Father Dowling Mysteries is a who-done-it series in the vein of Murder, She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, Ellery Queen, Nick and Nora Charles, Miss Marple, et al. The "gimmick" or "twist" here is that our protagonist is a Catholic priest and the pastor of an inner-city parish.
Tom Bosley plays Father Frank Dowling, an amateur sleuth who just "happens to be around" when someone is murdered, abducted, disappears, etc. He then takes it upon himself to investigate the crime and prove that the police department's number one suspect is innocent. Tracy Nelson plays Sister Stephanie (a.k.a. Sister Steve), a young streetwise nun and Father Dowling's partner in crime-solving.
The show is formulaic of the genre:
1. Obvious clues that the police overlook.
2. The police, anxious to "wrap it up," arrest an innocent person based on flimsy circumstantial evidence.
3. Only Father Dowling and Sister Steve possess the analytical minds and cunning to solve crimes.
4. Our sleuths get into all sorts of life-threatening situations only to escape/be rescued at the last minute.
5. Someone makes a benign eleven-o'clock-hour statement about potato salad that triggers a lightbulb moment within our crack sleuths. Father Dowling says something like, "That's it's! Marie, call the police, and tell them to meet us at the loading dock. Come on Steve."
6. The guilty party is subjected to a Father Dowling monologue at the denouement about how he pieced all of the evidence together.
7. Crimes are solved based on hunches and enigmatic clues (and a lot of snooping) rather than forensic evidence (e.g. DNA, fingerprints, trace evidence).
Despite the cliches, however, the show boasts likable characters, interesting plots, and a top-notch cast, particularly Tracy Nelson, who gets to play a wide range of undercover characters who are on the other side of the moral spectrum of Sister Steve's religious beliefs (e.g. Prostitute, pool hustler, card shark, beauty contestant, etc.).
Rounding out the cast of series regulars is the wonderful character actress Mary Wickes as the wisecracking parish rectory housekeeper (a role she's played many times before), and James Stephens, who provides just the right amount of comic relief as a young befuddled priest forever looking for ways to suck up to the (unseen) diocese Bishop.
