Join Detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) and Capt. Ed Hocken (Alan North) as they solve the toughest cases - full of all the sight-gags, puns, and non-sequiturs that made the series famous!
Created by David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, who gave us other classics such as Airplane! and The Naked Gun series.
Sure, I had seen The Naked Gun movies as a kid, but I had no idea they were based on a failed TV series called Police Squad!. Of course I heard things about the series as I got older I became aware of the series, but I had no way of watching it.... until the DVDs were announced. It's still hard to believe a TV series which ran for 6 episodes could spawn 3 movies that would gross over $215 million.
Disc 1 (2:30:44)
A Substantial Gift (The Broken Promise) (25:06)
Ring of Fear (A Dangerous Assignment) (25:08)
The Butler Did it (A Bird in the Hand) (25:07)
Revenge and Remorse (The Guilty Alibi) (25:07)
Rendezvous at the Big Gulch (Terror in the Neighborhood) (25:08)
Testimony of Evil (Dead Men Don't Laugh) (25:08)
Video
Police Squad! looks very good on DVD, but also a bit dated. There's a slight flicker in the picture, some grain, and the odd speck of dust, but it looks pretty good for a 25 year old series. The disc contains a "play all" feature, and a chapter after the opening titles, but don't skip them - you'll miss the guest star credits!
Audio
I was very surprised when I started watching the first episode because I heard a bullet zip past my ear. It made me jump a bit because I wasn't expecting what I heard, but I a quick check of my receiver confirmed that this was in Dolby Digital 5.1. There are lots of directional effects during the opening, but I didn't hear any during the episodes. There's also the original Mono track in English, which is good if you don't care for the 5.1 track. There are closed captions available for the episodes.
Commentaries
A Substantial Gift & The Butler Did it - David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Robert K. Weiss. These are both funny and informative commentary tracks. The participants reveal some of the jokes, and laugh a lot. They talk about the Belushi death in "The Butler Did it" - so you should listen to it if you want to know more.
Testimony of Evil - Robert Wuhl. A bit slower than the previous commentary (it's a lot harder with one person), there are still some interesting tidbits to be gleaned from listening to this.
Gag Reel (4:56)
Ah, poor Leslie, he keeps flubbing his lines.
Leslie Nielsen Interview (8:40
Leslie Nielsen talks about the series, and the Naked Gun movies.
"Behind the Freeze Frames" (4:30)
The freeze frame at the end of each episode was a trademark of the series, and is discussed here.
Casting Test - Ed Williams (2:50)
Ed Williams played "Ted Olson, Scientist" in the series. This is his screen test.
Casting Test - Alan North (6:02)
"Capt. Ed Hocken" was played by Alan North - take a look at his screen test.
Producers' Photo Gallery (0:58)
A slideshow of various photos from the show.
List of Celebrity Death Shots (2 screens)
These were possible death scenes for the celebrity guest stars.
Production Memo Highlights (5 screens)
Various memos from, or to, the production office.
Summary
This was the most enjoyable 6-episode series I've seen! This is a set that needs to be owned because you have to watch the episodes more than once to notice all the jokes, and even then you may miss some. I was going to include a number of the running-gags in my review, but I decided it would be best to let the viewer discover them; that's half the fun of watching the show.
I thought the extras were good, though I wished Nielsen had appeared in one of the commentary tracks. Many people were hoping the Belushi footage would turn up on the set, but the footage couldn't be located. They found the cannister that held the film, but the film wasn't inside. They call DVD producer Paul Brownstein the "Raider of the Lost Archives," but even he turns up empty-handed sometimes.
I'm sure many of you have seen The Naked Gun movies, but may have missed the series. If you loved the movies then you'll love the series as they both have the same sense of humor, absurd jokes, and clever background gags. This is an inexpensive set that'll have you laughing for hours, and then hours more when you rewatch the episodes for a second, third, and fourth time.
