High Incident

This show was a show of realism, it captured something about the san fernando valley and at least what i perceived as realistic about the police there (having lived in that area). It showed the sharp contrast from life in the densely populated, gritty, harsh personality northeast (where i grew up), from the life in the suburban, wealthy, always sunny, windswept style, wide open, cheery yet serious, san fernando valley.

This is one of my favorite shows of all time and it always upsets me not only that the series ended, but that towards the end of the series it appeared the show veered from its manner and did stunts and the usual hollywood tricks to get ratings and save a show that seems headed to the chopping block.

One thing that bothered me about the series was that the character of marsh took the fall for the sexual harassment complaint (which i believe may have been part of the reason the show failed), when it seemed almost certain that he was the victim of an officer who knew she was about to get a justified bad review, seduced him and knew just when to kick him out of the house so that the regular police patrol would find him there - it may have made a nice episode for him to figure out that she set him up.

It seems a pity that such talented actors, especially David Keith in his element, Matt Craven and the rest, and writing and cinematography did not pan out into a long running fruitful series.

"High Incident" is one of the best police dramas i have seen and believe me I have seen a lot. The emphasis of this show was not the action, but the drama. This doesn't mean there isn't enough action. There is a lot of action to be enjoyed. But when you see the cops at work, you get involved with the characters and sometimes you will hate them, just as real life. The acting is excellent. I cannot understand that a show this great can be cancelled after two seasons, while a c****y show like "Walker, Texas Ranger" can go on and on and on. "High Incident" must come back.

This will always be one of my favorite shows. I only wished I could have seen more than two seasons worth of this masterpiece. The only reason this show did not survive is the fact that there are millions of idiots who watched the awful show "Friends." I am glad to see that the majority of the cast have went on to bigger things and best of luck to them. How could ABC leave us with such a huge cliffhanger? Is Officer Mike Rhoades going to awake from his coma? Would Officer Len Guyer being paralized after a gun shot a misdiagnosis? Please, Spielberg, make a movie with the very same characters of this series.

I have it from an inside source the reason the series was canceled was because Eisner and Katzenberg were having a pissing contest. Katzenberg at the time was suing Eisner (Disney) for money he felt he was owed while working at Disney. The series was being reported as picked up in all the tabloids. On the weekend that the season line-up was to be announced, in NYC, Eisner dropped 'High Incident' from the list at the very last minute, without any warning, so nobody could do anything about it.

I was told that Spielberg had said that if he'd known that this could possibly have happened he would have been in New York that weekend. A couple of years later when 'Schindler's List' was to premiere on network TV Spielberg pulled it from ABC and gave it to a different network.

Spielberg got some measure of revenge. Katzenberg got his money. Eisner got to throw his power around. The people who really paid were the cast, the crew and the fans who loved the show.

I was a cop for 10 years, and High Incident is the greatest cop show I have ever seen. It captured the true emotion, tension, fast pace and sheer panic of police work better than anything I have ever seen. I would drop everything to make sure I was home on High Incident night, and so did all of my fellow cop friends. It was as true to life as you will ever get. David Keith and Cole Hauser were as believable as the guys that I worked the streets with. It was truly a sad day in my life when I found out that it had been cancelled. I honestly thought that show would become a television fixture along the lines of LA LAW and NYPD Blue. Just goes to show that people don't know a good thing when they have one. If anyone knows how I can get episode copies, please post here or email me Thanks!