In the Heat of the Night is a 1967 film about Virgil Tibbs, a renown an African-American homicide detective from Philadelphia, who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a small, racist town in Mississippi. The film is based on a novel of the same name by John Bell. The film won the 1967 Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Picture. Rob Steiger, who starred as the town's racist sheriff Bill Gillespie, was awarded with the Oscar for Best Actor.

The film is also famous for a line of dialogue uttered by actor Sidney Poiter: "They call me Mister TIbbs!" The quote became the title of the film's 1970 sequel They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!. A second sequel, The Organization, was released in 1971.

• "They call me MISTER Tibbs!" - Virgil Tibbs

• "Now listen, hear me good mama. Please. Don't make me have to send you to jail... There's white time in jail, and there's color time in jail. The worst kind of time you can do is color time. " - Virgil Tibbs