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"My name is Sergeant Frank Drebin, detective lieutenant, Police Squad, a special division of the police force. I'd just come from the stockyards. We'd gotten reports that hundreds of cows had been senselessly slaughtered in the area, but I couldn't find any evidence. I stopped off for a hamburger and checked in with headquarters..." - Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin

Police Squad!: The Complete Series DVD Review

By Jude Clement

When Detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) is on the case, criminals tremble in fear. Of course, so do most innocent citizens, for while Detective Drebin always gets his man, woman, or chimp, he also has the tendency to bungle things in the process. No garbage can, pedestrian, or parked bicycle is safe when Frank pulls up to a curb. With the help of his associates from Police Squad - including Captain Ed Hocken (Alan North), clueless Officer Nordberg (Mission: Impossible's Peter Lupus), crime lab "expert" Ted Olson (Ed Williams), and informant Johnny the Snitch (William Duell) - evil-doers don't stand a chance. One way or another, Frank and his team will get 'em.

From its opening title sequence to its closing credits, Police Squad! is a pitch-perfect send up of traditional cop shows. The opening credits lampoon the somewhat pompous openings often used in Quinn Martin productions: an announcer intones the names of the show's stars while viewers at home see ridiculously over-the-top footage of the stars in action. One of the credits' funniest gags is that "Rex Harrison as Abraham Lincoln" is given a credit each week over footage of someone taking a shot at Lincoln as he sits in his box seat watching a play. This Lincoln doesn't slump over and die though - he whips out a gun and shoots back. Guest stars are announced in the credits and are promptly killed, never to be seen again. The sequence ends with the announcer giving the name of the particular episode - a name that doesn't match the graphic listed on screen.

It's next to impossible to describe the pleasures of Police Squad!, but fans of old cop shows and so-smart-it's-dumb humor will find much to enjoy. The series was created by David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams, the goofballs who also unleashed The Kentucky Fried Movie and Airplane! on the world. Police Squad! features the same irreverent mix of comedy shown in those films.

Airplane! was a hit, but Police Squad! failed to ignite with TV audiences. Only six episodes were produced. The series was cancelled by ABC in March 1982 after only four episodes had been aired. The remaining two episodes were broadcast by the network later that summer. In the special features that accompany this DVD, several members of the show's creative team speculate that the series ultimately failed because people had to actively watch it in order to find the humor. With traditional sitcoms, viewers can leaf through a magazine while watching, occasionally catching a one-liner, the omnipresent laugh track reminding them that what they're semi-watching really is funny. With laugh track-free Police Squad!, however, viewers have to actually pay attention. Stray for even a moment and you'll miss a clever visual gag or intricately worded non sequiturs.

The humor is fast and dumb. While in his death throes, a murder victim straightens his desk, stamps paperwork, and puts away some files. At the crime scene for a multiple homicide, paramedics take away several bodies on a twelve foot long stretcher built for two. Police photographers take pictures while propping up the corpses. Shootouts take place less than two feet apart, yet no one manages to get a direct hit. A mansion's "Japanese Garden" turns out to be a patio with Asians standing in giant flowerpots. A tracking shot in a morgue shows a shrouded body with a toe tag on its feet, another with two left feet, and a third body with individual toe tags that read "went to market," "stayed home," "had roast beef," "had none," and "cried wee, wee, wee all the way home." A coat check girl takes her job too literally when she uses a marker to draw a check on Frank's overcoat. When Frank and Nordberg go undercover as owners of a key making store, their little shop includes a wall display of house keys, car keys, Frances Scott Keys, Florida Keys, Honkeys, Turkeys, and Pot Roast. It's a funny gag, but if you're working on the TV Guide crossword puzzle, you'll probably miss it.

Nielsen and North are near perfect in their deadpan roles. Williams is just as funny as perverted crime lab technician Ted. Not only does his get most of his analyses wrong, he also seems to lavish an unhealthy amount of attention on young crime lab visitors. He persistently tries to demonstrate dangerous scientific principles to his young charges, sort of like an evil Mr. Wizard. Luckily, Frank has a knack for walking in just as the experiment is about to begin, leading Ted to postpone their lesson until the next week ("Why don't you run along now, Billy? Next week, remember to bring those magazines you found under your father's bed").

Even though the TV series failed, the ZAZ trio eventually reworked the concept into the successful Naked Gun movie franchise.

