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Sparta. Mississippi - The fictional town on the
police drama IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT/NBC/1988-94. The series
followed the relationship of Virgil Tibbs (Howard Rollins), a black
Philadelphia detective who transferred back to his hometown of
Sparta, Mississippi to work with a gruff-but-fair white police chief
named Bill Gillespie (Carroll O'Connor).
The citizens of Sparta, Mississippi included:
- Carroll O'Connor as Chief/Sheriff Bill Gillespie
- Howard E. Rollins Jr. as Det. Virgil Tibbs
- Alan Autry as Sgt./Capt. Bubba Skinner
- Anne-Marie Johnson as Althea Tibbs
- Lois Nettleton as Joann St. John
- Joe Don Baker as Tom Dugan
- Denise Nicholas as Harriet DeLong
- David Hart as Dep./Sgt. Parker Williams
- Hugh O'Connor as Dep./Lt. Lonnie Jamison
- Geoffrey Thorne as Dep./Sgt. Willson Sweet
- Randall Franks as Off. Randy Goode
- Crystal R. Fox as Sgt. Luanne Corbin
- Carl Weathers as Chief Hampton Forbes
Members of the Sparta Police
Department
Theme Song Lyrics
In the Heat of the Night.
I’ve got troubles on the wall.
In the Heat of the Night.
Must be an ending to it all.
But hold on
It won’t be long If you be strong
And it’ll be alright.
In the Heat of the Night.
The series was based on the
characters in the novel written by John Ball and the Norman Jewison
directed Oscar®-winning
feature film In the Heat of the Night (1967) starring Sidney Poitier
and Rod Steiger. Sidney Poitier later reprised his role of Virgil
Tibbs in the motion pictures They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! (1970), and
The Organization (1971).
Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier
The TV series was filmed on location in the towns of Hammond,
Louisiana and in Covington, Georgia. However, the town of Sparta,
Illinois is where the real story behind the story In the Heat of
the Night took place (changed to Sparta, Mississippi for the
motion picture).
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