Cop Rock

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

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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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this show was actually better than the promos would have made it seem. it was by all means innovative, unlike anything else in the time or since. why this show failed is beyond me. the music was catchy and the characters represented the same caricatures we love to watch in law and order and shows of the like. perhaps the selling point (or point of no return, depending upon how you look at it) was the combination of the two. if this show had been produced as a run of the mill cop show it probably would have been popular, and maybe still airing today. but this was a time when the American viewing audience was not willing to take a chance on something new. while the songs used provided a great insight into the minds of the characters, they were the obvious downfall of a promising drama. please join me in my continued mourning of a show that was never allowed to reach it's potential.

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.