The series features a surprising number of guest stars, several of whom - including Lorne Greene (Battlestar Galactica), Georg Stanford Brown (The Rookies), Robert Goulet, William Shatner (Star Trek), Florence Henderson (The Brady Bunch), and William Conrad (Jake and the Fat Man) - are killed off in the opening credits. Other guests include Kathryn Leigh Scott (Dark Shadows), Tommy Lasorda, K Callan (Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman ), Dr. Joyce Brothers, Connie Needham (Eight is Enough), Rebecca Holden (Knight Rider), John Ashton (Breaking Away), Dick Clark, and Dick Miller (Fame).

The six episodes that make up Police Squad!: The Complete Series are on a single disc housed in a standard keepcase. The back of the case lists the episode titles, but no plot synopses are given. Each episode is divided into chapters, but there are no scene selection menus.

The menu design is simple yet fun. After a brief intro employing the series' opening credits, the main menu pops up. While gags from the series play in a window, viewers can either play all of the episodes, choose them individually individual, or visit the special features menu.

Video and Audio

The audio and video are far from perfect, but the problems are relatively minor. The video isn't exactly as crisp and clean as it should be. The audio level of the theme music is much louder than the dialogue that follows, so have your remote control handy.

The audio is available in English mono and English 5.1 surround.

The episodes are closed captioned.

Extras

All of the extras are found on the "Special Features" menu. First up is a "Gag Reel" (4:56) of bloopers and blunders. Many of them involve Leslie Nielsen blowing his lines. It's nice that this reel is included, but the series itself is so wacky that these clips pale in comparison.

The "Leslie Nielsen Interview" (8:40) is just what it sounds like - an interview with the series' star, Leslie Nielsen. The interview lacks focus, but Nielsen is as charming as ever.

"Behind the Freeze Frames" (4:30) consists of footage filmed for use as interstitial footage to connect episodes of the series into a full-length movie. The creators and producers provide commentary over this madness, which includes an exploding courtroom, falling bricks, and firefighters rescuing mannequins.

Police lab pervert Mr. Olson is seen in "Casting Test - Ed Williams" (2:50), Williams' original audition tape for the role. He nails it, fully creating the character on the first try.

Alan North isn't quite as successful in "Casting Test - Alan North" (6:02) which just goes to prove that merely okay auditions can lead to terrific performances.

The "Producers' Photo Gallery" (:58) is a compilation of set photos that scrolls by to the tune of the series' theme song. These might have been better had they been fully navigable, but ultimately they will be of interest only to diehard fans.

Three episodes feature commentary tracks: creators/executive producers David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams along with producer Robert K. Weiss on "A Substantial Gift (The Broken Promise)" and "The Butler Did It (A Bird in the Hand);" and writer Robert Wuhl on "Testimony of Evil (Dead Men Don't Laugh)." The ZAZ team and Weiss are self-deprecating and funny in their two tracks. Some stuff gets repeated in both tracks, but they are still worth a listen. They reveal, for example, that ABC didn't want to have a man on fire running through headquarters during the opening credits because they feared that someone would try it at home. And while Police Squad! was eventually developed into the hit big screen Naked Gun franchise, the TV series itself had originally been developed as a film. They just decided that it would be easier to write a twenty-five minute TV show than a full-length movie. In his commentary track, Wuhl (Arli$$) tells about how he originally met the ZAZ team while auditioning for Robert Hays' role in Airplane!

"List of Celebrity Death Shots" is a list of seventeen gags dreamed up by the writing staff for use in the opening credit cameos. Included is the one written for John Belushi. According to one of the commentary tracks, Belushi's death cameo was actually filmed, but his real-life death obviously prevented them from using the footage.

The "Production Memo Highlights" reproduces four memos which together provide viewers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the wacky world of TV. The first is a list of concessions made to ABC's department of Broadcast Standards. Apparently the word "lubricant" is a no-no, as is the sound effect of a dog yelping as Frank's car clamors onto a curb. Next is a tongue-in-cheek memo about the on set dress code. Another memo reiterates the fact that the show's creators do not want a laugh track. Finally there is the official cancellation memo.

Summary

If you are a fan of silly spoofs like Airplane!, Scary Movie, and The Kentucky Fried Movie and haven't yet seen Police Squad!, add The Complete Series to your must-see list. If you have seen Police Squad!, here's your chance to relive the fun.

11/2/06