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Hosted by Boris Karloff, this anthology series initially focused on ordinary crime and mystery tales but later delved into gothic horror stories adapted from works by Cornell Woolrich, Robert Bloch, Charlotte Armstrong, and others.

Manhattan's 87th precinct forms the backdrop for this grim and gritty police drama based on the long-running series of novels by Ed McBain. Storylines focus on neighborhood crime, and the lives of the officers of the 87th and their families: Steve Carella and his deaf/mute wife, Teddy; rookie Bert Kling; long-time veteran Roger Havilland and the wryly philosophical Meyer Meyer.

The Ford Motor Company sponsored this hour-long program which rotated between variety shows, dramatic productions, and musical comedies. One of the offerings was turned into a regular series, Sing Along with Mitch (1961).

A governess put in charge of two young children begins to see the ghost of her dead predecessor.

A concert pianist, so obsessed by the death of an arch-rival that he desecrates his grave, announces he will play a sonata written especially for the dead man's oversized hands.

A young woman is found murdered in the liquor store she was working in as a clerk. Though it at first looks like a burglary, the detectives soon discount that theory and look into the girl's acquaintances, particularly as she was engaged in a custody battle with her ex-husband, and was romantically involved with her employer and hoping to marry him when he divorced his wife.

A disgruntled bank employee executes an elaborate corporate sabotage against his employers.

Right after returning from her honeymoon, a policeman's wife is shot in the back and seriously wounded by a sniper. The only apparent witness is a young boy who strangely claims to have seen a suspicious person but not to have heard the shot, even though he was right across the street. The detectives focus their investigation on several men who threatened the policeman because they blamed him for their imprisonment.

A man causes a young woman, Claudia Davis, to fall into a lake by shooting holes into the canoe she was in. Her friend Josie Thompson tries to save her but is too late, and Claudia drowns. Afterward Josie decides to dye her hair and impersonate her dead friend as Claudia had much more money and Josie, who was poor, would like to live the high life. Josie is unaware that Claudia's death was not an accidental drowning and that the killer and the man he was working for still want Claudia dead.

The detectives investigate a burglary, which escalates when the burglars later return and shoot the owner. Meanwhile, Meyer becomes concerned about his recurring chest pains. He sees his doctor at the insistence of his wife, but does not tell his fellow officers.

After a public stenographer takes the dictation of a millionaire's last will and testament, three apparent attempts are made her life, and she is approached by a man offering $100,000 if she claims the millionaire was not of sound mind at the time the will was dictated. Havilland develops a close relation with the girl while trying to protect her.

A human hand is found in a flight bag that was thrown in a trash can. The detectives try to match it to a recent missing person. Their main focus is on a man who was reported missing by his wife after she kicked him out because she thought he was having a fling with a model. When they investigate the model, they find that she too has been reported missing.

The detectives investigate a rash of bomb threats against businesses. Then a night watchman is found murdered. The watchman was part of a gang that is planning a bank robbery. The mastermind of the gang, Sordo, has made the threats against other businesses in order to distract the police from his real plan, and killed the watchman because he was seeing a woman and fears he might have leaked the plan to her. When Kling finds the woman at the house of the murdered man, Sordo arrives and shoots Kling and takes the woman hostage.

In response to an incident of vandalism at a store, Kling tries to persuade baseball player Larry Brooks to start a ball club for young kids in the neighborhood he grew up in. Larry finally agrees, after learning that his parolee older brother has become involved in a numbers racket. Unfortunately, Larry's attempts to keep his brother out of further trouble just wind up digging a deeper hole for both of them.

A blackmailer has been murdered, and the detectives focus their attention on three people whom he was known to have been blackmailing. Havilland also looks into a woman friend of the murder victim. Another friend of the victim seems overly interested in the police investigation.

Two ex-convicts kidnap a young man, believing him to be the son of shoe manufacturer Douglas King. Actually, the boy is the son of the manufacturer's chauffeur. When the kidnappers discover this, they still demand that King pay $250,000 for the boy's safe return. However, King, believing this will ruin him financially, tells the police he is not going to pay the ransom.

A boy delivers a letter to 87th Precinct headquarters. The writer of the letter claims that he will kill "the lady" at 8 PM that night if he is not stopped.

A woman enters the 87th precinct headquarters and holds Detectives Kling and Meyer at gunpoint, announcing that she plans to kill Lt. Carrella as soon as he arrives. She blames Carrella for the death of her husband, who just died in prison. Carrella was the arresting officer. She is armed not only with a gun but a bottle of liquid which she claims is nitroglycerin. Soon both Detective Havilland and Teddy arrive there as well, along with a female suspect Havilland has brought in to book, and they are also held hostage as they tensely wait for Carrella to arrive.

Detective Bert Kling is deeply troubled after he is forced to shoot and kill an 18-year-old who was firing at him after attempting to rob a theater box office. Everyone who knew the youth describes him as a good kid. Now Kling and the other detectives try to discover the identity of the boy's accomplice who escaped.

A boxer's punching bagged is rigged, injuring one of his assistants. The detectives try to discover who is trying to send a message to the fighter---or to his trainer. Is it a mobster who has tried to control the fighters in the past, or someone who the trainer and fighter trust?

After returning drunk to his bachelor party the night before his wedding, Cleve Tompson remembers finding his fiancee's body in her apartment. He calls police and tells them that he had to have killed her. But after checking out the evidence in her room, the detectives don't believe he could have done it. They find that the girl had recently paid large amounts of money to several other men. Meanwhile, Tompson, still believing he had to have done it, calls the newspaper and they print his confession to them on the front page.

A girl is found murdered in a park after she left a party. The main suspect is a troubled young man who is regarded as a social outcast by most of his fellow students.

The detectives are on the hunt for a wounded boxer who, after being shot by the owner of the store he was trying to rob, later killed an off-duty cop by slugging him through a glass window. Working with the 87th Precinct detectives is an officer from a much less crime-ridden precinct. As they are about to arrest the boxer, the new officer makes an unwise move which in the process almost gets himself and Carella killed.