Police Squad! (TV Series) A Substantial Gift (The Broken Promise) (1982) User Reviews

Pure Genius

[RogerDelG · 9/10 · 24 December 2023]

This is not at all a review of the pilot but I truly loved it! Hence the 9 out of 10 stars. For the record I have two episodes rated a perfect 10!

Every now and then I watch the episodes again. I've seen them too many times to count. They never fail to make me laugh. Pure comedy gold!

You really have to watch the show carefully as there was so much time taken to have things carefully crafted in the background....that were hilarious. On occasion I notice something I didn't notice before. Just fantastic.

Police Squad deserved much better than six episodes....but fortunately we would see Frank Drebin again later in the late 80's in the "Naked Gun" franchise.

Highest recommendation!

A gut-busting pilot episode.

[Hey_Sweden · 8/10 · 14 February 2012]

It really is a crying shame that the 'Police Squad' TV series was so short lived. But at least it led to the creation of the successful "Naked Gun" film series several years later.

Leslie Nielsen is absolutely perfect as deadpan detective Frank Drebin, in this pilot that has Frank investigating the double murder at a credit union. (Given that the name of the place is Acme, this must be where Wile E. Coyote gets the money to pay for his gadgets.) Anyway, the perpetrator is the seemingly ditzy Sally Decker (foxy Kathryn Leigh Scott), who needed a substantial amount of money to pay off the debt to her orthodontist. Among other things, Drebin realizes the evidence collected by ballistics isn't verifying the story that Sally told, interviews the widow (Barbara Tarbuck) of the supposed hold up man, and goes to his standard source on the street for info, all knowing Johnny (William Duell).

Priceless verbal and visual gags punctuate the good natured mayhem, in the manner formulated by the talented Zucker / Abrahams / Zucker team in "The Kentucky Fried Movie" and "Airplane!". One of the best moments has Frank and Sally shooting it out while just a few feet apart. It's also a total hoot when Frank is interrogating a dentist, ripping one wig after another off of Sally's head, and in addition to the standard chalk outline on the credit union floor, there's an Egyptian hieroglyphic. A breathless verbal exchange between Frank, his boss Ed Hocken (Alan North), and Sally makes great use of wordplay. The opening sequence began a standard practice in the series of having a special guest star, in this case Lorne Greene, pop up just long enough to get killed violently.

All in all, this is quite hilarious and extremely snappy, and has a brilliant wrap-up by parodying any and all TV show that's ever ended an episode with a freeze frame. Just try not to laugh as Nielsen and North stand there blinking while trying - not THAT hard - to maintain their facial expressions.

Eight out of 10.

Hilarious pilot for this sadly short-lived TV series

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 4 September 2011]

Bumbling Detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen in fine wacky form) investigates a murder case at a bank where the robber shot the clerk and then another staff member Sally (a nicely ditsy portrayal by Kathryn Leigh Scott) shot the robber. However, the autopsy suggests the incident didn't go down quite the way it seems. Writers/directors Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker, the same talented trio who blessed us with the almighty "Airplane!," do an expert job of sustaining a nonstop zippy pace throughout and adroitly milk their trademark winningly broad'n'zany sense of anything-goes outrageous humor for maximum belly laughs. The off-the-wall dialogue is rife with gut-busting non-sequiturs and the nutty sight gags are a complete hoot to behold (keep your eyes peeled for a ridiculously long stretcher being carried out of a crime site, plus a climactic shoot-out between two folks who are only a few feet apart is simply priceless). Nielsen excels as the hopelessly inept, yet earnest Drebin; he receives able support from Alan North as his no-nonsense superior Captain Ed Hocken, William Duell as helpful all-wise informant Johnny, and Ed Williams as nerdy lab tech Mr. Olson. Popping up in nifty guest appearances are Barbara Tarbuck as grieving widow Mrs. Twice and Terence Beasor as orthodontist Dr. Zubatsky. Look fast for Lorne Greene as stabbed man. Extra kudos are also in order for Ira Newborn's rousing "Dragnet"-style score and the absurdly solemn sub-Jack Webb narration. The cheerfully silly humor works exceptionally well thanks to the pseudo straight acting from the game cast and the astutely quasi-realistic look of the show. A total riot.

She shot Twice once...

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 18 September 2020]

It's too bad that the care put into this series wasn't used by the Zucker Brothers the same year for the disappointing "Airplane II". Unfortunately what the critics loved made the network insecure, and the series folded after only 6 episodes. Having been supporting as the doctor in "Airplane!" who didn't want to be known as Shirley, Leslie Nielsen ( only seen an outtakes in "Airplane II") set the second part of his career in stone by proving that he was very talented in deadpan comedy.

As police detective Frank Drebbin, Nielsen deliciously makes every little move seem priceless, taking simple gestures and getting laughs that nobody would even think were there. A grade scene involving a moving elevator is one of the visual highlights, and that's just one of them. Alan North plays the role that George Kennedy would later take on in the movies and is equally as good as Kennedy was. Everything is played absolutely seriously and you have to look around very carefully to catch every gag. One funny dig involving Barbara Walters would even make her laugh. That's Kathryn Leigh Scott of Dark Shadows Fame as the femme fatale, and there's a very funny verbal exchange involving the shooting in her office that is straight out of the Abbott and Costello "Who's on First?" routine. Lorne Greene is the cameo star here, very funny in his bit. There should be a mystery series surrounding this because its short run is one of the greatest wonders in television history.