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Police Squad!First Aired in 1982 Show Type: Police Sitcom First Telecast: March 4, 1982 Last Telecast: July 8, 1982 Episodes: 6 Episodes From the creators of Airplane!, the Hot Shots! movies, and Top Secret!, Police Squad! began as the brain-child of Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker. The series would later spawn three follow-up movies under the new Naked Gun titles. The series was set up to spoof the Quinn Martin Productions' police dramas of the 1960s and 1970s, hence the use of "In Color" by the narrator. The show's main staple of entertainment came from sight gags (such as a tow truck being a truck in the shape of a big toe) and misunderstandings in dialogue, mostly from people taking things extremely literally. Several great routines came from these misunderstandings that left characters in the scene very confused, but left the audience with loads of humor. Though critically acclaimed, it never did well in the ratings. In fact, Abrahams, Zucker, and Zucker got the word from ABC right away that the show would be cancelled. The reason? Because the audience actually had to watch the show. This isn't a bad thing, but the fast pace of the show was too intellectual for the average viewer, tired after a day's work. All the jokes, puns, and sight gags were too much to handle. Though it was never a ratings hit, the show has acheived cult status today. Police Squad! is available on two VHS tapes, each containing three episodes. The VHS tapes are titled Police Squad! Help Wanted and More Police Squad!. Fun Facts * Each episode has two titles. What appears as the on-screen title differs from the voice-over narration title. * The show contained on-screen act numbers after commercial breaks (Act I, Act II, etc.), with Act II being a gag title. * Each week featured a special guest star who was killed in the opening credits, even before the credits finished. * In each episode, Frank Drebin runs over a number of garbage cans equal to the episode number. * Starting with the second episode and continuing with each episode, Frank Drebin would reel off a list of the criminals captured from previous episodes. * During the closing credits, the cast would pretend to "freeze frame." However, coffee being poured into a cup would overflow onto a character's shoes, or Nordberg would enter the scene not knowing to stand still. * ABC wanted the show to have a laugh track, but Abrahams, Zucker, and Zucker wouldn't give in. * Though he was in the opening credits, Rex Hamilton never appeared in any of the episodes. * CBS re-ran the entire series over six-weeks when Naked Gun 2 ½ : The Smell of Fear was released. Unfortunately, it still did poorly in the ratings. ABC Broadcast History March 1982 --- Thursday 8:00 pm July 1982 --- Thursday 9:30 pm If you see any mistakes on this page or if you have more infomation about this show, please submit a comment |