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March 28, 2024, 08:48:22 AM

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I'm rewatching Police Squad!

Started by Johnny Yesno, April 21, 2020, 08:51:20 AM

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Johnny Yesno

It's years since I've seen it and some kind soul has uploaded all the episodes to YouTube. Three episodes in and it's as funny as I remember. I barely remember any of the jokes, though, so I'm pretty much getting to enjoy it all over again.

Police Squad! 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYdUZfHGP04

Police Squad! - Rendezvous at Big Gulch Terror in the Neighborhood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBmQke9gzNw

Police Squad! - The Butler Did It A Bird in the Hand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsDIgsddc70

Police Squad - Ring of Fear A Dangerous Assignment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3Tn99wCj-8

Police Squad! - Revenge and Remorse The Guilty Alibi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRbTP1LCbKQ

Police Squad! - Testimony of Evil Dead Men Don't Laugh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOQz3cJb_-A

The playlist these are from has some nice bonus material also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYdUZfHGP04&list=PLGeINXAFv8QhpjGijYbPDYkiOczrgXrka


kalowski

Man, I loved Police Squad! (in color).
Is it suitable for children, I can't remember, but I think my son would like most of the jokes in this.

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: kalowski on April 21, 2020, 09:03:04 AM
Man, I loved Police Squad! (in color).
Is it suitable for children, I can't remember, but I think my son would like most of the jokes in this.

I'd cautiously say yes. If The Naked Gun is suitable then I can't see why this wouldn't be.

ollyboro

 I remember this was broadcast on a Thursday night, either just before Blackadder Goes Forth, or just after. Ride On Time was number one during this period. A few of us would watch the comedy then play Subbuteo, then fishcakes. I've absolutely no doubt Police Squad and Blackadder will have been broadcast on totally different days, in totally different years, but it's a nice memory.

famethrowa

Great stuff, classics all. I'm sure I've seen 3 different versions of The Butler Did It A Bird in the Hand, the band is playing Satin Doll at the party, the father asks them to play something different, and I'm sure I've seen 3 different things happen:

- the band says "ok, something different" and then starts up Satin Doll yet again, fading into Happy Birthday
- the band starts playing Happy Birthday but the crowd sings "something different..." with the tune
- the band starts playing Happy Birthday and everyone sings the right words.

I've seen it as late night TV version, mail order DVD, torrent 15 years ago, and now youtube.

Johnny Yesno

That's interesting. I didn't realise there were different versions.

Alberon

Police Squad! in High Def

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Police-Squad-Complete-Leslie-Nielsen/dp/B084QLBHW3

I think it was a prime time comedy show in the States nearly forty years ago so it should be fine for anyone to watch.

Annie Labuntur

Pretty sure it was on before the watershed when some ITV networks first showed it in the 1980s.

From the DVDs the only possible dodginess I can think of are the creepy things Olsen says in the lab to the kids.

It was definitely on in the tea time Simpson's slot in the early 90's.

Gulftastic

'Sergeants, take her away and book her' may be my favourite joke in anything.

ollyboro

Quote from: kalowski on April 21, 2020, 09:03:04 AM
Man, I loved Police Squad! (in color).
Is it suitable for children, I can't remember, but I think my son would like most of the jokes in this.

I don't remember Police Squad containing any stuffed beaver gags, or it starring any murdering ex- American footballers, so your 28 year old should be fine.

Two Headed Sex Beast

Quote from: Gulftastic on April 21, 2020, 10:45:04 AM
'Sergeants, take her away and book her' may be my favourite joke in anything.

Mine is either this, or 'I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith'

DrGreggles

Quote from: Two Headed Sex Beast on April 21, 2020, 12:44:21 PM
'I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith'

There's a strong case for that being the greatest joke of all time.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Firstly, I like how the title of this thread makes the OP sound quite excited about things, but it's more likely to be that they are merely quoting the title of the actual programme with correct punctuation.

Secondly, going to be controversial here, and say that after the first genuinely hilarious episode, the rest of the ( non Zucker- Abraham-Zucker scripted) series is really not much cop*, turning the ZAZ template into something quite formulaic and dull, the " Airplane 2" of the zany tv series world.

The " Locksmith" gag *is* a good 'un, though.

All the Naked Gun films are generally more unfunny than funny too,  especially the third one.

( Not much "cop"! I genuinely didn't intend that!)

" Police Squad!"  was originally broadcast circa Feb 1983 on ITV ( well, Granada leastways) on Thursday evenings, up against " Top Of The Pops". It was broadcast years later in the autumn of 1989 on BBC2 ( I think). Readers of a certain vintage may remember the cast of " Absolutely" going onto the channel's then- broadcasting nightly arts show " Late Review" performing a pseudo- serious interview panel on the show and humour in general ( they were all playing different characters, they weren't being themselves; Morwena Banks played the ostensibly serious interviewer, getting incrementally more pissed off with the inane views of the panelists; Jack Docherty claimed that the only things he found funny were paving stones and Dickie Davies. This was more amusing than the whole of episodes 2-6 of  " Police Squad! ", I bravely state)

dissolute ocelot

Quote from: ollyboro on April 21, 2020, 10:45:07 AM
I don't remember Police Squad containing any stuffed beaver gags, or it starring any murdering ex- American footballers, so your 28 year old should be fine.

