As others have noted, Naked City was essentially an anthology series (a now gone genre that was common in the late 50s/early 60s), rather than a "police procedural". The scripts varied in quality and some veered a bit too much toward the sentimentality and sanctimony that passed for quality television in the show's era. Nonetheless, it provided many sides of New York and probably showed off the city better than any subsequent New York-based show. "Naked City" was put together by many of the same people responsible for "Route 66", which was the yin to this show's yang--restless loners who went everywhere (rather than cops rooted in New York) and and served up a similar range of characters in places all over the country, with similar kinds of scripts. Whatever the limits of the writing, the show was well-acted and had strong regulars, as well as a range of guest stars and bit players that seems amazing from our vantage point in the present.
Regarding previous comments: The city has changed less than one might expect in the last few decades. I rented a DVD that included a scene at 3rd Ave & 68th St. A few days before, I happened to be in that area--except for one corner, much of the area looks much as it did in that 1961 episode. As for the "diversity" of the show and NYC: New York in 1960 had a much smaller proportion of minorities than cities such as Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, Washington DC, etc. Also, the big drug-fueled crime wave of the late 60s to the 80s had not begun and the racial disparity in arrests and incarceration was not as large as it has become in the present day. African Americans lived in Harlem, but also middle class sections of Queens and economically mixed areas of Brooklyn; it was never as ghettoized as many other places such as LA or Chicago and there was a significant middle class. In 1960, New York still was very much a city of Irish, Italian, & Jewish immigrants and their descendants, with healthy doses of Greeks, Eastern European gentiles, Scandinavians, and others. In addition, the show's occasional African-American guest star or even its inclusion of Black faces in crowds were radical steps for their time and the sort of thing that engendered sponsor resistance. Even after the passage of Civil Rights laws, Black faces were rare on television. Naked City was far ahead of its time, even if it seems anachronistic now. Pontiac may have been a sponsor, which would explain the 4 door hardtops (top of the line cars in their day) for the cops and old Fords for the perps. OTOH, location filming was novel and has never been cheap, so the expendable perp cars would have been potential junkers.
My guess is that "Naked City" was popular among everyday police officers for the same reason that "Barney Miller" was--it humanized the individual cop, showed the tedium of their job, and portrayed the world of odd and unexplainable characters that filled their day. It's doubtful that anyone would want to identify with the likes of Andy Sipowicz (NYPD Blue), even he that seems more realistic to a TV viewer.
Regarding previous comments: The city has changed less than one might expect in the last few decades. I rented a DVD that included a scene at 3rd Ave & 68th St. A few days before, I happened to be in that area--except for one corner, much of the area looks much as it did in that 1961 episode. As for the "diversity" of the show and NYC: New York in 1960 had a much smaller proportion of minorities than cities such as Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, Washington DC, etc. Also, the big drug-fueled crime wave of the late 60s to the 80s had not begun and the racial disparity in arrests and incarceration was not as large as it has become in the present day. African Americans lived in Harlem, but also middle class sections of Queens and economically mixed areas of Brooklyn; it was never as ghettoized as many other places such as LA or Chicago and there was a significant middle class. In 1960, New York still was very much a city of Irish, Italian, & Jewish immigrants and their descendants, with healthy doses of Greeks, Eastern European gentiles, Scandinavians, and others. In addition, the show's occasional African-American guest star or even its inclusion of Black faces in crowds were radical steps for their time and the sort of thing that engendered sponsor resistance. Even after the passage of Civil Rights laws, Black faces were rare on television. Naked City was far ahead of its time, even if it seems anachronistic now. Pontiac may have been a sponsor, which would explain the 4 door hardtops (top of the line cars in their day) for the cops and old Fords for the perps. OTOH, location filming was novel and has never been cheap, so the expendable perp cars would have been potential junkers.
My guess is that "Naked City" was popular among everyday police officers for the same reason that "Barney Miller" was--it humanized the individual cop, showed the tedium of their job, and portrayed the world of odd and unexplainable characters that filled their day. It's doubtful that anyone would want to identify with the likes of Andy Sipowicz (NYPD Blue), even he that seems more realistic to a TV viewer.