21 Jump Street

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.

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.

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.

This was definitely a quality show. This show was a far cry from what the Fox network eventually became. Many of the scripts dealt with what young people go through on a day to day basis and used a cop show to show it. Issues like date rape, drugs, teen suicide, school violence and incest were all covered in the first two years of this show. When Jump Street premiered, it was the shot heard round the world due to the fact that it was the very first show to air on the Fox network, which at the time was only being broadcast on Sunday nights and it ushered in a whole new era in television. Also, Johnny Depp wasn't the only good thing about this show. Peter DeLuise, Holly Robinson (Peete) and Dustin Nguyen all made this show one of the cult classics of the 1980's.

I remember this as on of the shows that helped launch Fox as a network. Between this, Adventures of Beans Baxter, Werewolf, Traci Ullman and Simpsons.

I really enjoyed this show for most of it's run. The last season with Grieco did not leave me with too many fond memories. But for the first several seasons, I definitely made room in my Sunday lineup to see this show. For the most part, the stories were good. I just wish there was someplace that showed re-runs of 21JS. With the deluge of cop shows nowadays, i still think I could make time to see 21JS