I remember aged about 15 having the beaver gag explained to me, having seen it before and thought it was just a random bit of absurdism. But Naked Gun was adult humour compared to Police Squad, which showed on BBC2 on Sunday lunchtimes in the 1990s.

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: Two Headed Sex Beast on April 21, 2020, 12:44:21 PM
Mine is either this, or 'I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith'

Those are great but I think mine might be 'We would've come earlier but your husband wasn't dead then.'

studpuppet

I still use Tony de Wonderful as my moniker when logging into anything competitive like online games.

SpiderChrist

Quote from: Two Headed Sex Beast on April 21, 2020, 12:44:21 PM
Mine is either this, or 'I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith'

Beat me to it

mojo filters

Quote from: DrGreggles on April 21, 2020, 12:46:54 PM
There's a strong case for that being the greatest joke of all time.

Quite possibly, especially given how perfectly it's delivered. Another good 'un is:

"...married, one child, that didn't work out so he married a grown woman."

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Gulftastic on April 21, 2020, 10:45:04 AM
'Sergeants, take her away and book her' may be my favourite joke in anything.

With my favourite PS gag following immediately after. This gag would be a cutaway in something like Family Guy but they make the punchline even more absurd in its execution. The supporting cast were brilliant in this show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKu7WjEaDWU

The Culture Bunker

The locksmith joke is a favourite of mine too, though I wonder how much of it is down to Leslie Nielsen's superb delivery. I can't imagine anyone else being able to carry it as well.

The show itself was one of the very few my brother and I both enjoyed - remember watching it on BBC2, early 90s, with our dad. As we were all tall, we especially enjoyed the Al character as a running gag.

Shaky

For me, the best gag is, "We would have come earlier, but your husband wasn't dead then." A brilliant bit of logical nonsense.

I don't quite buy into the ZAZ diminishing returns thing. Sure, the films get (much) broader as the 80s/90s play out and a little bit of the shine goes but every film up to and including Hot Shots 2 still has a shed-load of excellent gags and endless rewatchability. I also had another watch of Kentucky Fried Movie the other day and there's so much brilliant stuff in there I either missed entirely or didn't find amusing 20 years ago.

Interestingly, there's a mere single sketch from ZAZ's Kentucky Fried Theatre live show on YT which not only features the trio as performers, but clearly displays their sensibilities very early on. Amazing to think those guys were performing for years in the 70's and we'll likely never get to see that stuff.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Leslie Nielsen plays the character of Frank Drebin absolutely straight in " Police Squad"  ( The series) ( indeed, that's why he was hired for the series, and the " Airplane!" film, he was a renowned serious dramatic actor, he'd played the captain in " The Poseidon Adventure", and everything), and, car parking aside, is actually quite good at his job. He follows police procedure quite well, in addition to having his own ways of solving the crimes ( procuring vital information from Johnny The Shoeshine guy, etc.), and always ends up getting the case solved. He also solves all the cases in the Naked Gun films, but the writers also added the element of him being quite a Clouseauish character, so he does some fairly stupid, destructive things in those films to the chagrin of both his superiors and the villains in the films, adding some broad farce to the sight gags and daft humour, calling for Leslie Nielsen to do the face- pulling and mugging that was simply not a part of the tv series, and a large part of all those woeful non-ZAZ film spoofs he played out his career doing( that " 2001" film he did was easily the nadir of his career).
I'm still maintaining that episodes 2- 6 of " Police Squad" weren't great, but they were certainly better than those rubbish films he was in.

Cigarette?

The Culture Bunker

First time I think I remember seeing Nielsen do a somewhat "straight" part (oh-err) was in Due South, where he was an old Mountie colleague of Fraser Snr hiding out in Chicago, bitter and beat up from life. Then everytime they brought him back, it was playing the same character but as a Canadian Frank Drebin, Naked Gun version. Always thought that was a bit of a shame, much as I enjoy a good fart joke.

I also remember that in that initial Due South appearance, he looked in great shape for a guy in his mid 60s.   

Bad Ambassador

Screened in full on Sunday lunchtimes on BBC Two in 1996.

DrGreggles

It was also part of ITV's 'Night Network' in the late 80s.
That would be where I first saw it - and 'The Monkees'.


Alberon

According to wiki about the adverts

QuoteThey were directed by John Lloyd, with such apparent success that Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker approached him to direct Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, but he turned them down.

I've always had a soft spot for the line

QuoteShe said she wanted to see me at the club right away. Since I had no idea where the Club Rightaway was, I suggested the Club Flamingo.

DrGreggles


Ballad of Ballard Berkley

"Sergeants, take her away and book her" really is such a brilliant gag.

I agree that Drebin wasn't as funny when they decided to turn him into a bungling Clouseau-esque character in the films. The whole point was that Drebin, played by the serious actor Leslie Nielsen, had no idea that he was in a ridiculous comedy. Like Sellers as Clouseau in the first few Pink Panther films, he played it straight. And from thence the humour arose.

Nielsen was an amazing deadpan comedy actor, but it's so embarrassing when you watch him mugging a la Jerry Lewis in some of those later comedies he made. That wasn't the man's forte.