"Police Squad!" created by the immortal comedy trio of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker, debuted on ABC on March 4, 1982, and for four glorious weeks, everything was right with the world. ZAZ's unique brand of slapstick, previously seen in the movies "The Kentucky Fried Movie" (which they wrote) and "Airplane!" (which they wrote and directed), was aimed at stone-faced police procedurals like "Dragnet," resulting in a sublime spoof show that was too funny to live. Leslie Nielsen played the Joe Friday-like Lieutenant Frank Drebin, and he was a master at delivering ultra-silly dialogue with a completely straight face. I would recount some of the gags here, but they are too plentiful to list, and one should be able to discover them undisturbed. Critics loved the show, naturally.
After four weeks, however, "Police Squad!" was taken off the air, a victim of poor ratings. The following July, the final two episodes were burned off during the summer rerun season. The show, with only six episodes to its name, retained a passionate cult following, leading to the production of a feature film, "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" in 1988. The film, unlike the show, was a massive success, spawning two sequels in 1991 and 1994, and a remake in 2025. The success of "The Naked Gun" also spawned a sizeable wave of slapstick imitators throughout the 1990s. Some of them were okay.
Sadly, there will be no "Police Squad!" reunions anytime soon, unless you have a shovel. Leslie Nielsen passed away in 2010, and his many co-stars have also shuffled off their mortal coil since "Police Squad!" went off the air. Indeed, only one of the central stars of "Police Squad!" remains with us, and we'll discuss him below.