Beech Tree News Network

This week, Vice Network Dark Side of The ‘90’s on the show Cops.  From its very first episode, COPS burst onto your tv screen with its brash, in your face realism.  In the ‘90’s, audiences couldn’t get enough.  With its raw, fly-on-the-wall style, COPS was an edge of your seat adrenaline rush.  The show was unlike anything television audiences had ever seen.  The success of this new kind of television relied on a very old obsession.  Dr. Adrien Sebro, professorof Media Studies, University of Texas at Austin says “America has always had a fascination with crime and cop shows.  From shows like Kojak and Dragnet to Columbo and Law & Order, there’s always been this love of crime.  Everybody loves a good “whodunnit”.  Throughout the ‘80’s, cop shows were some of the most popular on television.  There was a gap, however, between the scripted cop show and showing what real cops actually do.  

Sebro adds about the show COPS “it was amidst this late ‘80’s, early ‘90’s war on drugs”.  As drug-fueled crime rises, tv shows glamorizing police work start to lose their luster.  “COPS came at a perfect time.  Malcolm Barber and John Langley got together and made this film documentary called Cocaine Blues in 1983.  The two soon land a job bringing the films realism to television.  Before working on COPS, Hank Barr teams up with Langley for a gritty television special called American Vice, starring Geraldo Rivera.  Halfway through filming, Geraldo had to leave.  Langley put Rivera’s mic on the door keyman and they filmed the raid with just the officers narrating.  There was no narrator or host, simply a crew following the police department.  That’s how the show COPS was born.  

Langley tried selling the idea of the show to networks.  They said it could never be done and laughed him out oftheir office.  He shops it around to what are, at the time, the only networks: ABC, CBS and NBC.  They all turn him down.  However, Langley would catch a break.  In 1988, there was a writer’s guild strike.  This was huge because it halted production on any written show.  Suddenly, a show that didn’t need directors, writers or paid actors looked appealing.  And now there was a new network in town.  For the fledgling FOX, a risky concept with a low budget is irresistible.  

When COPS finally makes it to the airwaves on March 11, 1989, it delivers realism rarely seen on the small screen.  Cops created its own audience and broke records along the way.  They were on Saturday night, notoriously the worst night for tv.  Yet, their ratings were going through the ceiling.  Their que rating was above The Tonight Show.  In the early ‘90’s, the show goes international, and its theme song becomes a worldwide hit.  The Bad Boys movie trilogy is themed off the song.  The chart-topping, Grammy-winning tune is burned into  the popular consciousness.  The song helps the show become a pop culture phenomenon.  

Every person who appeared on COPS signed a release to do so.  That’s right.  The people on COPS signed a release to be on the show.  Reminiscent of The Real World show I reviewed last week, isn’t it? 

Keith Burns, Palm Beach County Sherriff’s Office, was a cop on COPS in the ‘90’s.  He says “After the dust settled and the arrested were in the car, the COPS crew would approach and identify themselves”.  

The shows groundbreaking style wins over the tv industry.  In the early ‘90’s, COPS is nominated four times for an Emmy and wins Best Reality-based Program at the 1993 American Television Awards.  There would even be COPS merchandise: shirts, hats, etc.  Portraying cops as heroes makes the show a hit in the early ‘90’s.  Appearing on the show was great public relations for cops, as many who agreed to do it would attest.  Keith Burns of the Palm Beach County Sherriff’s Office says “ the overwhelming majority of police officers are out there to do the right thing the right way”.  

By the end of the ‘90’s, COPS was showing its age.  Ratings are a quarter of what they once were.  But the way we look at law enforcement is about to change dramatically.  After 9-11, the war on drugs gives way to the war on terror.  Police forces become increasingly militarized in the name of keeping America safe.  Cops were being hailed as national heroes more than ever.  At the height of the protests after George Floyd’s death, COPS was cancelledfrom the network channel.

For as much content from this show that I added to this column, there was a lot of propaganda that I left out purposefully.  The next two episodes of the Dark Side of the ‘90’s series will focus on UFC.  Below are links to my podcast, Blendertainment

https://open.spotify.com/show/61yTPt9wXdz37DZTbPUs16?si=lw4gR-7xQ22E-zhyGDyHyg

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blendertainment/id1541097172