C.O.P.S.

One of the games I've always liked playing as a kid was cops and crooks, that game was always fun because you got the sensation of being either the one chased or the pursuer. This is another relic from my childhood in the 80's which sadly as time went on has became underrated and a bit forgotten. This show was bacially "G.I. Joe" but on the streets and taking place in the future which was cool, since I love sci-fi. It also predates the sci-fi TV show "Almost Human" well kinda where that show was on a more serious side, this cartoon is more on the light.

Not a lot I can really say, the animation I think is solid. I wouldn't say it's anything extraordinary now but it's good enough to create unique character designs. But I really like the background animation creating a futuristic society which is one step futuristic but one step in our contemporary reality. Personally I think this future society is plausible now with our constant advancement in technology. The theme song I thing is soild, it's a fun action theme that fits the show.

The action is good/decent, which I feel is the partial weakness of the show because at times it feels like their holding back a little too much. Also they don't use their weapons and unique vehcles nearly enough, but all the same it's entertaining enough.

Though to me what really drives it are the characters both good and bad as well as the light hearted nature and satire in some episodes. For the Cops faction my favorite character is Mace since he's gruff, tough, impatient, and a bit oafish and unsmooth sometimes.

For the bad guys my favorites were Nightshade whom is sort of a Catwoman like character, she more of an anti heroine since she doesn't always follow though or agree to Big Bosses orders. Has her own agenda, likes to do her own thing, but can be selfless sometimes.

My second is Big Boss, personally I think is an underrated animated villain. I like his voice he sort of sounds like actor Edward G Robertson, but he's a fun villain because his goal is simple which is to simply get rich quick and rule Empire city with an iron fist or should I say bionic fist. He smart but at times he's not due to surcoming to his own follies mainly greed.

The plots in most of the episode are always really bizarre but colorful fun, their pretty much the equivalent of "Dick Tracy" comic strip adventures where the good cop has to foil an over the top villain's ridiculous scam. It's true you don't take them seriously because the episodes themselves don't take themselves seriously; I even like some of the dialog in places which I think are clever verbal jokes. But some of the plots have included some suttle satire in places which I feel makes the show kinda smart sometimes.

One of my favorite episodes is the drug episode which was the one time the show took an unfun turn, it may seem a little preachy now but still it has a good message that I think is significant today, plus it was just cool seeing Big Boss and his crooks know their limits and even some sense of honor from what they do next.

I would no doubt love to see a revival of this franchise, by today's standards I feel it's possible, just an idea. Overall, C.O.P.S. is arresting fun, worth a ride around.

Rating: 3 stars

The early 80s brought some of the coolest, most nostalgic.cartoons of any era, even if they were just massive campaigns to illegally sell stuff to kids. Anyway, we had the likes of Thundercats, He-Man, She-Ra, G. I. Joe and many more that set a template for the rest of the decade. However, the ideas started getting wilder and darker as people started running out of them.

We had monsters battling each other in the Earth's core, space cowboys (and space Texas Rangers!!), space hawks wrapped in silver, people that could turn into underwater creatures, and even people using dinosaurs for war! Honestly, this weird stuff sat better with me than any of the main stream properties people yammer on about these days. C. O. P. S. Happened to fall under this era for me.

I'm not surprised too many people remember this show, for it had a bizarre rebrand after the reality show Cops came out, but as people tries looking for the next best thing, it was just too damn weird for its own good (along with the other shows of the late 80s).

While this show is not iconic, it still had some fun voice casting and had some cool ideas about the future. Big Boss was a great bad guy, for he was incompetent enough to stay out of trouble but megalomaniacal enough to fail. It was a fun format. However, the variety of the characters was what made the show so cool. I mean they had a mustachioed cowboy on the show!

Hopefully this show won't be lost forever in The annals of cartoon history.

I remember watching cops when I was 6 years old, it was very interesting to watch and I always wanted their toys but my parents only bought me 1 doll.

I kept going to my neighbor seeing the toys he had of COPS, he had the helicopter and all the heros and villans.

I remember one episode where the bank building torn apart, I miss that show...

COPS is one of the 80s classics that I did not catch when I was young. Heard about it here and there and the previews looked nice. When I finally heard that Richard Raynis, Fil Barlow and Duane Capizzi et al who were behind the development of the brilliant and amazing Extreme Ghostbusters series, were also involved in COPS, I went ahead and bought some tapes.

This series is downright impressive, mature and highly polished. The characters are all very nice and interesting. All in all, an excellent production. Perhaps if it had a movie preceding it, it would have been as well known as the also good, although slightly over-rated, The Real Ghostbusters, also directed by Richard Raynis, which it compares favorably against. All of them are certainly the better ones of the 80s.

Like XGB, COPS remains something obscure and rare, but rewards he who tracks and follows it, beyond imagination. Very impressive stuff from the same clique of geniuses. Too bad I did'nt catch this wonderful series during the 80s!

I remember watching C.O.P.S. and buying the toys and all that jazz. It was great! Very entertaining and interesting, a cops show designed for the Saturday morning set. I even remember friends debating a scene where they catch a criminal and he begins to cry, one friend wonders why and the other goes on about the conditions of living in prison. See this was my childhood OZ!