Police Squad!: The Complete Series

Video:
The six episodes of "Police Squad!" are featured in their original 4:3 presentation and are colorful and decently detailed for a long cancelled television show from 1982. The shows colors still remain fairly good, but the image quality does feel slightly washed out during a few segments. Skin tones often feel too pinkish and over-contrasted. Darker scenes feel overly soft and have a grayish look that isn´t as dark as one would hope. The level of detail is workable, but some sequences are definitely hindered by the quarter of century old technology that was used to film this television series. The DVD quality of "Police Squad!" is an improvement over television airings of the show, where the name of the show is subtitled "In Color."

Sound:
"Police Squad!" is delivered in fully remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. While the show was originally released with either stereo or mono sound, the new surround mix performs admirably, with the three front channels active through most of the show. Granted, the sound information contained by the 5.1 mix is not the liveliest or audibly most impressive sounding, but it is not bad considering the age of the show. The rear surrounds and subwoofer are mostly ignored, but the opening siren blares nicely and each crash by Frank Drebin sounds pretty good. Vocals are nicely carried by the soundtrack. Interestingly, the best imaging on the disc is the stereo nature of the commentary tracks featuring more than one person, as the left and right speakers each contain a different speaker.

Extras:
Paramount has done right in supplying a couple very nice supplements with the DVD arrival of "Police Squad!" Three of the episodes contained feature an audio commentary. "A Substantial Gift" and "The Butler Did It" both feature an Audio Commentary by David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Robert K. Weiss. The Zucker brothers and Jim Abrahams are the writers and creators of the show and Weiss is the show´s producer. Their commentary is lively and humorous and they provide a lot of backstory on the show and the actors involved in the production. They didn´t dive too deeply into the episodes covered, but provided very nice information on "Police Squad!" as a whole. The episode "Testimony of Evil" featured an Audio Commentary by Robert Wuhl, who is perhaps best known as "Batman´s" Alexander Knox, but served as a writer for this series. Wuhl´s commentary is more episode specific, but he too provides a wealth of information about the show and even some interesting anecdotes about the casting of "Airplane!"

In addition to the three commentary tracks, there are a couple of nice supplements accessible from the disc´s "Special Features" menu. The Gag Reel (4:56) is awfully funny, but considering Leslie Nielsen is the primary star, how could they not be? The more Leslie, the better. More Leslie is delivered with the Leslie Nielsen Interview (8:40). This appears to have been filmed fairly recently and Leslie is aging, but is still a very entertaining man. This was the best supplement of the disc. Behind the Freeze Frames (4:30) discusses the show´s gag freeze frames where everybody stands still while certain things still happen on-screen. Casting Test – Ed Williams (2:50) and Casting Test – Alan North (6:02) looks at the casting tests for scientist Ted Olson and Captain Ed Hocken. The Producers Photo Gallery (:57) scrolls by the screen quite fast and features little pictures mounted on a cork-board set to the shows theme music. You need to use your remote to enjoy any of them. This wasn´t a very worthwhile supplement. The List of Celebrity Death Shots is a text based supplement that perhaps details how to kill weekly special guest stars. Some are quite humorous and some did make the show. Production Memo Highlights is an interesting menu based supplement that shows actual production memos detailing production standards, set attire, the lack of a laugh track and the actual cancellation memo from Cathy Gouse.

Closing Thoughts:
I loved the "Naked Gun" films. I´ve always hoped for a fourth, but with star Leslie Nielsen´s age, that doesn´t seem likely. Thankfully, the release of the six episode series "Police Squad!" onto DVD has allowed me to expand my collection of Frank Drebin and I can now enjoy more of the fumbling detectives laugher filled antics. I will always be amazed that this show did not do better, but ABC pulled the plug very early in its life. On DVD, all six shows are placed onto one disc with a half hours worth of supplements and three commentary tracks with decent picture and sound quality. The show is just as funny as ever and proudly sits beside "The Tick" and "Greg the Bunny" as great comedy shows that died too young. Jim Abrahams, the Zucker Brothers and Leslie Nielsen are the best at spoof-comedy and this was their lone venture into creating a television series.

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