Product Description

The satirical comedy "Police Squad" pits an ace detective and his captain (Leslie Nielsen & Alan North) against the criminal elements that befoul a big city. From the creators of "Airplane!".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2964 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2006-11-07
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 140 minutes

Amazon.com
In addition to spawning the popular Naked Gun movie franchise, Police Squad! had a lasting impact on TV comedy, and it's still a guilty pleasure. Hot from the success of Airplane! two years earlier, the ZAZ team (brothers David and Jerry Zucker and writing partner Jim Abrahams) decided to spoof TV cop shows, using the late '50s Lee Marvin series M Squad and the popular series format of Quinn Martin Productions (e.g., The Streets of San Francisco) as their template for supremely silly, gag-laden satire. With Airplane! star Leslie Nielsen as straight-faced detective Frank Drebin and Alan North as Drebin's befuddled boss, Capt. Ed Hocken, this half-hour series quickly established an irresistible combination of nonstop sight gags, non sequiturs, and repeated routines ("Cigarette?" "Yes, it is") that dared viewers to pay close attention or miss the laughs if they didn't. Ironically, this very quality--you had to actually watch the show instead of casually listening for punchlines--is what ultimately sealed the series' fate. After only six poorly rated episodes, Police Squad! was canceled without fanfare, and six years passed before Drebin returned as the bumbling hero of The Naked Gun.

Will all six episodes on one DVD, ZAZ fans can get reacquainted with a series that was arguably ahead of its time. In addition to the rib-tickling disparity between onscreen episode titles and narrated titles, and "special guest stars" (including William Shatner, Robert Goulet, Lorne Greene, and others) who get killed in the opening credits, loyal viewers could count on a weekly dose of hilarity from Nielsen, North, and their supporting players. Character actor William Duell appeared each week as shoeshine boy "Johnny the Snitch," capable of answering literally any question if you repeatedly greased his palm (a gag that led to info-seeking cameo appearances by Dick Clark, Dr. Joyce Brothers, baseball manager Tommy Lasorda, and others). And while original Mission: Impossible costar Peter Lupus poked fun at himself as the dim-witted Det. Norberg (later played by O.J. Simpson in the Naked Gun movies), Ed Williams--an actual high school science teacher--is hilarious as "Mr. Wizard"-like lab technician Ted Olson, who dispenses dubious science lessons to unsuspecting children. The fast-paced barrage of humor guaranteed that every episode would deliver as many hits as misses, and while some of the jokes have lost their punch, Police Squad! still delivers the belly-laughs... and always will, as long as humans have an appetite for shameless stupidity. --Jeff Shannon

On the DVD
Two episode commentaries by the Zucker brothers, Jim Abrahams, and producer Robert K. Weiss are good for a laugh, as the ZAZ team laughs at their own material and recalls the rigors of a 5-day shooting schedule, battles with network censors (also outlined in the revealing "Production Memo Highlights" feature), and the never-shown "celebrity guest death" of John Belushi, who actually died shortly after the gag was filmed. Comedian and writer Robert Wuhl's commentary is more autobiographical and somewhat perfunctory (he barely remembers the episode he wrote), but contains a few nuts-and-bolts details about the show's production. The 10-minute Leslie Nielsen interview shows the gracefully aging star in fine form as he recalls his affinity for the ZAZ brand of humor; the brief gag reel offers about a dozen on-set bloopers (several from crude workprint sources); "Behind the Freeze Frames" is an extended outtake to illustrate the elaborately faked "freeze frame" gag that ended each episode; and "Celebrity Death Shots" is a list of guest-star death gags proposed (and mostly used) for the series. Also included are casting tests for Alan North and Ed Williams, and an animated producers' photo gallery of Police Squad! sets, props, and scenery. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

At last! Police Squad on DVD!
Police Squad! is one of those shows that just didn't get the chance it deserved. The show skewered, among other targets, the Quinn Martin crime shows of the 1960's and 70's (The Fugitive, Cannon, The Streets of San Francisco, etc.). Leslie Nielsen, who had guest starred on many of the shows Police Squad spoofed, was hilariously perfect. With his deadpan delivery, it was a perfect follow-up to the career altering path Nielsen had forged with his performance in Airplane.

But as fitfully funny and clever as it was, Police Squad!, for some reason, couldn't pull in the audiences that had flocked to see Zucker/Zucker/Abrahams' Airplane just two years earlier. The series suffered from low ratings from the start and never found its audience. One of the running gags on the show was the introduction of a "special guest star" who was immediately killed off in the some horrible fashion right after the introduction. Lorne Green, William Shatner, Georg Stanford Brown and Florence Henderson were among the guest stars who were shot, stabbed, machine-gunned and poisoned. Unfotunately, the guest star for the sixth episode was John Belushi who died right before the episode was to air. ABC had to pull the show until a new introduction could be filmed. Right after that, the series was cancelled after just six episodes, cutting short the run of one of the funniest series of all time.

Fortunately, the team of Zucker/Zucker/Abrahams resurrected the Police Squad! series in the form of the Naked Gun series in the late 1980's. The premise, and Leslie Nielsen, finally got the exposure it deserved and the result was three hilarious films that did very well at the box office. However, when the three films were released on DVD, there was no corresponding release of the original series on DVD.

Now, finally, the original series is coming to DVD on November the 7th. Hopefully many will buy the DVD and realize what a crime it was for ABC to cancel this hilarious series so soon.

It was one of those all night wicker places....
I've been waiting for this to come out on DVD for many years now. This is hands down my favorite TV series of all time - albeit a very short lived one. As many writers have already noted, the entire "series" consists of only 6 episodes. But rest assured that these 6 short episodes are packed with wit. This is a show that you have to pay attention to - there are many visuals gags and plays on words. It's fantastic.

I'm glad to finally have the chance to purchase this in a digital format. As much as I liked the Naked Gun films, they just weren't the same. For me, Police Squad will always be Leslie Nielsen and Alan North (with Rex Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln, of course!).

If you're a fan of any of the Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker films (e.g. Airplane, Naked Gun, etc.) then you definitely should consider adding this to your collection. It's definitely some of their best work in my humble opinion.

It's about time the studio got off their "Key Store"!
Finally it's here, "In Color"! And for those who didn't get to see the original run on television, you will find many of the quips and gags in the Naked Gun trilogy are straight from the files of "Police Squad!". In fact, you really have to pay attention as the gags and jokes come non-stop. Here's one recurring gag; in episode 1 Drebin hits a trash can with his police car. In episode 2 he hits 2 trash cans and so on. "Cigarette? Yes I know!" "No sax before a fight"! "The 'toe' truck's here". "Club Famingo". (lol) Where do you stop?

Great fun for everybody with Det. Frank Drebin, Capt. Ed Hocken, Johnny the Snitch, Ted Olson, Scientist and what I though was the best later edition appearing in the last 4 episodes, Peter Lupus as Norberg. (He should have played Norberg in the movies). After all those years playing the serious character 'Willie' on Mission Impossible, he gets to display his comedic talents as well.

Returning soon to a television screen near you!