The shaky camera work — hand held camera for the most part — owes it genesis to the cinema verite of the 1950s and ’60s. Take a look at the Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cin%C3%A9ma_v%C3%A9rit%C3%A9) for this topic to get a great analysis of the origins. You can see it being applied to video in early shows like Jack Webb’s Dragnet and in I Spy. It was a natural aesthetic for the cop shows that followed, as Rick says.
I feel the same way about hand-held as you do; a little bit of it goes a very long way. A tripod or jib boom is still your best friend as far as I’m concerned.
Jack
