was renamed what for the TV series?

David Hart played Parker Williams for the entire run.

Where was the first season of the TV series filmed?

Producers struggled to hide modern buildings there and moved to Covington, Georgia from season two.

From season two onward, the series was shot primarily in which Georgia town?

The same town later stood in for Mystic Falls in The Vampire Diaries.

In the series, widower Chief Gillespie lost a wife of what nationality along with an infant son?

He is written as a World War II veteran whose war bride died in childbirth.

Which actor played Sergeant Bubba Skinner?

Two backdoor pilots were shot for a Bubba spin-off, but neither was picked up.

Who played Virgil's wife, Althea Tibbs?

Althea became a teacher and guidance counsellor at Sparta High from season two.

Which real-life son of Gillespie's actor played Officer Lonnie Jamison?

His role was expanded in season two after Christian LeBlanc's Junior Abernathy was dropped.

Who played retired captain Tom Dugan for four episodes while the chief was 'away at Quantico'?

The scripts sent Gillespie off to a training conference at Quantico; O'Connor had wanted the chief to have surgery on screen.

Denise Nicholas played which councilwoman who became Gillespie's love interest and eventually his wife?

O'Connor fought the network hard for the interracial pairing and won; they married in 'Dangerous Engagement'.

In season seven, Carl Weathers joined the cast as Hampton Forbes, who took what job?

He came from the Memphis police, and Gillespie moved on to become interim sheriff of Newton County.

The man who played Gillespie won a Primetime Emmy for the show in which category?

That put him in the rare club of actors with lead Emmys in both comedy and drama.

How many Emmys had the Gillespie actor won as Archie Bunker before this show?

Add the Gillespie Emmy and he finished with five, plus a Golden Globe.

The TV series won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Drama Series in which two consecutive years?

The show tackled racism, police brutality, AIDS, hate crimes and more across its eight seasons.

How many made-for-television movies wrapped up the series in 1994 and 1995?

The last, Grow Old Along with Me, aired on May 16, 1995.

Which producer made the 1967 film that went on to win the Best Picture Oscar?

The film was nominated for seven Oscars at the 40th Academy Awards and won five, including Best Adapted Screenplay for Stirling Silliphant.

In which year was the 1967 film added to the US National Film Registry?

The Library of Congress selected it as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant, one of 25 films added that December.

Despite the cast's worries, parts of the film were shot in Dyersburg and Union City in which state?

The rest was filmed in Illinois, with Chester hosting the Harvey Oberst chase and Freeburg standing in for Compton's diner.

In John Ball's original novel, Virgil Tibbs is a homicide investigator from which city?

The films moved him east and then west again, giving him the Philadelphia force in 1967 and the San Francisco force in the two sequels.

In the film, murdered industrialist Phillip Colbert had come to town to oversee building what?

His widow threatens to halt construction unless Tibbs leads the investigation, and Tibbs later proves the murder happened at the building site.

In the 1971 third film The Organization, the group that contacts Tibbs has stolen what?

The thieves hoped the break-in would force police to investigate the company itself. The cast included Raul Julia and Sheree North.

Who directed the 1970 sequel in which Tibbs investigates a murder in San Francisco?

Critics found it a routine cop thriller, praising Poitier's performance but faulting the direction and a subplot about Tibbs's home life.

On the TV series, Lois Nettleton's Joanne St. John owned which local diner?

She was the chief's sometime girlfriend. The same season introduced rookie Willson Sweet, the second Black officer on the Sparta force.

Which former network programming chief was an executive producer of the TV series with its star?

Juanita Bartlett rounded out the trio. The show marked O'Connor's first series since Archie Bunker's Place ended in 1983.

After being forced into retirement, Gillespie became interim sheriff of which jurisdiction?

He stepped in when Sheriff Nathan McComb suffered a heart attack. Later a gunman hunting McComb mistook Gillespie for him days before his wedding.