New
Coming March 18th from Via Vision Entertainment
* Audio Commentary by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Robert K Weiss
* Audio Commentary by Robert Wuhl
* Gag Reel
* Leslie Nielsen Interview
* Behind the Freeze Frames
* Casting Test – Alan North
* Casting Test – Ed Williams
* Producers Photo Gallery
* List of Deaths
* Production Memo Highlights
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nice surprise! I was about to get the dvd set for the show with the blu set to upgrade the movies. now all blu!
What a wonderful surprise! It will certainly be welcomed in my house. The show should have run for years instead of just a few unappreciated episodes.
Crossing my fingers that this will be region-free…
The one Via Vision disc I have is Mr. Holland's Opus, which is indeed region free even though the case tries to convince us otherwise.
So there's hope.
Police Squad is absolutely hilarious. I can't believe it only lasted six measly episodes. Leslie Nielsen's deadpan delivery is flawless. I am a great fan of the Quinn Martin formula, but it is such a riot to see that formula mercilessly roasted by Frank Drebin and squad. Definitely time to dust off my dvd and watch the series again.
Being a fan of the Airplane movies, I was looking forward to this show, at the time. This show did not work on the small screen and found it tiresome after a couple of episodes as the gags were all of the same type,limited to TV censorship (which was more strict than now). Hence, the Naked Gun movies which allowed this concept to be more successful. I have some of these episodes on laserdisc and they fall flat compared to the movies. I'll pass.
Walking through the Japanese garden LOL.
"Officer book her and take her away."
(Shakes the two policemen's hands.)
"Officer Booker. Officer Takeheraway."
LOL!
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This thread has brought up so many funny things I still remember from this show. My favorite was the credits when they'd show the cast and then the Special Guest Star so & so and that would be the only time you'd see them in the entire episode. Trivia: John Belushi was one of those "special guest stars" but he overdosed before it aired and was replaced.
"Frank, how did you know it was him?"
"I had a little hunch back at the office…and here's that little hunchback now."
The Club Flamingo (sign shows a flamingo being clubbed) LOL.
I love the way the end credits roll and the main actors are "freeze-framed", but they are really just trying not to move too much, while other things and other actors around them continue to move.
I disagree.
However, I also agree, sort of. If the show had been more than 6 episodes, it would've quickly ran out of material. So being a limited run was in its favor, and the movies likely were able to take better advantage of the ZAZ style of comedy.
Peter Lupus was hilarious as the original Nordberg in Police Squad. It's too bad he never got to play the role in the films.
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Nordberg "taps" a phone.
Well.
Well that's an awesomely random idea. I love it.
Please let “artwork not final” be on the final Blu-ray artwork!
I was rather furious they chose O.J. to play the part instead of letting Lupus reprise his TV role in the films.
I have the dvd and an old vhs that has three eps on it.
Bought fron Erol’s Video rental store.
My local video store of choice had one of the 3 episode VHSes, which is where I first saw half of it.
Then, one night in, oh, the late 90s, Comedy Central aired all 6 episodes in a row, and I found out just in the nick of time and had a VHS tape at the ready.
That served me well until the DVD was released.
There's been some talk about another Naked Gun film, first they discussed a reboot with Ed Helms as Frank Drebin.
More recently Zucker/Proft were supposed to be writing more of a follow-up to the trilogy, focused on the son of Frank Drebin.
But there hasn't been much news recently. Maybe with Paramount under new management, things will begin to move again.
Me too – but I understood the "name recognition" factor (and this was pre-freeway chase O.J. so…). Like you, I'd have much rather seen Lupus in the role.
George Kennedy was also a recast.
Lupus was hysterical in the role. The entire series was genius.
I agree it Deserved a longer run, but it would have gotten stale if it did IMO. The fact that it came and went so quickly kept it pretty fresh from start to finish. However, they were already reusing bits by the time it ended. I really did appreciate how the end credits evolved and they kept mentioning all of the people they put in Statesville Prison at the conclusion of each story…
Belushi was going to be the “guest star” in one ep but he died before they could film it.
That is very interesting. Never heard that one. Wow.
I think they mention it on one of the commentary tracks.
