For me Robert Janes marked a decline in the series. Not saying that he himself was responsible. Maybe that’s the direction things were headed in spite of him. The cop show landscape on TV shifted drastically by 1977 so maybe it was inevitable. Perhaps he was told that the scripts had to be more, how should I say it, bland? Or maybe less edgy and more “relaxed” and “breezy”? Perhaps if he was writing for the show in 1972 or 1973 his scripts would have been more in line with what we were getting at the time. We’ll never know. As it stands he came onboard at the start of season 10 at which point the show took a sharp turn downward in quality and creativity.

But perhaps I shouldn’t be too harsh. He did give us at least one EXCELLENT episode with “The Skyline Killer”. Dark and edgy, closer to something from season 6 than season 11.