30 years ago today, on May 16, 1995, In the Heat of the Night aired its final episode (well, actually a TV movie), capping of its eight season run — not a bad run for a show that was based on a film that was more than 20 years old when the series premiered.

In the original 1967 movie, Sidney Poitier starred as Virgil Tibbs, a gifted Philadelphia police detective who finds himself drawn into a murder investigation in Sparta, Mississippi, where he must work alongside a racist police force and citizenry. The show began with the same premise, with Howard Rollins cast as Mr. Tibbs, and Carroll O’Connor appearing as local Police Chief Bill Gillespie, a role originated by Rod Steiger. But over the course of its 147 episodes (plus several made-for-TV movies), the show sprawled in a number of directions, with episodes touching on modern issues like the AIDS epidemic, drugs and sexual harassment, while continuing to examine racism, corruption, and other problems explored in the original film.