| Cinematography: | Sherman Kunkel |
| Editor: |
|
| Camera: | Single-camera |
| Runtime: | 24–25 minutes |
| Genre: | Crime comedy |
| Creator: | Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker |
| Executive Producer: |
|
| Starring: | |
| Narrated: | Leslie Nielsen |
| Theme Music Composer: | Ira Newborn |
| Open Theme: | "Theme from Police Squad!" |
| Composer: | Ira Newborn |
| Company: | Paramount Television |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Network: | ABC[1] |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 6 |
| Related: | The Naked Gun film series |
Police Squad! is an American television crime comedy series that was broadcast on the ABC network in 1982. It was created by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker, starring Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin. A spoof of police procedurals and many other television shows and movies, the series features Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker's usual sight gags, wordplay, and non sequiturs. It resembles the Lee Marvin police show M Squad (in particular the opening credits) and the late 1960s series Felony Squad.[2] It was canceled after six episodes, and yielded The Naked Gun film series from 1988 to 1994.
Police Squad! was created by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker (ZAZ), who had previously worked on the films, The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) and Airplane! (1980). ZAZ wanted to make another spoof film similar to Airplane!, using the television series M Squad as a basis for the spoof. Lacking an overarching plot to the concept, Paramount Pictures president Michael Eisner instead secured them a six-episode television series, despite ZAZ wanting to make it into a film.[3]
The show aired as a mid-season replacement in March 1982, but was taken off the schedule after four episodes.[3] The remaining two episodes were dumped onto the summer schedule in place of the usual summer reruns. Against critical acclaim, the show was canceled by ABC after just six episodes.[4] The show gained a strong cult following through repeat broadcasts on cable channels.[5]
Alan North played Captain Ed Hocken, and Peter Lupus co-starred as Officer Norberg. In the films, those roles were played by George Kennedy and O. J. Simpson respectively, with Norberg renamed Nordberg. The only actors who reprised their roles in the films are Leslie Nielsen, Ed Williams as scientist Ted Olson, and Ronald "Tiny Ron" Taylor as the very tall Al. Joyce Brothers played herself in the fourth episode and in . Robert Goulet, one of the "special guest stars" killed during the title sequence, plays the villain Quentin Hapsburg in .[6]
Each episode's voiced title differs from that displayed on screen. In the following list, the voiced title is in parentheses.
Leslie Nielsen portrayed Sergeant Frank Drebin, detective lieutenant of Police Squad. Jerry Zucker explained that the name Drebin was picked blindly from the phone book. Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker had met Nielsen when working on Airplane! (1980) and decided that their kind of humor matched. The team said that Nielsen would be perfect as Drebin, as the character lampooned the roles that Nielsen had played in television dramas such as and S.W.A.T..[7] Ed Williams, who co-starred as lab technician Ted Olson, had been a science teacher for many years and had some previous acting experience. Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker were amazed by his performance.
Rex Hamilton is credited in every episode as "Abraham Lincoln", with the same clip in all opening credits as his only appearance. Nielsen, Taylor, and Williams were the only members of the main cast who reprise their characters into The Naked Gun film series. Captain Ed Hocken was portrayed by George Kennedy in the film series, and O. J. Simpson played Officer Nordberg (slightly renamed from "Norberg").
The show's opening sequence is a satire on traditional crime-drama opening sequences, particularly those of M Squad and various Quinn Martin shows such as The Fugitive and particularly The New Breed (which also stars Nielsen). Hank Simms, who had worked as an announcer for some of Martin's programs, announced the title of each episode, though the spoken title never matches the title caption.[8] [9] The sequence introduces Nielsen and North during a shootout,[10] and Abraham Lincoln impersonator Rex Hamilton, who dramatically returns gunfire to John Wilkes Booth, as his only appearance.[11]
Another recurring gag in the opening credits sequence is the "special guest star", a celebrity who is introduced but immediately murdered.[12] These special guest stars are Lorne Greene, Georg Stanford Brown, Robert Goulet, William Shatner, Florence Henderson, and William Conrad.[12] [13] [14] [15] John Belushi was slated as "special guest star" for the fifth episode and a scene with Belushi tied to blocks of concrete under water was filmed.[16] Following Belushi's unexpected death in March 1982, the scene was replaced with footage of Florence Henderson before the episode was broadcast the following July. Belushi's accidental death shocked Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker, as they had joked about it after he had nearly choked during the filming of the scene.[17] A list of possible celebrity death shots was included in the DVD release.[18]
The show was intended to mock police dramas in the same way in which Airplane! mocks disaster movies.[15] Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker wrote the pilot episode,[19] in which most straight lines were directly copied from an M Squad episode.[20] The pilot episode is a near scene-for-scene remake of "More Deadly", the opening episode of the second season of M Squad. Pat Proft, who had worked with Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker on The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) and Airplane! (1980),[21] wrote the third episode.[22] Robert Wuhl was invited to join the writing staff after he had auditioned for the lead role in Airplane!. He co-wrote the show's second and sixth episodes with Tino Insana.[8] [22] [23] Both episodes contain cultural references to old movies such as On the Waterfront and The French Connection. In Wuhl's audio commentary for the DVD, he mentioned that it was a nice opportunity, but that he did not really feel a connection with the show, especially because of its short run.[8]
