Police Squad!

This is the brief series that lead to the NAKED GUN trilogy. Leslie Nielsen gets to play madman with all the delicious relish he can bring to the part of the straight-faced detective.

The stories are parodies of all the very, very, very serious and very, very, very important police and crime shows on TV over the years. Nothing escapes the satiric bashing that goes on here. The guest stars each week are murdered in the opening scene and then are never heard of again. The titles of the episodes don't fit the narration. Nielsen's own narration is a wonderful satire of all the crime story voice-overs going back to film noir and DRAGNET. And -- wonder of wonders -- the show is "In Color!"

No pun goes un-punned. No sight-gag is left un-gagged. Nothing is spared. Imagine the Marx Brothers and Three Stooges in a crime movie setting, and that gives you a hint of what POLICE SQUAD is all about. This is one of the funniest shows ever made for TV, but since it is satire, it of course had only a short run. Nevertheless, I loved it.

"Police Squad" was one of the shortest lived television series in history...lasting a paltry six episodes. Looking at them now on the DVD collection, you wonder why. The jokes were hilarious and just what you'd find in the "Airplane!" and "Naked Gun" movies...which were made by the same folks who made the show. All that is obvious is that the network didn't have any faith in the program and just killed it. It's a shame...but other great shows have also failed...only to be discovered later (such as the movie spin-offs). So my advice is to go to Amazon.com or another site which offers the DVD and buy it. If you don't like it...you're probably dead.

This was a truly unique show. Many of the comments in this section regret that there were only 6 episodes made. But to be honest, the show used so many jokes per episode, I don't see how they could have gone too much further without running out. The great thing about this show is that every one who watches it has a favorite one-liner that they remember, and like to repeat. One could say the same thing about the movie "Airplane". There are so few things that are really original, especially in television, the medium that thrives so much on imitation of previous success. So the time has come for this limited series to get its chance on DVD. But not just another release. Visualize this. The show did such a good job of satirizing police dramas from M Squad to the QM series, that the DVD should do the same this for DVD special features. In short, the DVD release should have all the usual special features, but they would all be send-ups of special features. Now that would make for a great DVD release of this great show.

Endlessly Hilarious! I taped the first 5 shows years and years ago, and every so often I go back and watch them, and still they are as funny as they were the first time. In fact, there are so many sight gags and whatnot, that you will miss a lot of them the first few times you watch the shows! I see something new every time!! Absolutely hilarious, even more so than the films. Several of the gags are used repeatedly ("Cigarette? Yes it is", or the midget cop who is the intercom), but still manage to be funny each time. Too bad they didn't have Johnny the shoeshine guy in the movies. I wish I had the 6th show!!!

Highly recommended if you liked the Naked Gun or Airplane movies.

Proof that TV execs don't always know a good show when they see it (See "Family Guy"), all you have to do is look at "Police Squad!" A VERY short lived show (Only 6 episodes were aired) with humor that still holds up 20 yrs later. Leslie Neilsen as Frank Drebin is incredibly funny, with his partner, The late Alan North as Ed Hocken. My favorite episode is "Rendezvous at Big Gulch," (Or, as the announcer says, "Terror In The Neighborhood.")when Drebin runs a locksmith business to check out the thugs (Next to the keys, are "Florida Keys, Francis Scott Keys,""Turkeys," and "Pot Roast."). Too bad the network didn't get a clue to the humor of the show, but at least it inspired 3 very funny movies based on the series! If you haven't seen the movies or the show, you should check out the inspiration behind the movies!