Police Squad! [In Color] – The Complete Series
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: A- Episodes: B
Not many
spoofs work as they are expected (reference the recent Scary Movie series), but the 1982 series Police Squad spoofs the popular police drama/mystery series
perfectly. Police Squad [In Color]: The Complete Series is so funny and well
done; it is surprising it only lasted six episodes. The series, mostly in a nonsensical way,
follows Detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielson) and Captain Ed Hocken (Alan
North) as the solve some of the toughest crimes the city has ever seen. The show is humorous to the point of
confusing with the constant bombardment of comical chaos while Frank Drebin
plays the straight man. Every second of
the show has a joke, making half the fun trying to catch all the running
jokes. The show was well cast, full of
guest stars, well written, and had such a great uniqueness that it should have
been on for much longer than it was.
The
series spoofed many police shows, but few in particular. With the use of narrative in the beginning of
each episode, the series started off as a sort Quinn Martin production from the
early 1970s (like the hits Streets of
San Francisco or FBI). Police
Squad [In Color] also used other shows like Lee Marvin’s M Squad for inspiration for its
parody. The opening sequence of the
series even goes as far as to almost directly spoof the 1960s N.Y.P.D. series, as well as spoofing
the 1960s making a big deal of the “In Color” that by the 1980s was a television
standard. From beginning to end the
series gained insight from the past classics.
The final sequence used the freeze frame technique many police series
had utilized; the only difference was there was no freeze frame, the actors
just stood motionless as chaos ensued around them. From fires too criminals escaping, they did
it all but they did it with a straight face.
The
technicals on this DVD release are not great but good enough. The picture is presented in a standard 1.33 X
1 Full Screen, as originally presented.
The picture quality varies; the colors are off at times seeming a tad
orange as well as being slightly grainy.
The sound is nothing special in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono, that don’t necessarily ‘POP’ as much as they should, but it
is adequate for this 6 episode comedy.
The extras are impressive for such a small set, where as larger more
expensive sets often times offer no extras.
Extra features include an interview with Leslie Nielson “Behind the Freeze Frames,” a Gag Reel, a
casting test for both Alan North and Ed Williams, Producers Photo Gallery of
Scenery, Sets and Props, List of Celebrity Death Shots, commentaries on 3
episodes, and more. Overall, the extras
are a plus for any fan.
In the
end, you may be asking, why was such a great show canceled? Well, the then ABC entertainment president
Tony Thomopoulos commented on the subject as saying "Police Squad!
was cancelled because the viewer had to watch it in order to appreciate
it." This means people did not care
enough about what they were watching to give it their full attention. Just goes to show studio heads don’t always
know best. *cough* Family Guy…Arrested
Development *cough*
- Michael P Dougherty II