The first episode of Police Squad! was directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker. Two of the show's six episodes were directed by filmmaker Joe Dante, who recalled in 2008,
I knew the Zuckers from second unit on Rock 'n' Roll High School and Kentucky Fried Movie and had turned down Airplane! – don’t ask! When they got Police Squad! going, they asked me to do the second one. It only lasted six episodes, two of which I directed.ABC had no idea what to do with the show, which had no laugh track and resembled a rerun of a ’60s program. The network kept changing the time slot so no one could find it, and people casually switching it on thought it really was an old TV show! Like they did in their features, the boys used real TV episodes as their template, mostly a ’50s Lee Marvin series called M Squad. It was lots of fun to do and was the first thing I ever directed on a studio lot. I prefer the TV show to the later Naked Gun movies.[24]
ABC announced the cancellation of Police Squad! after four of its six episodes had aired in March 1982. The final two episodes were aired that summer. In an interview for the DVD release of the series, Nielsen said ABC entertainment president Tony Thomopoulos asserted Police Squad! was canceled because viewers had to pay close attention to the show in order to get much of the humor: "the viewer had to watch it in order to appreciate it".[25] Nielsen also thought the premise was more effective in the successful Naked Gun films because the much larger screen size in a cinema increases the efficacy of the visual gags. In its annual "Cheers and Jeers" issue, TV Guide magazine called the explanation for the cancellation "the most stupid reason a network ever gave for ending a series".[26]
In 1985, Paramount Home Video first released all six episodes of the show on VHS, Betamax, and LaserDisc formats as two separate volumes: Police Squad!: Help Wanted! and More! Police Squad!, each with three episodes in their production order.[27] [28] Paramount and CBS DVD first released the series on DVD in 2006 in a keep case on one disc.[29] The episodes are in airing order from ABC. The DVD extras include production notes from network executives, a "freeze-frame" that was filmed but never used, bloopers, casting tests, and an interview with Nielsen.[30] Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker, producer Robert K. Weiss, and writer Robert Wuhl recorded audio commentary for the first, third, and sixth episodes.[31] Critics universally praised how the show was still funny after more than 20 years.[32] [7] [33] The series was released in Blu-ray format in the US on April 14, 2020.
After the cancellation of Police Squad!, ZAZ returned to films, creating the comedies Top Secret! and Ruthless People. At this point, they were able to identify a narrative to apply to the Police Squad! formula for a theatrical film by adding a romantic plotline, and the film was readily greenlit by Paramount.[3] It performed well at the box office, grossing around $78,756,177.[34] The film lead to the Naked Gun trilogy with two sequels, (1991) and Naked Gun : The Final Insult (1994), were released. The Naked Gun : The Smell of Fear was considered the most successful of the three, grossing around $86,930,411,[35] and Naked Gun : The Final Insult grossed $51,132,598.[36] Roger Ebert rated the first movie out of four stars and gave three stars to each of the two following films.[37]
A series of British advertisements for Red Rock Cider were made in the same style, with the opening titles changed to other names such as "Fraud Squad" or "Fried Squid", and featuring Leslie Nielsen. The advertisements were shown in British cinemas as well as on television. They were directed by John Lloyd, with such apparent success that Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker approached him to direct Naked Gun : The Final Insult, but he turned them down.[38] During the WWE's SummerSlam 1994 pay-per-view event, the Police Squad! characters look for The Undertaker, who had previously vanished.[39]
On Rotten Tomatoes, Police Squad! has an aggregate score of 90% based on 28 positive and three negative critic reviews. The website’s consensus reads: "Wacky, inventive, and endlessly quotable, Police Squad! is a hysterically funny leap forward for TV comedy that was tragically ahead of its time."[40]
Upon the home video release in 1985, Washington Post critic Tom Shales commented "People can rent them and laugh, and then cry that ABC was so cruel."[41] In 2009, the DVD set was nominated for a Satellite Award for Best DVD Release of a TV Show, though it lost to the DVD set of the eighth season of Fox's The Simpsons.[42] In 2013, TV Guide ranked it #7 on its list of 60 shows that were "Cancelled Too Soon".[43]
Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, has said, "If Police Squad! had been made twenty years later, it would have been a smash. It was before its time. In 1982 your average viewer was unable to cope with its pace, its quick-fire jokes. But these days they'd have no problems keeping up, I think we've proved that."[44]
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series | Leslie Nielsen | [45] | |||
| Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series | Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker | |||||
| Satellite Awards | Best DVD Release of TV Shows | The Complete Series | [46] | |||
| Online Film & Television Association Awards | Television Hall of Fame: Productions | Season 1 | [47] |