I believe that's the episode where Florence Henderson was done in instead.
Always loved this. The best thing was that shot of the siren on the bottom of the screen going all kinds of crazy places. I think they did that one to the extremers in the movie if I remember right. hurt myself laughing.
btw, I just got the blu ray set for the Airplane movies and I think the first movie on blu is one of my favorites of all time. Watching it with all the stuff turned on, outtakes, interviews, etc inserted in is one of the greatest Ideas in home movie history.
It is rumored that he filmed the scene but that it was not used in respect to his passing.
I thought it had actually been shot, but they decided against using it, since showing him being 'murdered' so shortly after his actual death would have seemed to be in very poor taste.
Edit: Here's what Wikipedia has to say:
A scene with John Belushi, tied to blocks of concrete under water, was filmed but replaced with footage of Henderson, due to Belushi's subsequent death before the episode was broadcast. Belushi's death came as a shock to Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker, as they had joked about it after [Belushi] almost choked during the filming of the scene.
those guys are such great talkers. i wish they'd give all their movies the same blu ray treatment as airplane.
Remember Rat Race when they called everybody out of the blue at their homes like a morning radio talk show might? we found out Cuba Gooding Jr had a "naked household". lol I found out Rowen Atkinson is one of the coolest guys on the planet nothing like Mr. Bean.
I'm trying to figure out if it's a visual pun.
"Artwork Not Final" is very common in preview product where the artwork has not yet been finalized.
Some shows are just too good to last. Of course, this is post-Fred Silverman pre-Disney ABC we are talking about. They really cleaned house with sitcoms in 1982, the year Barney Miller ended and Taxi got pawned off on NBC. Lots of others didn't make the cut for next year, the first in a long time without any kind of industry strike affecting the premieres of new TV shows.
But let me put it this way without going on too much of a tangent: Joanie Loves Chachi got a second season and this did not. That says it all.
Audio Commentary exist for all three Naked Gun movies and the Police Squad series on DVD. To the best of my knowledge, only the first Naked Gun blu ray retained them. I hope the commentaries for Police Squad don't get lost in the transition to blu ray.
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Great news.
I think I actually have this show on laserdisc but never bought the DVDs. This Blu-ray will definitely be mine.
That's why I kept the DVDs of the last two films. I also own the complete CD soundtrack of the entire trilogy.
That would fit right in with David Zucker having directed or co-directed the last works of Ethel Merman, John Houseman, and Gary Coleman.
God, not Ed Helms, please. Didn’t he already kill the “Vacation” reboot?
I’m actually glad PQ didn’t get a second season. That was in the days of 22-episode seasons. I think that kind of effort would have killed the show (remember “Moonlighting”?)
It didn't help that they put it on Thursday night at 8 PM, the former home of the ailing Mork and Mindy. CBS was dominant there with Magnum P.I. while NBC launched Fame, which was very popular in the UK, around the same time.
I was a small child in the 1980s, so I was not allowed to stay up to watch it, but I do remember the publicity surrounding the cast feuds and production cost/schedule overruns. I never heard about too many fights on the set of thirtysomething, the show that came after it. Why were ABC's dramas at the time so much better than most of their sitcoms?
This show is hilarious! Every minute is funny. They said the reason it failed is because it requires the viewer to sit and watch closely to catch all the jokes. It can’t be just casually listened to like a sitcom where people are doing other things while they watch. You must sit and watch closely or you’ll miss the sight gags which it if chock full of every second.
That's easier to do today because of larger, higher-resolution TVs and DVRs that allow you to rewind stuff you missed. What has changed is people's ability to take a joke.
Please, Zucker Brothers, give us more!
I missed Alan North from the series. It was not until I got to see M Squad many years later that I saw how much Alan North was channeling Paul Newlan from that show. Newlan always played the chief in an extremely laid back style, as if he'd been summoned to the M Squad set with little or no rehearsal. North went out of his way to replicate that style.
I always knew M Squad was the main inspiration for Police Squad!, but had never seen the show in reuns back then. When I watched the M Squad DVD set I was a little surprised at how alike the two shows were (the pilot episode of Police Squad! is a remake of an M Squad episode).