21 Jump Street: Tatort Klassenzimmer

This was Fox's first serious drama. It was aimed at a young audience. 21 Jump Street had a great cast including a young Johnny Depp, Peter DeLuise, and Holly Robinson among the cast members, good writing, and innovative plot about young cops posing as high school students to capture a wide variety of criminals in the school system. The show lasted a few seasons on Fox without network infiltration like other major networks. It lasted long enough to leave its mark on the baby network. Now there are a dozen shows like 21 Jump Street without the cleverness and the strive to be better than just the average shows on TV. In fact, the show was probably the first American drama on Fox to be filmed on location in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to cut costs. In the beginning of the Fox network lineup, 21 Jump Street launched a unique way of looking at secondary schools with a great cast. It was never awarded an Emmy which it should have been even nominated for Best Drama.

This television series held its own. I remember waiting patiently for the next episode to air when I was 13 and loving every second of it. Call it contrived and superficial, but I grew up with Judy Hoffs, Tom Hansen, Doug Penhall, Harry Ioki, Adam Fuller, and Dennis Booker....and I loved every second of it! Johnny Depp might renounce the fact that he was ever connected with this show, but it provided hours of entertainment for many individuals. For me, it is a reminder of a time in my youth where I was completely innocent.

I recently bought the first season and this show is still as good as anything on television today if not better. Its been at least 10 years since I had seen an episode so it was like watching the show for the first time. Great theme song, great actors, and terrific scripts. If it wasn't for some of the 1980's hair and clothing, this show could be airing in prime time today without question. Its makes you want to go back to high school again and walk the halls with immunity because there's nothing that any gang or teacher can do to you. The only problem is even after watching the entire 1st season, I have no idea what town the show takes place in. Oh well, I truly hope that there are plans to release the rest of the seasons real soon.

It took another 20 years, another generation, before we were ready for another cop show with young people as undercover cops dealing with crime and other social issues, but where Mod Squad left off in the Sixties, 21 Jump Street took the ball and ran with it in the Eighties.

Personally I think 21 Jump Street was a much better show. It certainly had at least one cast member who became a mega star in Johnny Depp. When Depp left the show, it sputtered on for a while, but ultimately died when other regulars left as well.

I might not agree with all of Johnny Depp's opinions, but I certainly have enormous respect for his artistic vision. He was good, he was very good as Officer Tom Hanson in 21 Jump Street, but he left at what turned out the right time for him before he was trapped as a juvenile teen idol forever and created one fantastic body of work as one of the best players around. He knew what he was capable of back in the day and the rest of us know it now too.

I was surprised that Dustin Nguyen didn't break out from 21 Jump Street as well as a big star. He should have had a great career as an oriental leading man, he had the looks, talent and definitely the martial arts skill.

In a way the Sixties handed off to the Eighties in the person of original captain of the Jump Street program, Frederic Forrest. He was one weird dude as the hippie type captain, a real refugee of the tune in, turn on, drop out generation. The character didn't work, so he was quickly dispatched and Steven Williams came on board as the new captain and a more traditional police authority figure.

You can see a lot of future stars in 21 Jump Street, Jason Priestley and Brad Pitt did episodes back in the day. I liked the stories very much, the series regulars were as human and as flawed as some of the kids they were dealing with.

I wish it had lasted longer, but maybe if Johnny Depp had stuck with it longer we might never have seen Captain Jack Sparrow.

This was one of the first Fox hour-long dramas, and Fox definitely wore its heart on its sleeve. Like WB now, Fox wanted to lure in a teenage audience with its good-looking young stars. Luckily for those stars, 21 Jump Street was a rather good vehicle, and stood on its own merits.

Kind of like a Mod Squad for the 80s, the "teens" in 21 Jump Street were cops. Hip cops. They would infiltrate schools, drug rings, gangs, wherever teenagers were in trouble... unlike the Mod Squad, though, the storylines were always passable, and quite often excellent. Almost every episode touched upon subjects that were taboo for the big 3 networks (and still are)- AIDS, statutory rape, drug use, abortion, child abuse- and presented it in a moralistic way, but without being maudlin.

The show kind of faltered in its last few seasons; Johnny Depp was becoming a star, and execs started pushing other "stars" into the spotlight, hoping for cash rewards and spin-offs. Richard Greico was most heavily promoted, to an audience that didn't really care. He became a teen-age heartthrob for a while, but never achieved the momentum to carry his career skyward. With this pushing of the stars, the storylines took a back seat to character preening. The end result was faltering ratings, and cancellation.

Until it became an actors' showcase, though, 21 Jump Street was probably the best drama on TV.