Baretta, Starskey & Hutch, Simon and Simon, Magnum, PI, Scarecow and Mrs King
I'd heard of these but not watched them
OMG, YES, Remington Steele. LOVED that show. [link]
That's another show where the female lead nearly disappeared afterwards while the male lead went on to fame and fortune in movies. Moonlighting is the other, though CShepard didn't exactly disappear.
Napoleaon Solo and Ilya Kuriakin! (I've no idea if I spelled that second name correct.) Man, I had TV crushes on both of them. I'm not sure if you'd include the Avengers in there or not, but Steed and Peel were my favorites. My brother and I used to playact them all the time.
Oh, I can't believe I left out The Equalizer, scene of my first grown-up fandom, but that wasn't a procedural so much as an action-drama focusing on Robert McCall's character.
There was a short-lived series called "Ten Speed and Brown Shoe," starring Ben Vareen and Jeff Goldblum, with Ben as a con man and Jeff as geek who craved adventure, and they ended up fighting crime. It had a glorious theme song, and Jeff Goldblum was wonderful as always, but . . .
Ilya Kuriakin!
You should watch NCIS sometimes, Sail. David McCullough plays the eccentric medical examiner, and sometimes they'll pop up with pictures of Ilya Kuriakin if they need to refer to something mysterious from the doctor's past.
What was the first procedural you really followed?
oh, gosh. Maybe Scarecrow and Mrs. King?
Oh, connie, that's great! I tried NCIS a couple of times, because I like shows based on the Navy, but I just didn't cotton to it. It's much overdramatized from what the NCIS folks do. Most of it is busting kids selling pot in the barracks.
Officer David: "What was Ducky like when he was younger?"
Gibbs: "He looked like Ilya Kuryakin."
NCIS was great this week. So much pay off for everything from last season.
Also, no Dragnet love?
The 50's version (which was my first procedural) is actually quite good.