Patrulla juvenil

Watching this show as a teenager, Julie was my idol; hip, intelligent, beautiful, with a cool job, great clothes, and hot guy friends.

Seriously, Mod Squad was a well-done show with interesting characters. When Aaron Spelling, with Danny Thomas and Sheldon Leonard, ran the show, it was very good. Later, when Harve Bennett replaced Spelling, it went down a bit, but was still worth watching just for the stars: Michael Cole, Clarence Williams III, and Peggy Lipton. No insult intended for the stars of the movie, but these three will always be the Mod Squad, with Tige Andrews as Captain Greer. I would still rather watch episodes of the show than the movie.

For a young girl living in a small town, Mod Squad was a window into another world, giving me a glimpse of life outside my boundaries. What I learned about being cool back then, I learned from Julie Barnes.

The Mod Squad centered around three youthful cops, that were recruited to the LA police force in the late 60s. This show was truly cutting-edge as a concept back then. Three cool, under thirty hipsters as cops?? Yep! And it worked, because this was one of the most popular crime dramas of all-time.

The Mod Squad included Pete Cochran, a rich kid looking for kicks, who runs afoul of the law. Then there's Linc Hayes, a black ghetto youth who's struggling to survive, and gets himself busted. Lastly, there's Julie, a gorgeous young woman who suffers from a sad home life, and flees it. She too gets wrapped-up in law-breaking. Instead of throwing these three offenders in the clink, Capt. Greer has the idea of making them undercover cops, as long as they all agree to obey the law from then on.

Linc, Pete, and Julie were the coolest cops on TV in the late 60s. They all dressed in the latest 60s youth fashions, used hip lingo, and had the street-smarts necessary to do their jobs, as cops in the urban jungle of LA. The three were almost like a family, with Capt. Greer looking out for them like a kindly father would.

By working together in harmony, the Mod Squad showed that the societal chasms of race, class, gender, and even generational strife, could be overcome. It may have been an idealistic vision, but then the 60s were an idealistic period. It was so positive to see the three very different Mod Squad members, have a cooperative working relationship, despite their differences. They set an example, that folks could strive to follow in real life.

I highly recommend the Mod Squad, and not only for those who are nostalgic for the 60s. It's simply a quality show, enjoyable for all ages. Like Linc Hayes would say, it's 'solid man'.

Its premise was exactly this: Three teenagers who get into trouble with the law and help out others out of trouble by solving crimes with the help out the Lieutenant(played by Tige Andrews) who keeps one step ahead of everything they do. Out of all the Aaron Spelling shows that he ever produced this was one of the best ever(which is second to "Starsky and Hutch" and his earlier works too including the long forgotten detective show "Burke's Law"). Three teenagers from different backgrounds were basically detectives in their own way in getting the bad guys. The concept of this show was just that: kids ratting on kids,and going undercover to break up drug busts or sometimes save a girl from great danger. Pete, Linc,and Julie were the kids of their generation and it will never be a show like it ever. The show itself had some of the grooviest fashions ever from that period along with the stylings of the Afro and its standard of unity for all. The show was a top ten hit when it ran on ABC from 1968-1973. The executive producers were Danny Thomas(of Make Room for Daddy fame),and Sheldon Leonard(who was also producing I Spy and Andy Griffith at the time)and they kept the story lines with great action and one of the best crime drama shows ever to come out of that era. The guest stars who appear on the show were making their mark during its run with stars like Richard Dreyfuss, Richard Pryor, Michael Douglas,and Karen Black. Was one of the hippest ever....catch the episodes on videocassette if you can..

As I'm re-watching the series on DVD, two things stand out to me:

* It's very much of its' late 1960s time with the counter-culture and all. But it's amazing to me that three full-time undercover cops have so much time to not do, well, cop things. They seem to start their own cases all the time instead of being assigned what you'd expect undercover cops to do... long-time stake outs of drug dens and such. They're being paid for something but they're always just living a teenage life and crime just happens to show up while they're doing it.

* The fact that Julie apparently can't do anything to defend anyone except running for Linc and Pete just grates my nerves. She sees trouble, she screams, and she runs for help. There were some strong women in the 1960s -- nobody messed with Kitty on "Gunsmoke" -- but "Mod Squad" isn't there. It would be a decade before a show like "Cagney and Lacey" hit the airwaves but it was desperately needed.

I watched this series as a kid.. All my friends did too! We'd talk about the episodes in class.. Ahead of it's time.. Great show.. Oh yes, I was in love with Peggy Lipton 🎬❤