The best back-handed compliment ever given out by someone in TV was given to Police Squad when the reason given for cancelling it was, "it doesn't work because people have to pay attention to the TV to get it."
Was that the same scene when they were trying to come up with something for the widow to tell their kids? "I know - he was traded to the Dodgers for Reggie Jackson!" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 etc!
My best friends father was Alan North who got second billing on Police Squad. He was a hard working character actor who played second fiddle in movies and television for decades. We all thought that Police Squad was going to be the big break that he so richly deserved, but alas...it was way too ahead of it's time. It's wonderful to see him get the recognition. Thank you.
Nick: can I take a swing of this? Chocolate Mousse: go right ahead Nick: *spits* what is this stuff? Chocolate Mousse: Gasoline. Muahahahahhaa *gulp gulp gulp* I die everytime.
True - and so is _Amazon Women on the Moon_ It was inspired by KFM but I don't know if ZAZ had anything to do with it. Either way it's in the same vein as what we're all enjoying w/this yt video
Fun fact; John Belushi filmed a “dead guest star” bumper for Police Squad just prior to his own untimely end. I don’t believe that it aired. Thanks for your mini-doc. The four episodes that aired are still the best version in my book. The movies were ok in comparison, with the first far outranking the next two which suffered from the deadly “let’s make Frank funny” thinking that likewise killed the last two Peter Sellers Pink Panther films.
I remember watching The Naked Gun downstairs on HBO with my friend and we were laughing so much that my mom yelled for us to keep it down because "nothing is that funny!" She was wrong.
Can you imagine 2 or 3 full seasons of Leslie Nielsen in his prime? Dear god that would be glorious. But the show didnt fail because the audience didnt get it. Audience actually loved it, one tv exec didnt get and he got it cancelled.
Or is it the TV exec thought audiences wouldn't get it because he underestimated the intelligence of audiences. It seems to me a lot of management in show biz do that, particularly if their eye is more on potential profit than craftsmanship.
I was 12 when it was on. My friend Shaun and I would call each other during the show and laugh our asses off. That exec was an imbecile. I always felt it worked better as a TV show because it was parodying TV shows.
It's one of those things I do not think you could maintain for three seasons it would be very difficult to keep coming up with stuff like that without returning to formula this is one of these cases where it is what it is enjoy it because it's perfect
Maybe most people weren’t ready for Police Squad, but I was. I was in 7th grade, and me, my brother and my dad loved it, and laughed our asses off every week. My poor mom. Until it got canceled. That was a drag, so I was really happy to find it at the video store years later, finally getting to see the two episodes they never aired. When the Naked Gun came out, me and my brother and a buddy went to see it, and I know I’ve never laughed so hard and so much at a movie before. We all did. Forget a reboot, though, without Leslie Neilson, it wouldn’t be Frank Drebin. Love your videos, man, great work!
I would've been about the same age as you when I first saw Police Squad!, it was played in the Sunday morning slot here in the UK at the time, so deliberately directed at children (god knows why, there's some adult themes in it). Anyway, my brother and I would watch it and piss ourselves laughing and my mum would turn to us and say "I don't get it". The jokes aren't amazingly complicated but for whatever reason she just couldn't understand why it was funny. A similar phenomena happened when I went to see Ace Ventura with my gf (at the time, circa 1995) and I pissed myself laughing and she didn't laugh once. Hmm...in hindsight my gf probably didn't laugh because it was my film choice that week and I didn't take the hint...our next film pick was her's and it was French Kiss....yeah, so I cock blocked myself at age 14, basically....I had to wait a full 'nother year to score when we were both drunk after a party. God bless the UK! What an absolute shit show...
Yeah. I was working for a medical supply company at the time. I had all my friends watching it. We’d show up the next morning and talk about all the gags.
Dude!!! Same here! Can't remember if it was 6th or 7th but definitely Jr High! It was just me and my dad at the time and we watched it whenever we could & like you; we were dyin!
That time he hosted SNL, he said as much. I can't remember exactly how it said it, but basically, he said he was a serious actor who got paid to say and do silly things and somehow, that worked.
When i see him in movies he made before police squad and airplane i can't take him seriously 😂 he always has that sly grin and looks like he is taking the piss lol
My most favourite scene of all time is when Drebin does everything humanly possible to sneak around Ludwig's apartment without leaving behind one single trace - the chair imprint in the carpet, the house of cards still intact...and then he ends up smashing the complete collection of antique vases, tearing up the painting and almost burning the entire building to the ground.
