600th ”Cops” show to air
“Cops,” the only crime show on TV where you can see a suspect with his hands up and his pants down, makes television history this weekend.
The granddaddy of reality TV shows will become one of a few of prime-time entertainment programs (“Gunsmoke” and “The Ed Sullivan Show” among them) to air 600 original episodes.
It will be one of four new half-hours that air back-to-back starting at 8 p.m. Saturday on Fox (KAYU-28 in Spokane).
John Langley might light a celebratory stogie in honor of the occasion – and then, go back to churning out more episodes of “Cops.”
“I’m still amazed by it,” Langley said in a recent phone interview from his Santa Monica, Calif., production lair.
“We’ve ridden with cops who watched ‘Cops’ when they were kids. And at least half a dozen of them over the years have told me, ‘That’s why I got into law enforcement.’ “
Seventeen years ago Langley, a onetime professor who did doctoral work on the philosophy of aesthetics, dreamed up this new aesthetic for TV: no narrator, no explanatory graphics, not even much of a story line. Just cops in cars, making the rounds.
Every network passed on the idea. Fox, which in 1988 was barely a network, took a flier.
Sure enough, “Cops” became an immediate hit with viewers and critics, then buckled its seat belt and settled in for a very long ride.
Other than the occasional “Price Is Right” special on CBS, it has faced little competition since being installed in a Saturday night time slot 16 years ago.
“Cops” has spawned a Comedy Central parody (“Reno 911!”), a hit reggae single (“Bad Boys,” by Inner Circle) and a line of “Too Hot for TV” videos, where viewers can see topless women tussling with officers at Mardi Gras as well as the occasional man leading officers in a clothing-optional pursuit.
And with each passing year, the show finds new fans.
“Cops” wins its time slot among younger viewers on Fox; meanwhile, your mom watches the repeats on Court TV and FX.
It is used by law enforcement as training video. “If you watch,” Langley said, “they’re always concerned about establishing order quickly.” (“Cops” tip: Always ask to see the hands of the person you’re questioning.)
Among police, respect for “Cops” appears to be as high as for the show that follows it, “America’s Most Wanted.” Langley screens episodes for the officers in the communities where they shoot.
“Very rarely,” he said, someone will ask him to edit out a face – usually that of an undercover cop – before the show is broadcast.
Langley, 61, rarely accompanies his crews anymore. Small wonder: They have one of the most grueling shooting schedules in the business.
They begin their season at one end of the country and work their way to the other, staying in residential hotels for weeks at a time. The ride-alongs usually take place at night – the weird hours – and the crews try to gather one episode’s worth of footage every seven days.
At this pace, “Cops” is able to produce 36 new half-hour episodes a season, compared with 22 for most prime-time series. That means fewer repeats on Fox and more reruns to sell to cable and syndication.
The production values on “Cops” have improved over the years, thanks to lightweight digital cameras that capture sharper images at night and wireless microphones that allow a cameraman to follow a foot chase without waiting for the sound man to catch up to him.
The show is cheap to make and, since Saturdays are a low priority for the networks, there’s almost no chance a rival network will spend the money to compete with it.
One year from now, “Cops” will tie Matt Dillon and company with its 636th episode. (Oh, sure, on “Gunsmoke” they had to write scripts and actors had to memorize their lines. But really, after the first 300 “Gunsmokes,” how hard was that?)
Reaching 600 shows is an obvious point of pride to Langley, who’s so smart that he deferred to a colleague when Michael Moore came calling for an interview for his gun-culture documentary “Bowling for Columbine.”
It was not a friendly chat, as Moore upbraided “Cops” for showing minorities in a poor light. In the film, however, he acknowledged the show’s iconic stature with a satire that showed “Cops”-styled arrests of corporate wrongdoers in business suits.
It’s easy to see why “Cops” endures. But how does a former academic keep from going brain-dead cranking out the same low-priced, high-mileage show year after year?
“There’s an immediacy to ‘Cops’ that sustains my interest,” Langley said. “It’s not preordained.
“We share the point of view of the officer and discover the story as it unfolds. I pretty much think I’ve seen it all, and then I’m always surprised.”