Before the "Naked Gun" films there was Police Squad!, ABC's criminally short-lived series that introduced us to Lt. Frank Drebin and which brought the ridiculous humor ("...and Rex Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln") of Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker (Airplane!, Top Secret!) to the small screen. Lasting only six episodes, the series has since gone on to gain a cult status among its legion of fans. Previously released on two laserdiscs, the series is heading to DVD this year from Paramount Home Entertainment. In this week's "Home Media Retailing" magazine, director David Zucker reveals that he is scheduled to record commentary tracks for the release, but warns not to expect any deleted material. "I don't know if there's any deleted [scenes]. In those days, they just threw stuff away."
How funny. I was going through my box of cassettes and found these, Police Squad: Help Wanted and More Police Squad and watched them. It holds up very well, I think, still had me laughing. Too bad they only did 6 episodes. But I was watching these and wondering if they'd ever get around to releasing them on DVD. Definitely looking forward to this.
cdnchris wrote:And a twist on the "you live in a sewer" line.
How funny. I was going through my box of cassettes and found these, Police Squad: Help Wanted and More Police Squad and watched them. It holds up very well, I think, still had me laughing. Too bad they only did 6 episodes. But I was watching these and wondering if they'd ever get around to releasing them on DVD. Definitely looking forward to this.
Yeah, it's about time. Altho, you look at those episodes and the sheer amount of jokes they were able to cram into a single episode and I don't know how they could have kept that up over a full season.
Fletch F. Fletch wrote:Yeah, it's about time. Altho, you look at those episodes and the sheer amount of jokes they were able to cram into a single episode and I don't know how they could have kept that up over a full season.
Yeah, it probably would have been maxed out by the end of a full season, even the movies (which I still find fairly amusing) were recycling jokes.
Police Squad's cancellation was an interesting case, as the ratings were actually respectable enough to keep it on the air. The problem was, as a network exec at the time admitted in print, that it "failed" as "product" because it required people to pay "too much attention." Audiences were saving their bathroom and snack runs for the commercials -- the cardinal sin of TV programming, which as we all know, exists only to sell ads.
Faux Hulot wrote:Police Squad's cancellation was an interesting case, as the ratings were actually respectable enough to keep it on the air. The problem was, as a network exec at the time admitted in print, that it "failed" as "product" because it required people to pay "too much attention." Audiences were saving their bathroom and snack runs for the commercials -- the cardinal sin of TV programming, which as we all know, exists only to sell ads.
That's interesting and doesn't surprise me in the least. Of course, the irony is that you've got shows like Lost where you really have to pay attention to what is going on.
I remember many years ago when, I believe it was the second Naked Gun movie came out they actually aired all of the Police Squad episodes on TV.
Faux Hulot wrote:Police Squad's cancellation was an interesting case, as the ratings were actually respectable enough to keep it on the air. The problem was, as a network exec at the time admitted in print, that it "failed" as "product" because it required people to pay "too much attention." Audiences were saving their bathroom and snack runs for the commercials -- the cardinal sin of TV programming, which as we all know, exists only to sell ads.
That's interesting and doesn't surprise me in the least. Of course, the irony is that you've got shows like Lost where you really have to pay attention to what is going on.
I remember many years ago when, I believe it was the second Naked Gun movie came out they actually aired all of the Police Squad episodes on TV.
Yes! Comedy Central was airing them for a while. They had a Benny Hill marathon (which I taped) and I remember the promos for Police Squad where you got to see Leslie Nielson as a lounge singer singing "Clang Clang Clang goes the Trolly..." The Phil Fell bit is still funny today, even if it is just an Abbot & Costello rip-off.
Paramount Home Entertainment has sent over details on Police Squad!: The Complete Series, which will be available on the 7th of November at a yet to be specified retail price. All six episodes of the precursor to The Naked Gun will be housed on a single disc and presented at their originally televised 1.33:1 full frame aspect ratio, along with English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby 2.0 Mono soundtracks. Extras will include a brand-new interview with actor Leslie Nielsen, behind-the-scenes featurettes, audio commentary by the creators on select episodes, a gag reel, and more.