The whole baseball scene was glorious and i know the 3rd installment wasnt as good as previous 2 but its oscars scene was just as great as the baseball scene from the 1st movie.
"Look it's Enrico Palazzo". When I saw it in the theatres that line had me in stiches. By that point in the movie you had forgotten completely about him singing the national anthem before the game.
I was 12 when The Naked Gun hit the theaters. My Dad took me. I was just about that point in life when I started to catch on to adult humor. He and I both laughed so hard throughout that entire movie I know we missed some things and by the end our guts literally hurt. Everyone in the theater was practically on the floor by the end. It was something to be a part of that initial release of the first Naked Gun. Had an effect on my outlook on life forever since then - 34 years later I still don't take much in life very seriously.
Finland is notorious in translating movie titles to cooooompletely different what they actually are. It was at it's worse during the video movie rental boom in the 80's. "Airplane!" was translated "Hei! Me lennetään!" which is "Hey! We are flying!" :D
@@ECO473 Yes! Good for him for doing something like this... I know he got a paycheck, but he didn't have to do that. He was really in a resurgence of fame at that time.
And wasn't one of the guest stars who got killed in the opening credits Robert Goulet, who would play the bad guy Quentin Hapsburg in Naked Gun 2 The Smell of Fear?
I loved Police Squad. I could watch that show all day. I was heartbroken when it was cancelled. But, in the years since, I've come to understand that Police Squad's type of genius can never be sustained long-term. Still, it's a classic show.
I think I mentioned the same thing somewhere you cannot grind out TV shows and keep the level up and sometimes it's just better to do one or two and be remembered as being great...although Letterkenny has managed to be consistent over what 10 years. has it been that long?
@@stickinthemud23 Hardly...off the top of my head... Bill Burr Robin Williams Richard Prior Bob Odenkirk Eddie Murphy .... ok that took about 20 seconds
Brillant spoof comedy shows & films with great deadpan comic timing & delivery, so many great gags, one of the best Police Squad! gags I remember was Frank as the boxing promoter asking his trainee boxer about an upcoming fight challenge. Frank "so do you think you can really beat the reigning champ in 12 rounds?" Boxer "I could easily beat him whilst wearing a blindfold!" Frank "yeah but what if he decides not to wear one." 😂😂 Hilarious!
For years I've been thinking about getting Police Squad on DVD for my grandson & Stam, this vid just convinced me to do it.Really like your channel. Thanks!
I watched the first Police Squad episode on the internet not long ago, some forty years after seeing it on television. Has the birthday party at the beginning. Later I found out the original used "The Birthday Song" which is copyrighted. So when it became available on compact disk, they had dubbed in "Something Different" which was even funnier than the original.
I was in high school when this series ran in 81 or 82. One of the most hilarious experiences I've ever had, to this day! This was a great retrospective!
Ed: I sent the note to the lab. They’re demanding one million dollars. Frank: Why would the lab demand a million dollars? In the legendary Hungarian overdub Frank's response was much funnier: -So far they've worked for free. 😂
I remember being around 13 and my mum bought me The Naked Gun on VHS. She just told me “Airplane was golden but try this, you’ll love it.” Even at 13 I got the gags and I’ve never laughed so hard at a movie since Airplane! Frank urinating at the press conference with his Mic still on had me on the floor in stitches, Frank and Jane making love while dressed in full body sized condoms, the airbags in his car going off and inflating so over the top that it knocks the car into drive and down the hill while he’s shootings at it while asking “Did anyone get the licence plate? Did anyone get a look at the driver?”, and when he sent Nordberg flying over the railings at the baseball game right at the end, to name but a great many number of gags. I loved the sequels, albeit they seemed like carbon copies of the first one I still found them funny as hell. Leslie Nielsen, was, and still is, a comedy icon
Wow, this show was brilliant. I was a young kid when it first arrived, you're right every re-watch unearths another comedic gem. Thanks for this, it made my day.
I actually watched these when they were on TV because I had seen and loved Airplane! I couldn't understand how it wasn't the biggest thing going while MASH was still limping along. Later I was delighted when they made The Naked Gun.
My wife and I saw them before we saw Airplane... and loved them. So disappointed it ended. We saw it cold and it was so funny that we knew it wouldn't be a hit. To much attention needed to be paid.
