Police Squad! (1982)

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Wonderful, too-short comedy series from the Zucker-Abrams-Zucker team, with many jokes that would be later recycled in the spinoff Naked Gun films. A parody of 70s cop shows, particularly Dragnet, Detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) stumbles with deadpan incompetence through his cases.

There is so much here to love, from the titles (the title appearing on screen is always different to that said by the narrator) to the embarrassing and yet somehow always hilarious wordplay ("cigarette?" "yes, I know") to the background details. Possibly my favourite aspect is the way every episode ends with a parody of the period trend of ending episodes on a freeze-frame while credits rolled -- here the cast simply hold still while, say, the coffee they were pouring begins to overflow onto the floor.

The Naked Gun movies are excellent, but Police Squad! is even better. One of my favourite comedy series of all time.

- Sam - 2014-09-29 01:30:02