Columbo sucked. Kojak was dope. But The Rockford Files was the best written crime based drama in television history.
The one that shouldn't have worked but it just did was Magnum P.I. Somehow in that window in the 80's, a show about a guy perennially walking around in a safari shirt, trying to forget the Vietnam War, while living with on a luxury estate with an ex English military officer named Higgins... just worked. I haven't seen the new one. But they've turned Higgins into a hot chick and changed just about everything else about the show I'm sure.