Cop Rock

The 1990s started off with one of the boldest experiments ever attempted in American television - the creation of an hour-long weekly television police drama, done as a musical. Lots of people still make fun of it (most of them having never actually seen it) but it was often brilliant. Longtime television innovator Steven Bochco, creator of major hits like Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law, took the biggest risk of his career. He brought the musical back to television but this time as a gritty, street-wise cop show. The songs were written by a stable of songwriters ably led by the Oscar-winning Randy Newman. Half the critics thought it was the worst idea of the century; half thought it was pure genius. The television drama had been moribund for some time and Bochco created something entirely new, powerful, interesting, fresh. Nothing like it had ever been attempted before, and most importantly, it was done well and done seriously. Its detractors claimed it was unrealistic for cops and robbers to break into song, but none of them had complained quite this loudly about the various aliens that had appeared on the airwaves, about shipwrecked movie stars and millionaires, about bionic men and women, or about the rest of the lackluster crap filling the TV schedule.

As an example of its audacity, its first episode alone included a rap song delivered by junkies as they're being arrested in a drug raid, a gospel number by a judge and jury convicting a drug dealer, a tender pop ballad by a husband about his much younger wife, and an R&B number by a corrupt lady mayor to the man who's just offered her a bribe. But the most powerful number came at the end of the episode. A young junkie sits on a bus stop bench singing a lullaby to her infant daughter, a haunting Randy Newman song called `Sandman' (later re-used in Newman's Faust). As she finishes the song, a station wagon pulls up, a man gets out and pays her $200 for the baby. As he drives away with the baby, the junkie finishes the lullaby and breaks down in tears as the music quietly ends and the camera pulls away. It was devastating. And it was brilliant drama. Unfortunately, it cost $1.8 million an episode - a record at the time - and its ratings were consistently dismal. ABC tried to get Bochco to drop the musical numbers but he refused, so they canceled the show after four months. Bochco later told Entertainment Weekly that of all his shows, Cop Rock was by far the most fun he had ever had making television. Years later, Cop Rock was partly redeemed as cable channel VH-1 rebroadcast the series and a new generation discovered its quirky brilliance.

I remember Cop Rock fondly. It was an attempt to deliver the Broadway musical style to the popular police story genre. Now, I'm not one of those "Aren't we so cosmopolitan" self-congratulatory Broadway mavens, but I can appreciate a storyline interrupted by a soliloquy, even if it's musical - even if it's rock music! I distinctly remember an excellent opening scene of one episode, where the police are busting a crowd purchasing pot, loading the customers on a bus, as one detainee sings heartily about his civil rights being trampled. The cast was truly exceptional for a TV show, but the producers did not have proper respect for the amount of time and polishing necessary to deliver Broadway style entertainment. There was a lot of good stuff, but such material cannot be extruded at the rate needed for the voracious TV box. The general public could not forgive the uneven quality. I can't blame them, but there were payoffs for the patient. Live audiences collude with the performers, but TV viewers want to be entertained NOW, or they will click to the other 120 channels.

There was a clever end tacked on the final episode. It opens up with Ronny Cox and Curtis Vonde-Hall talking, and you quickly realize that they are not playing their characters. They are playing themselves discussing the impending cancellation. It's over when the fat lady sings, so the final pullaway has the entire cast onstage, with a Wagnerian Valkyrie, singing goodbye. Cool.

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Cop Rock is an Emmy Award winning American television series that aired on ABC from September 26, 1990 through December 26, 1990. The show, a police drama presented as a musical, was created by Steven Bochco, who also served as executive producer.

Inspired by Dennis Potter's 1986 BBC drama serial The Singing Detective, Cop Rock combined musical theater with police drama, the latter a genre in which Bochco had already been very successful with Hill Street Blues. The series featured an ensemble cast that mixed musical numbers and choreography throughout story lines. For example, one scene in a courtroom had the jury break into song, proclaiming "He's Guilty" in Gospel style. Another episode had a lineup of Hispanic suspects proclaim in song "We're the local color with the coppertone skin / And you treat us like we're guilty of some terrible sin." Its theme, "Under the Gun", was sung by Randy Newman, who opened each episode performing it in a music video-style credit sequence. The show also featured crossover appearances from other Bochco series. In one episode, James B. Sikking reprises the role of Lt. Howard Hunter from Hill Street Blues, while another episode featured cameos by LA Law stars Jimmy Smits and Michele Greene. Sheryl Crow appears as a back-up singer in the final episode.

The show on ABC ended after 11 episodes. The high-powered production talent became infamous as one of the biggest television risks of the 1990s. The final episode concludes with the cast breaking character and joining crew-members in performing a closing song.

Despite its short run, the series still has been rebroadcast three times, in the 1990s on VH1, on A&E Network, and in the 2000s on Trio.

Mike Post was the music supervisor on Cop Rock. Post appeared in the Cop Rock opening sequence as the musician in the dark glasses sitting next to Randy Newman and playing the keyboard.

Starring: Teri Austin, Anne Bobby, Barbara Bosson, Ronny Cox, Vondie Curtis-Hall, David Gianopoulos, Larry Joshua, Dennis Lipscomb, Paul McCrane, James McDaniel, Ron McLarty, Mick Murray, Peter Onorati, William Thomas, Jr., Kathleen Wilhoite

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I thought this was a series, finally that had depth and was made to entertain and move one emotionally, without so many talking heads but through music. Every song was approbate and expressed so much of the true human emotion.

I will never forget the scene with the girl on the bus bench when she sells her baby for dope. Alone she sings an amazing song. I had seen so many depictions of dopers and horrible mothers but never had I felt the depth of emotion that this scene brought me.

I think our general public was just not mature enough to realize what was really going on with this show! I only saw each episode once but they were so compelling that to this day I well remember much of them.

I would really like to get my hands on the VHS and/or (if made) DVDof any or all of this series.

I liked this show and never did understand why people thought it was stupid for people to be breaking into songs, you never hear that used against other musicals! The songs were good, fit in with the story and expressed a lot of feeling/ideas that couldn't have been told as well by dialogue! The cast was great, both acting and singing, especially since most of the songs were song during the shot instead of dubbing them in later. The final show was great, be nice if more shows let the actors say good-bye when a series was ended. Other people have commented on this show being a head of it's time, and it was. cause there were several subject that "Cop Rock" did that most shows at that time wouldn't have touched! If you get a chance you watch "Cop Rock", do so but with an open mind. If people had given this show it probably would have run a couple season at least, just depending on how long they could keep the songs and stories tied together.