BW Media Spotlight

Police Squad was a short-lived parody of 70s cop shows, with TV Guide specifically calling out the works of Jack Webb (Dragnet and the original Adam-12) and Quinn Martin, and there’s a lot of the later’s intro flavor in the show’s. Wikipedia credits The M Squad, and Felony Squad. You can see the pattern, I guess, but I have not seen either show. I got to see Police Squad on A&E back when it was still standing for Arts & Entertainment, and it’s rather funny. They went on to make the Airplane movie parodies. In 1988 the show was revisited in The Naked Gun: From The Files Of Police Squad, though the two sequels focused more on “Naked Gun” than “Police Squad” for titles. The movies brought Leslie Nielsen, but no Alan North, who was still alive, or Rex Hamilton, who passed in 1985. (No clue if he was at the theater at the time.) The only other returning actors were Ed Williams as forensic scientist Ted Olsen and the so tall his head was never on frame Ronald Taylor as Al.

The movies renewed interest in the show, but after Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult the series went back to obscurity, though not to the point it had been. (Personally I couldn’t get past the…clinic scene. If you saw the movie, you know what I mean. If not, I envy you.) With Neilsen having passed away we get a new Frank Drebin for a new generation, the son of the original following in his father’s footsteps. And given the world this franchise takes place in, they’re probably clown shoes. Let’s watch the trailer and ask if Liam Neeson is young enough to be Leslie Nielsen’s son or if the similar sounding names was too much to resist.

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