The series was a revival of the original Burke's Law television series. It starred Gene Barry as millionaire cop Amos Burke, now deputy chief instead of a captain, and Peter Barton as his son Peter Burke. The revival, even more than the original program, was regarded as being largely camp.
The show shares stylistic similarities with Barry's previous series, Bat Masterson, in which he played a debonair lawman of the Old West. The anomaly of a millionaire police captain is explained in a first episode conversation between Detective Tim Tilson and a potential witness. The title of each episode begins with the words "Who Killed...?" with the name or description of the victim.