Wednesday, August 23, 2006

"Police Squad!" Coming To DVD

Priv8Pete tipped me off to the best news in ages: the brilliantly funny TV series "Police Squad!" is coming to DVD on November 7. From the creators of "Airplane," this was a spoof of cop shows starring Leslie Nielsen that only lasted six episodes. A special guest star was murdered at the beginning of every show and what followed was a series of bad puns, sight gags and dead-pan humor unlike anything TV had ever produced. (My own favorite joke was when Nielsen went to a boxing match. He was in the changing rooms as classic noir-type saxophone music wailed in the backgrouond. Suddenly we saw a boxer sitting in a chair who was actually playing that music. Nielsen took the instrument out of the guy's hand and said, "No sax before a fight.") Though the show flopped miserably, the creators somehow convinced Paramount to let them make "Naked Gun," a feature film spin-off that was broader and more obvious than the show. It became a huge hit. I remember this show as literally one of the cleverest sitcoms of all time and can't wait to see how it's held up.

6 comments:

priv8pete said...

It still holds up. I personally love the endings of each episode where all the characters freeze in place and try to hold their pose. All the while a criminal steals the keys and sets himself free, or a chimp tears apart the office, or coffee overflows a cup and just keeps flowing onto the floor.

Surely this should have come out ages ago on DVD.

Michael in New York said...

Yes it shoud have. But how do you know it holds up? Do you have VHS tapes of it?

priv8pete said...

I taped them off of the Comedy Network (now Comedy Central) years ago and used to watch them religiously - though between all the moves the past 5 years I can't find them.

And I can't believe you didn't tell me "And don't call me Shirley." I couldn't have set you up any better...

Anonymous said...

I have VHS copies of all the shows. Paramount relased the show on two VHS tapes years ago, and a local video store was going out of business, so I got them for a couple of bucks each. Not only do they really...REALLY hold up well, the shows prove just how unwatchable the movies really are. Even the first movie really doesn't stand the test of time the way the series does. There is some physical humor and sight gage but none of the broad slapstick & obnoxious mugging-to-the-camera that became a hallmark of the movies. Much closer to Airplane in its deadpan-edness than the Naked Gun series.

Michael in New York said...

No, the Naked Gun movies aren't a patch on the TV show. Why they changed the sidekicks, I'll never understand. The show is like Picasso compared to the movies. And Pete, I'm so ashamed of myself for missing that setup. Surely you'll forgive me.

priv8pete said...

Michael, of course I'll forgive you. November 7th is going to be a banner day. And don't call me Shirley!