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Police Squad!

  • TV Series
  • 1982
  • TV-PG
  • 24m
IMDb RATING
8.4/10
22K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,734
28
Leslie Nielsen in Police Squad! (1982)
Sight gags, puns and non-sequiturs abound as bumbling Sgt. Det. Lt. Frank Drebin and his colleagues of Police Squad solve various puzzling cases.
Play trailer0:11
1 Video
99+ Photos
ParodySatireSlapstickComedyCrime

Sight gags, puns and non-sequiturs ensue as Sgt. Det. Lt. Frank Drebin and his colleagues at Police Squad - a special section of the Police Force - solve various puzzling cases.Sight gags, puns and non-sequiturs ensue as Sgt. Det. Lt. Frank Drebin and his colleagues at Police Squad - a special section of the Police Force - solve various puzzling cases.Sight gags, puns and non-sequiturs ensue as Sgt. Det. Lt. Frank Drebin and his colleagues at Police Squad - a special section of the Police Force - solve various puzzling cases.

  • Creators
    • Jim Abrahams
    • David Zucker
    • Jerry Zucker
  • Stars
    • Leslie Nielsen
    • Alan North
    • Ed Williams
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    8.4/10
    22K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    1,734
    28
    • Creators
      • Jim Abrahams
      • David Zucker
      • Jerry Zucker
    • Stars
      • Leslie Nielsen
      • Alan North
      • Ed Williams
    • 79User reviews
    • 22Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys
      • 1 win & 3 nominations total

    Episodes6

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    TopTop-ratedSeason1982

    Videos1

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    Trailer 0:11
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    Photos150

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    Top cast54

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    Leslie Nielsen
    Leslie Nielsen
    • Det. Frank Drebin
    • 1982
    Alan North
    Alan North
    • Capt. Ed Hocken
    • 1982
    Ed Williams
    • Mr. Olson
    • 1982
    William Duell
    • Johnny
    • 1982
    Peter Lupus
    Peter Lupus
    • Norberg
    • 1982
    Tessa Richarde
    • Mary
    • 1982
    Rex Hamilton
    • Abraham Lincoln
    • 1982
    William Shatner
    William Shatner
    • Poisoned Man
    • 1982
    Robert Goulet
    Robert Goulet
    • Executed Man
    • 1982
    Florence Henderson
    Florence Henderson
    • Shot Woman
    • 1982
    William Conrad
    William Conrad
    • Stabbed Man
    • 1982
    Lorne Greene
    Lorne Greene
    • Stabbed Man
    • 1982
    Georg Stanford Brown
    Georg Stanford Brown
    • Police under the Safe
    • 1982
    Rudy Solari
    • Martin
    • 1982
    Barbara Tarbuck
    Barbara Tarbuck
    • Mrs. Twice
    • 1982
    Patrick St. Esprit
    Patrick St. Esprit
    • Buddy
    • 1982
    Dick Clark
    Dick Clark
    • Dick Clark
    • 1982
    Al Ruscio
    Al Ruscio
    • Dutch
    • 1982
    • Creators
      • Jim Abrahams
      • David Zucker
      • Jerry Zucker
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews79

    8.422.2K
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    Featured reviews

    cruelmo

    Rex Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln!!

    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.
    Big Movie Fan

    Hi, I'm Detective Lieutenant Sergeant Frank Drebin Police Squad

    What can be said about this show, one of the funniest if not the funniest comedy ever?

    Leslie Nielson played Frank Drebin who seemed to alternate each week between a Sergeant or a Lieutenant. He was joined by other detectives, particularly Al (only ever seen from the neck down).

    The plots-if you can call them that-were crazy. The show was crazy from the opening title to the end credits. There were some hilarious one-liners throughout the show. Also, the narrator for each episode used to read out the title of the episode which always differed from the title on-screen. A special guest star was also introduced on the credits but never starred in the show itself. As for the ending credits, well Drebin seemed to be moving whilst the credits rolled. It was crazy.

    Even though this series spawned three Naked Gun movies, it is the world's greatest mystery why this show only ran for six episodes. Where is the justice in the world where tripe such as Friends can run for years whilst a truly funny show like this can be cancelled after a mere six episodes?

    I strongly recommend checking the series out and will someone please release it onto DVD?
    10kielhofer

    Why there were only 6 shows.

    One night I was listening to talk radio and they had Leslie Nielsen on the program. He went on to explain why there were only 6 shows. '

    With TV shows like MASH you could go to the fridge to get a beer and as long as you heard what was going on you didn't miss anything. But with Police Squad, you HAD to watch the show, with the sight gags you missed a whole lot if you didn't see them. Who could forget "... the part of town known as "Little Italy"..." with the coliseum in the background.

    Even the movies relied heavily on the sight gags, but then again being in the theater you were a captive audience.

    Leslie also said the one reason the show, movies and other movies like Airplane were funny is because they didn't attempt to tell what was funny. It was up to the viewer to get the jokes.

    Well that's just my 2 cents.
    goleafs84

    "Airplane!" Meets QM Productions

    This was a funny show. It had an "Airplane!" flavor to it and it parodied the Quinn Martin Productions shows that were popular in the 60s and 70s ("The Streets of San Francisco", "Barnaby Jones", "Cannon", etc). If you're familiar with these shows, they all had the same type of beginnings; Same announcer who would go through the starring cast, that night's guest stars, special guest stars (if any) and the name of "tonight's episode". As well as the on screen act numbers and the epilogue after commercial breaks.

    It was everything like "Airplane!", in the sense that you had to watch the show to see the gags and other hidden gags that were in the background along with the verbal jokes and gags.

    It was a shame that only 6 episodes were produced, since this was one of my favorite shows. Unlike "The Naked Gun" movies, although funny, the problem with those movies were, the show lampooned QM Productions shows, it was probably hard to transfer that to the big screen. It just didn't have the same feeling to it as the tv show.
    Aaron1375

    A very funny, but short lived show.

    This show has the basic jokes of a spoof, but they work so well. With Nielson's deadpan delivery the six episodes of this show were better than the movies that were for some reason very successful (not that they were bad, but I just wonder why the show didn't work). I especially liked the opening in which the special guest star was killed during the credits and then the man would announce the name of the episode and it would be different from the title. Yes this show was a laugh a second great comedy. Some of the jokes from the series would even find their way to the movie versions.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      After the success of The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) and The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), Comedy Central and CBS re-aired all six episodes of this series in the summer of 1991. Producers wanted to include John Belushi's "guest star" appearance in Testimony of Evil (Dead Men Don't Laugh) (1982), which had been cut due to Belushi's death. The footage could not be located, and is now presumed lost or destroyed.
    • Quotes

      Det. Frank Drebin: [running gag] Cigarette?

      Various: Yes, I know.

    • Crazy credits
      Rex Hamilton appeared in the opening credits portraying Abraham Lincoln but he never appeared in any of the episodes.
    • Alternate versions
      The home video versions of some episodes have changed music in some scenes. For instance, when they sing "Happy Birthday" at a birthday and when Leslie Nielsen sings Judy Garland tunes in the nightclub. Presumably this is due to a music licensing issue.
    • Connections
      Featured in The 34th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1982)

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 4, 1982 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Die nackte Pistole
    • Filming locations
      • Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Paramount Television
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      24 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 4:3

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