When ‘Cops’ debuted on Fox in March of 1989, nobody knew what a huge hit it would be. The show full of ridiculous criminals, humorous take-downs, and a whole lot of drugs has now been on the air for 30 years. I personally have fond childhood memories of my dad laughing at the idiotic criminals while watching ‘Cops’ on Saturday mornings. It was much better than cartoons. Here are some facts about the bad boys of the hit series.
The idea for the show came from a cocaine bust
Co-creator John Langley was filming an actual drug raid for a 1983 documentary called ‘Cocaine Blues’ when he thought of the idea for a tv show about the everyday experiences of police officers.
The concept for the show was originally titled ‘Street Beat’
This was the name when Langley first began pitching the show. He was told that no show without a narrator, real plot structure, or music could succeed.
A writer’s strike got ‘Cops’ on the air
Executives at Fox weren’t completely fond of the show’s premise, but the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike made an unscripted show seem very appealing. Without actors, a host, or writers, the idea sounded pretty good to producers. There was no narrator, but Burt Lancaster did voice a brief intro in the pilot episode.
The ‘Bad Boys’ theme song wasn’t written for the show
Reggae musicians Inner Circle released the track on an album back in 1987. Cops crew members thought the song would be perfect, and the rights were sold for $2,500.
Filming locations were chosen if the show was invited there
The crew only filmed on location if the show was invited by a city’s mayor, police chief or other officials. After an invitation was extended, producers would ride along with officers for different shifts to make sure there was enough criminal activity in the area to warrant an episode.
Every episode has a three-act structure
Each episode usually starts with an action sequence (ex- a chase), then slower sequence (ex- a conversation with a suspect), and finally ends with some type of moral message (ex- drugs are bad).
The show originally showed cops at home
Initially, co-creator Langley wanted to document a police officer’s life both working and at home. In the pilot, an officer is seen arguing with his wife after a long shift. A critic thought this was the only phony part of the show and this aspect was immediately dropped.
Creating ‘Cops’ has given Langley more faith in humanity
In an interview with Forbes, Langley said, “I think I give humanity far more credit, having witnessed it at its worst. Rather than make me a cynic, it’s made me realize what a small percentage of the population actually commits crimes.”
Approximately 95% of suspects give permission to be on the show
Suspects only appear in an episode if they’ve given their consent via a waiver. If a person has already been arrested, the crew can follow the officers to jail and get a signature there. Almost all suspects choose to be on the show.
Some police departments see the show as a recruiting tool
Some cities, such as Chicago, won’t let show film in their territory because they believe police work should not be an entertainment product. However, there are many police departments featured on the show that see this as an opportunity to recruit new officers.
The crew occasionally had to interfere
The official employee policy stated that the crew were there only to observe, but there were a few cases where members had to step in to help out. For example, there was a time when the sound man had to put down his gear in order to stop a suspect from obtaining an officer’s weapon.
All unused footage gets thrown out
The crew could shoot up to 400 hours of footage for one 22-minute episode. Originally, they tried archiving everything that didn’t get used, but since the series was so long a lot of storage formats have come and gone. It wasn’t worth converting so much useless footage and it got trashed.
‘Cops’ has generated $500 million
The full 17 seasons with licensing, DVD sales, and syndication has generated some huge profits.
The officers featured on the show aren’t paid
Langley is a firm believer that anyone featured on a reality show does not need to be compensated. He believes that they weren’t paying people to be themselves and that giving anyone money would affect their behavior.
‘Cops’ helped pave the way for reality tv
While Langley likes to think of ‘Cops’ as a documentary series, the show played a major role in the reality television craze that would follow. In an interview with Forbes Langley said, “If I am the father—or godfather—of reality TV, I don’t want to take responsibility for all of the bastards that followed.”
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