Cop Rock

This program was a well-written and sensitively acted police drama. If you have a chance to see any or all of the four episodes that actually aired you will no doubt be as puzzled as viewers were in 1990 as to why this excellent show brought out such spiteful and cruel reactions in television critics. Steven Bochco had assembled some of the most talented people working in television at the time. He was simply offering viewers something "different"--a thing they'd been saying they wanted since television started. Musical theater has historically been a legitimate and compelling way to tell a story. Steven Bochco did this with flair. "Cop Rock" was a last, lonely, courageous attempt to break away from the formula of cookie cutter television programming.

Quite like Twin Peaks, this was an idea so far ahead of its time that most viewers just don't get it. Add this to the fact that the average TV junkie is looking for either soap operas or shoot-em-ups, and it's easy to understand how Cop Rock was doomed from the start.

I remember Cop Rock fondly. It was an attempt to deliver the Broadway musical style to the popular police story genre. Now, I'm not one of those "Aren't we so cosmopolitan" self-congratulatory Broadway mavens, but I can appreciate a storyline interrupted by a soliloquy, even if it's musical - even if it's rock music! I distinctly remember an excellent opening scene of one episode, where the police are busting a crowd purchasing pot, loading the customers on a bus, as one detainee sings heartily about his civil rights being trampled. The cast was truly exceptional for a TV show, but the producers did not have proper respect for the amount of time and polishing necessary to deliver Broadway style entertainment. There was a lot of good stuff, but such material cannot be extruded at the rate needed for the voracious TV box. The general public could not forgive the uneven quality. I can't blame them, but there were payoffs for the patient. Live audiences collude with the performers, but TV viewers want to be entertained NOW, or they will click to the other 120 channels.

There was a clever end tacked on the final episode. It opens up with Ronny Cox and Curtis Vonde-Hall talking, and you quickly realize that they are not playing their characters. They are playing themselves discussing the impending cancellation. It's over when the fat lady sings, so the final pullaway has the entire cast onstage, with a Wagnerian Valkyrie, singing goodbye. Cool.

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Cop Rock is an Emmy Award winning American television series that aired on ABC from September 26, 1990 through December 26, 1990. The show, a police drama presented as a musical, was created by Steven Bochco, who also served as executive producer.

Inspired by Dennis Potter's 1986 BBC drama serial The Singing Detective, Cop Rock combined musical theater with police drama, the latter a genre in which Bochco had already been very successful with Hill Street Blues. The series featured an ensemble cast that mixed musical numbers and choreography throughout story lines. For example, one scene in a courtroom had the jury break into song, proclaiming "He's Guilty" in Gospel style. Another episode had a lineup of Hispanic suspects proclaim in song "We're the local color with the coppertone skin / And you treat us like we're guilty of some terrible sin." Its theme, "Under the Gun", was sung by Randy Newman, who opened each episode performing it in a music video-style credit sequence. The show also featured crossover appearances from other Bochco series. In one episode, James B. Sikking reprises the role of Lt. Howard Hunter from Hill Street Blues, while another episode featured cameos by LA Law stars Jimmy Smits and Michele Greene. Sheryl Crow appears as a back-up singer in the final episode.

The show on ABC ended after 11 episodes. The high-powered production talent became infamous as one of the biggest television risks of the 1990s. The final episode concludes with the cast breaking character and joining crew-members in performing a closing song.

Despite its short run, the series still has been rebroadcast three times, in the 1990s on VH1, on A&E Network, and in the 2000s on Trio.

Mike Post was the music supervisor on Cop Rock. Post appeared in the Cop Rock opening sequence as the musician in the dark glasses sitting next to Randy Newman and playing the keyboard.

Starring: Teri Austin, Anne Bobby, Barbara Bosson, Ronny Cox, Vondie Curtis-Hall, David Gianopoulos, Larry Joshua, Dennis Lipscomb, Paul McCrane, James McDaniel, Ron McLarty, Mick Murray, Peter Onorati, William Thomas, Jr., Kathleen Wilhoite

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if ever there was a show that went whimsical on you, it was this one. one gets in the mood to watch another Steven b. "real" cop show and wham! a full blown Broadway musical production begins and the giggling starts and then on to the guffaw and the laughing won't stop! it is a joy that won't let you stop smiling. i have most of these episodes on vcr tape...i am missing 2 of the last ones. if anyone has them, i would like to get a copy, please? every time i have a friend over and i put this on...it starts "as what the heck is this?" and goes on to "i've never seen this before, when was it on?" and finally, "how come it went off the air? this is great!" i guess some of us just see the world with just a tilt of the funny bone and can enjoy life a little on the slanted side of humor! kasvstar