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.
- Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys
- 1 win & 3 nominations total
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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.
Highly recommended if you liked the Naked Gun or Airplane movies.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Did you know
- TriviaAfter 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 creditsRex Hamilton appeared in the opening credits portraying Abraham Lincoln but he never appeared in any of the episodes.
- Alternate versionsThe 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.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 34th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1982)
- How many seasons does Police Squad! have?Powered by Alexa
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