Police Story

Behind "Dragnet" and "Adam 12," this is THE definitive police show. "Police Story" paved the way for "Hill Street Blues," "NYPD Blue," and "Southland." With a great cast that includes, but is not limited to Vic Morrow, Chuck Connors, Don Meredith, Don Murray, Scot Bready, Harold Duff, Claude Akins, Loyd Bridges and Paul Burke in several re-occurring roles, this shows police work at it's most dangerous, boring, sad and funny. You don't know from episode to episode who is going to be appearing. One week it's SWAT action. The next, Robbery team detectives, Vice cops, Accident Investigation Division and, of course, Patrol Division. The cops are real people with their flaws, prejudices and guts. I was a rookie cop when Season 2 started. This was mandatory viewing for young cops back in the early 1970's. I've been a retired cop for over two years now. In that time, I had not missed being a cop one time, until I watched the first episode of Season 1, "Slow Boy." Vic Morrow made his first appearance as Sgt. Joe La Frieda and it's a gem. I can't recommend this enough. My youngest daughter made a bunch of points with sending this to me. I had no idea that it had been released to DVD. I'll be snapping up the remaining seasons as they become available.

A fine example of both the strengths and the pitfalls of the anthology series, Police Story was among the highest-rated series of its time. At its worst, the series was as formulaic as most of commercial TV. At its best, it blew a breath of fresh air through mid-70's TV.

Created as a vehicle for writer-turned-producer (and former L.A. cop) Joseph Wambaugh, the best episodes grittily portrayed the life of the street cop--good and bad. Each episode opened and closed with crackling radio calls (Female dispatcher: "John Frank William, 8-9-9). Guest stars ranged from Don Meredith (at the height of his Monday Night Football popularity) to David Birney (as amputee cop "Captain Hook") to a surprising turn by ultra-liberal Ed Asner (as an grinning old cop threatening to blow away one last perp before retiring in "Three Days to Thirty"). The series spawned the silly spin-off "Police Woman"; but it also dealt with cops who thought of their badge as a license to bully ("The Wyatt Earp Syndrome"--so titled because the Standards and Practices department refused to allow Wambaugh to call this episode by its original title--"The John Wayne Syndrome") and undercover cops who were difficult to distinguish from the criminals they pursued ("The Player" with James Farentino).

Wambaugh reportedly tired of the regular infighting such a weekly series required, and semi-retired to a "consultant" status mid-way through the series run; the early episodes are clearly the best. But all are worth watching if only as the precursor which made later shows like St. Elsewhere, L.A. Law, and Homicide possible.

I remember this series well. I tried to make sure that I watched it every week. Of course, my social life came first. What I liked most about this show, in contrast to its daughter Police Woman and so many others, it did not have a recurring main cast that you knew would always return the next week, thus there was really no cause for alarm when the main cast came in jeopardy. Most of the regulars were background players such as Profaci on Law and Order is now.

Instead, Police Story was an ensemble series more akin to later shows such as St. Elsewhere and Hill Street Blues that deliberately sometimes knocked off likeable leads and there were so many recurring leads that one did not get sick of them every week. The show was unpredictable, not Mission Impossible or other gimmick shows such as McGyver where you always knew the good guys would win.

The most similar current shows are Deep Space Nine and Law and Order, which are not afraid to knock off a major character for the sake of the story.

There were so many Police Stories, and I have forgotten most of them; if they ever were rerun, I did not see them again. Two of the most memorable ones were, one where the hero was undercover and went to Tijuana to track down a drug shipment but the buy went wrong.

The other memorable one starred Claude Akins, a well-known character player, as a detective, who with his partner, was tracking down violent felons and bail jumpers.

Of all the thousands of movies and TV shows I've seen since the late 1940s, it takes a real powerful one to stick in my mind as those episodes did. The whole series was full of powerful episodes of equal impact. I just don't have room here for all them.

This is one of the great lost treasures in television history. This was one of the few shows of that era that dealt with day to day lives of the average policeman and didn't portray them as super heroes. Much of this had to do with the fact that the man who was responsible for much of the stories was acclaimed novelist Joseph Wambaugh (himself a former Los Angeles police officer). Unfortunately, after this show debuted, it was overshadowed by the likes of "Starsky and Hutch", "The Rookies" and "S.W.A.T". These shows, and others, gave you a very inaccurate portrayal of police life, whereas this one showed police officers as ordinary human beings with the same faults and failings as ordinary people. Too bad this show is not shown in reruns anymore, but luckily we now have shows like "NYPD Blue", "Boomtown" and, of course, the "Law and Order" franchise to carry on the legacy of this lost classic.

Hollywood didn't get it (they seldom do) and I guess the general public didn't either or these great shows would still be on re-runs or even DVD. My experiences from the 60's & 70's as a street cop were never so dramatic or intense as those shown on "POLICE STORY" but the stress and emotion they portrayed hit a level of realism that has never been repeated. Jack Webb's "DRAGNET" and "ADAM-12" presented cops as never-bend-the-rules moralists while "Dirty Harry" could still get work in "NYPD BLUE". Both were entertaining but I suspect that many viewers came to believe that the cops always catch the bad guys and/or that most cops think that it is OK to beat confessions from suspects or otherwise violate the Constitution they swore to defend. Most of the other cop shows were (and are) just silly. I'm sorry that every police cadet does not have the opportunity to see the "POLICE STORY" series......in particular: "STIGMA", which was probably the best show of them all. It is also probably Mike Connors best performance ever, and Martin Milner is excellent as well. Some of the "POLICE STORY" series made it to commercial VHS but only in PAL (British) format. Too bad.