POLICE SQUAD!: THE COMPLETE SERIES - DVD review

With the success of the three "Naked Gun" films, I'm still surprised that ABC did not allow the Jim Abrahams and Zucker brothers' series to survive longer than the six episodes that managed to survive of "Police Squad!" during 1982. The trio of writers had already proven their ability at parody and slapstick with "The Kentucky Fried Movie" and "Airplane!," and the television show found critical acclaim and an audience following that was strong enough to warrant the first film, "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" in 1988 and two eventual sequels. Featuring one of the true great actors of comedy, Leslie Nielsen, "Police Squad!" is a visual feast of sight gags and goofy behavior on-screen that delivers laugh after laugh and is just as entertaining as the three profitable films that followed the series on the big screen.

"Police Squad!" features the misadventures of super cop and detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) as he haphazardly solves mysteries and crimes. Along with his Captain, Ed Hocken (Alan North) and undercover police officer Nordberg (Peter Lupus), Frank Drebin uses any means necessary and shows amazing capacity to solve crimes though his cognitive thinking is far from impressive. Drebin routinely looks towards police scientist Ted Olsen (Ed Williams) for assistance in solving crimes, or paying shoeshine informant Johnny (William Duell) to give him information that is usually invaluable to solve crimes. Of course, Johnny aids Tommy Lasorda in his pitching advice, offers up surgery tips to a doctor and assists Dr. Joyce Brothers with advice. He is the man everybody goes to.

Leslie Nielsen is brilliant as Frank Drebin and the going gags and stories of each of the six episodes are brilliantly funny. Each show featured a guest star that was killed before the opening credits were completed, Johnny the Snitch gave his advice to anybody needing it as long as they had a buck and Scientist Ted showed children some morally questionable experiments. If you enjoy the Zucker brothers' brand of humor, then you'll absolutely love their short lived excursion onto television. This is pure comedy genius. The six episodes of "Police Squad!" are as follows:

"A Substantial Gift (The Broken Promise)"
Frank must investigate a shooting at a local bank. Sally Decker witnessed the shooting of Ralph Twice and the bank teller, Jim Johnson. The episode features a high death count as Frank Drebin shoots numerous police officers to test some ballistics theories and works hard to discover that a number of visits to a dentist are perhaps the motives behind the shooting and the double homicide at the bank was not an open and shut case involving a man holding up a bank teller.

"Ring of Fear (A Dangerous Assignment)"
In "Ring of Fear," Frank Drebin must pose as a boxing coach and promoter for a young fighter, Bobby and force a fight against "The Champ" to discover if a recently murdered boxer was killed by his trainer when he refused to throw a fight. The local boxing promoter refuses to allow Drebin's man to box, but when Drebin manages to talk the Champ into it, the promoter resorts to kidnapping to try to change Drebin's mind.

"The Butler Did It (A Bird in the Hand)"
A girl is kidnapped from a Japanese Garden and the kidnappers, not the police lab, are demanding a million dollars. With little information to go on, Frank must interrogate a mime and work with Nordberg to tap a phone to find the location of the kidnapped girl and save her from a potentially horrible fate. This show features an 8-track tape that is used to help solve the crime and some of the better sight gags of the show.

"Revenge and Remorse (The Guilty Alibi)"
William Shatner is the special guest star who dies during the opening credits. That enough is good enough to make this a special episode. In this episode, Frank Drebin must stop a serial bomber who has bombed judges and others and blazed a trail that seemingly points to a recently paroled convict, Edward Casales. He has an ex-wife and a girlfriend and Drebin believes they need to be protected, as they may be potential targets of the mad bomber. Only Frank's special detective skills can help him find out who the true bomber is.

"Rendezvous at Big Gulch (Terror in the Neighborhood)"
Frank Drebin and Nordberg must go undercover as locksmiths to discover the identity of a local crime lord that forces local shops to pay a hefty protection fee. A lovely young Ballet Teacher becomes a target for the mob and Drebin is forced to go deep undercover and nearly avoid death by an assassin to get into Dutch Gunderson's gang and bring down the thugs that have targeted Jill as their next victim, as she is unable to pay the protection fee they are seeking.

"Testimony of Evil (Dead Men Don't Laugh)"
"Testimony of Evil" finds Frank Drebin capturing the hearts of audiences as a stand up comic and singer for an expensive nightclub when the former singer and entertainer is killed. Frank knocks ‘em dead in the audience, as he shows off his deftness as Tony Dawonder. The club's owner is a woman who is a real nutbreaker and watches Frank with a careful eye as she works to keep her dangerous secrets from the master detective.

