Cold Case | |
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Promotional poster
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Created by | Meredith Stiehm |
Starring |
Kathryn Morris Danny Pino John Finn Jeremy Ratchford Thom Barry Tracie Thoms |
Theme music composer | Helmut and Franz Vonlichten with intro by Michael A. Levine |
Opening theme | Nara |
Composer(s) | Michael A. Levine |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 7 |
No. of episodes | 156 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
Meredith Stiehm Jerry Bruckheimer Jonathan Littman |
Location(s) | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Running time | 50 minutes |
Production company(s) |
Jerry Bruckheimer Television CBS Productions (2003-2006) CBS Paramount Network Television (2006-2009) CBS Television Studios (2009-2010) Warner Bros. Television |
Distributor |
Warner Bros. Television Distribution (USA) CBS Studios International (Worldwide) |
Release | |
Original network | CBS |
Picture format |
480i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV) |
Original release | September 28, 2003 | – May 2, 2010
Cold Case is an American police procedural television series which ran on CBS from September 28, 2003 to May 2, 2010. The series revolved around a fictionalized Philadelphia Police Department division that specializes in investigating cold cases.
On May 18, 2010, CBS announced that the series had been canceled. The series aired in syndication, and also on Ion Television in the U.S. and on Viva in Canada.Sleuth also aired the series occasionally. In 2011, the show aired on MyNetworkTV.
The show is set in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and follows Detective Lilly Rush (Kathryn Morris), a homicide detective with the Philadelphia Police Department, who specializes in "cold cases", or investigations which are no longer being actively pursued by the department. Rush was initially partnered with Detective Chris Lassing (Justin Chambers) in the first five episodes and then with Detective Scotty Valens (Danny Pino) for the remainder of the series. They work under Lieutenant John Stillman (John Finn) and are assisted by other detectives from their squad—Nick Vera (Jeremy Ratchford), Will Jeffries (Thom Barry), and beginning in season three, Kat Miller (Tracie Thoms).
Usually, each episode would focus on a single investigation. All cases involved murders committed in Philadelphia, although investigations occasionally required travel outside the city. Cases were also spread out over much of the previous century, with some as recent as a year or two old and others dating back to the 1910s. Generally, an investigation would begin when the police received a new lead, or "new direction", on a case. This might be the discovery of a body, a new lead such as an alibi witness not found in the original investigation, new evidence pointing to the innocence of the accused, or a critical piece of evidence such as a murder weapon (e.g., one investigation began when a gun received in a gun buyback program was linked to a murder through ballistic evidence). In some cases, the lack of a body meant that it was originally unclear if a crime had even occurred, with people instead believing that the victim had merely left town.