A team of gun - add up officers rage into a drug den in the middle of the night as chopper hover above ; a young meth addict female parent watches as her babe is taken aside from her ; a half - dozen gang members are violently placed under arrest .
The initiative scene ofCop Rock , which premiered on September 26 , 1990 , ab initio resemble the game police force procedurals co - Godhead Steven Bochco made his name with . Yet as the suspects are marched out of the house , the show immediately proves it ’s a unlike beast thanHill Street BluesorL.A. Law . For the bunch then break into an N.W.A - lite tap titled " We get the Power . "
Taking reward of his10 - series dealwith ABC , Bochco had thrown caution to the wind and released a show that was a blend of an ambitious disastrous clowning , a weighty cop drama , and … musical dramatic art .
Later on in the original episode , a courtroom jury turns into a fully - robed gospel choir while belt out their finding of fact of “ He ’s guilty . ” Elsewhere , a metropolis city manager accepts a payoff from a property developer in the form of a ‘ 70s - exhort saloon rocker , and the aforementioned meth mom let the cat out of the bag a sweet lullaby to her baby before selling the newborn infant for a measly $ 200 . you could sympathise whyTV Guideonce hailedCop Rockas “ the individual most bizarre idiot box melodious of all time . ”
Unfortunately , Cop Rock ’s strangeness did n’t pique the curiosity of enough ABC viewer and the show wascanceledafter just 11 episodes ( although it did deal to attract9 million viewers — a numeral that sure as shooting would n’t be whiff at these days ) . Its songwriting talent seemed baffled that it ever even aired at all . Randy Newman , who penned both the theme tune and all five songs from its pilot installment , oncetoldBochco , “ You ’re wild . It ’ll never work . ” Composer Michael Post , meanwhile , claimedit was the tough melodic theme he had ever heard .
Bochco and fellow showrunner William M. Finkelstein did n’t exactly make things light for themselves , either . The majority of actors were regurgitate simply for their outspoken abilities — hence the oft - wooden line deliveries . Conversely , those actors whowereable to prop up the more spectacular scenes struggled to hold a tune . The Creator also decided to predate the distinctive lip - synching to pre - recorded vocals feeler and capture each melodious interlude exist instead , which only added to the show ’s production complexity .
Unlike future loan-blend shows such asGlee , Crazy Ex - Girlfriend , andEmpire , Cop Rockstruggled to integrate its musicality into its storylines in an organic manner . There ’s a time and a place for a jauntyHall & Oatespastiche , of course , but it ’s belike not in the middle of a self - name " baby merchant " getting caught in a baby abduction sting . Had the show sell itself as a pure comedy , such baffling set pieces might have worked . But most of the laughsCop Rockgot were of the unintentional variety show .
The serial publication may have gone down in infamy as one of the biggest dud in meshwork TV story , but many of the the great unwashed who were postulate with it still seem proud to be associated with a show that decline to play by the norms . In 2010 , Bochco distinguish theLos Angeles Timesthat he consideredCop Rockto be a highlight of his career . And let ’s not forget that the show picked up fiveEmmynominations , and gain two of them : Outstanding Editing for a Series and Achievement in Music and Lyrics for Newman . ( It ’s deserving take down thatThe Wire , which is regularly cited as one of television ’s unspoilt crime dramas — and one of the greatest telecasting shows of all time — receive justtwo Emmy nominationsthroughout its total five - time of year run , both for Outstanding Writing . )
AlthoughCop Rock ’s songs may seem substantially dated today , a belatedDVD releasein 2016 , courtesy of Shout ! manufactory , showed that the show ’s motif lamentably remain all - too - timely today . Storylines let in an unarmed African - American suspect being kill in cold blood by a ashen pig and a mother singing to her kids about Black history after racist plant a burn cross on their front lawn . Bob Iger , ABC ’s former head of entertainment , evensaidthat if the show had been a aboveboard police procedural , it probably would have lasted more than a single season .
Perhaps we should considerCop Rockas more of an admirable failure than an outright embarrassing disaster . As Bochco toldThe A.V. Clubin 2016 : " If you have the warranty of getting that many show on the melodic phrase and you do n’t do something bluff and adventurous and data-based , then shame on you . "