"Police Squad!" is a damn funny show. From what has been said by various people attached to ABC or the show, it appears that the show was canceled because it required the audience to actively watch the show for all of the sight gags and physical comedy. In my opinion, this is a horrendous reason to cancel a show. However, considering the average American believes that "Dancing with the Stars" and "American Idol" are entertaining, I can believe it. The state of television today is just pathetic. If it weren't for "Lost," "Heroes" and "My Name is Earl," I would have zero reason to sit down and turn on network television. "Police Squad!" is a slapstick comedy that some would call stupid, but ABC apparently thought us viewers were not smart enough or had long enough of an attention span to truly enjoy it.

Video:
The six episodes of "Police Squad!" are featured in their original 4:3 presentation and are colorful and decently detailed for a long cancelled television show from 1982. The shows colors still remain fairly good, but the image quality does feel slightly washed out during a few segments. Skin tones often feel too pinkish and over-contrasted. Darker scenes feel overly soft and have a grayish look that isn't as dark as one would hope. The level of detail is workable, but some sequences are definitely hindered by the quarter of century old technology that was used to film this television series. The DVD quality of "Police Squad!" is an improvement over television airings of the show, where the name of the show is subtitled "In Color."

Sound:
"Police Squad!" is delivered in fully remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. While the show was originally released with either stereo or mono sound, the new surround mix performs admirably, with the three front channels active through most of the show. Granted, the sound information contained by the 5.1 mix is not the liveliest or audibly most impressive sounding, but it is not bad considering the age of the show. The rear surrounds and subwoofer are mostly ignored, but the opening siren blares nicely and each crash by Frank Drebin sounds pretty good. Vocals are nicely carried by the soundtrack. Interestingly, the best imaging on the disc is the stereo nature of the commentary tracks featuring more than one person, as the left and right speakers each contain a different speaker.

Extras:
Paramount has done right in supplying a couple very nice supplements with the DVD arrival of "Police Squad!" Three of the episodes contained feature an audio commentary. "A Substantial Gift" and "The Butler Did It" both feature an Audio Commentary by David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Robert K. Weiss. The Zucker brothers and Jim Abrahams are the writers and creators of the show and Weiss is the show's producer. Their commentary is lively and humorous and they provide a lot of backstory on the show and the actors involved in the production. They didn't dive too deeply into the episodes covered, but provided very nice information on "Police Squad!" as a whole. The episode "Testimony of Evil" featured an Audio Commentary by Robert Wuhl, who is perhaps best known as "Batman's" Alexander Knox, but served as a writer for this series. Wuhl's commentary is more episode specific, but he too provides a wealth of information about the show and even some interesting anecdotes about the casting of "Airplane!"

In addition to the three commentary tracks, there are a couple of nice supplements accessible from the disc's "Special Features" menu. The Gag Reel (4:56) is awfully funny, but considering Leslie Nielsen is the primary star, how could they not be? The more Leslie, the better. More Leslie is delivered with the Leslie Nielsen Interview (8:40). This appears to have been filmed fairly recently and Leslie is aging, but is still a very entertaining man. This was the best supplement of the disc. Behind the Freeze Frames (4:30) discusses the show's gag freeze frames where everybody stands still while certain things still happen on-screen. Casting Test – Ed Williams (2:50) and Casting Test – Alan North (6:02) looks at the casting tests for scientist Ted Olson and Captain Ed Hocken. The Producers Photo Gallery (:57) scrolls by the screen quite fast and features little pictures mounted on a cork-board set to the shows theme music. You need to use your remote to enjoy any of them. This wasn't a very worthwhile supplement. The List of Celebrity Death Shots is a text based supplement that perhaps details how to kill weekly special guest stars. Some are quite humorous and some did make the show. Production Memo Highlights is an interesting menu based supplement that shows actual production memos detailing production standards, set attire, the lack of a laugh track and the actual cancellation memo from Cathy Gouse.

Closing Thoughts:
I loved the "Naked Gun" films. I've always hoped for a fourth, but with star Leslie Nielsen's age, that doesn't seem likely. Thankfully, the release of the six episode series "Police Squad!" onto DVD has allowed me to expand my collection of Frank Drebin and I can now enjoy more of the fumbling detectives laugher filled antics. I will always be amazed that this show did not do better, but ABC pulled the plug very early in its life. On DVD, all six shows are placed onto one disc with a half hours worth of supplements and three commentary tracks with decent picture and sound quality. The show is just as funny as ever and proudly sits beside "The Tick" and "Greg the Bunny" as great comedy shows that died too young. Jim Abrahams, the Zucker Brothers and Leslie Nielsen are the best at spoof-comedy and this was their lone venture into creating a television series.