In 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle decided it was time to end his association with the famous detective of his creation.

And in the final problem, he ended the life of Sherlock Holmes.

The public reacted with outrage and sadness.

Stories of readers worldwide, wearing black armbands in mourning, became the stuff of legend.

Mass cancellations nearly bankrupted the Strand magazine,

and Conan Doyle received hate mail for the first time in his life,

chastising him as a brute for killing the beloved sleuth.

But the deed was done, and Doyle was glad to move on. But in the ensuing seven years,

try as he may, none of the author's new creations approached the success of Sherlock Holmes.

And, becoming increasingly desperate for an upturn in his fortunes,

Doyle at last relented. In 1901, he revisited his famous detective in what he imagined would be

a singular one-off adventure, the hound of the Baskervilles.

Set two years prior to the demise of Holmes, it wasn't a return as much as a nod to his old

friend. But the public's reaction was overwhelming. Sales skyrocketed. Fans clamored for more, and this time,

the genie could not be returned to the bottle. So, after much deliberation, Conan Doyle signed

a publishing deal for 13 new Sherlock Holmes stories, a deal that made him the world's

highest paid writer. And in 1903, Sherlock Holmes officially returned to the empty house.

82 years later, following the airing of Granada's adaptation of the final problem,

the show's future was unclear.

Though critically successful in the UK, the series had failed to garner any true commercial victory.

Another series, therefore, seemed unlikely.

Until, in March of 1985, Granada caught wind of something rather extraordinary afoot in the United States.

...