Can you imagine the laughs they had while making these movies. What a job THAT would have been! I don't know how they got their lines out, they were so funny! 😂😂
Thank god for Zucker, Abram, Zucker, and the Monty Pythons (oh, and Mel Brooks ^^)! Their absurd humour is otherworldly :) And I hadnt paid attention to "Top Secret"! yet, thanks for the pointer, I'll most definitely have a look at a young Val Kilmer in such a movie :)
I enjoyed Top Secret. It is not quite as good as the Charlie Sheen "Hot Shots" movies, but well worth the watch. There are some "musical" parts, but that is because Val Kilmer's character is a Rock singer and that is the angle used as part of the plot.
The singing and dancing parts were brilliant as they were completely taking the piss out of Elvis movies. When the old violinists starting smashing their instruments and his reworking of "Are you lonesome tonight" that was icing on the cake.
Leslie Nielsen had a brother named Erik Nielsen who was a very well known politician in Canada. Erik Nielsen had a reputation for being very taciturn with the media, which earned him the name "Velcro Lips". I always found it interesting that two brothers could have such different lives.
Saw Airplane! when it came out, remembered Zero Hour and Airport from my youth, just about the funniest parody I'd ever seen.. In 1982 we had no television, no washing machine, so took our dirty clothes to washateria to watch their TV and do the clothes. I had read about Police Squad so we did that each week on the nights it was on. Police Squad was certainly the best tv comedy along side the Andy Griffith show and Seinfeld
*imagine if the andy griffith show had been done in the style of police squad or Airplane... in some alternate reality along the multiverse it probably was...and we're stuck in this one ...booo*
Comedy gold! As far as I’m concerned, Nordberg’s shootout scene in the Naked Gun and the “drinking problem” in Airplane are the funniest gags in cinema.
I remember when this showed originally aired, we thought is was the funniest thing ever, and I still do. What makes it so funny is the actors play is straight, parody of the police procedurals. I jokes and gags come so fast, you really have to pay attention.
Abosolutely brilliant, hilarious show. That was a 17 minute video packed with the best parts, and you could easily pack twice that length. He must have had a hard time chosing what to include.
1:50 "Apart from this guy" .... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ... you made my day. I remember when the movie first came out, I was thinking the exact same thing way back then.
loved the show and, now, have seen all, of the too-few episodes. I don't understand the reason it wasn't an hit. It took until "Airplane", tp grasp/embrace the humour? Thank-you, so much, for doing this!
I still can't believe only 6 episodes were ever made of Police Squad. Every one a complete jem. Alan North was the perfect foil for me. He played it perfectly straight.
My Dad and I didn't have a lot in common, but a sense of humor was one thing we shared. We were both heartbroken when Police Squad was cancelled. During the short time it was on, it was the funniest show on TV, by a wide margin. 5:09 Adding "In Color" to the title still makes me laugh. By the end of the premier's show's opening credits I was already in love.
It was likely before your time, but before the mid-1960s almost everything on TV was in black & white. The networks would run a bit of animation before the rare color episode or movie to let you know what you were missing: "The following program is brought to you in living color by NBC." (CBS & ABC had their own versions.) In the mid 60's more and more shows were being produced in color; rather than run that animation constantly, it was scaled back to an "In Color" graphic at the show's beginning. Once *everything* was in color there was no need to point it out anymore - which of course is why "Police Squad! (In Color)" did!
*Airplane!* *Top Secret!* *The Naked Gun* *Hot Shots!* All those movies by Zucker brothers and Abraham I watched them all as a kid and loved every second of it.
Just saw this video for the first time. It's really well done and entertaining in its own right. The slammin' Stams down under have a little gem here worth watching. With respect, I should know, as together with my partners in comedy crime, I produced Police Squad and the three Naked Gun movies. At the start of my career, I produced serious training films for the LAPD. To act in some of these, I drafted friends David, Jim and Jerry (ZAZ, respectively...or is it, Jerry, Jim and David?...Hmmm...maybe SF can clear that up in a prequel to this Police Squad!/TNG video.
An absolute honor to have you post here, Mr. Weiss. I was born in 1959 and have watched a lotta TV (way too much TV, that is) in my life…but Police Squad! still takes the crown as the funniest TV series ever.
Police Squad was just too good. Used to watch this with my mum. And we both would be in tears for at least an hour after the episode finished!! Thanks Stam for reminding me of some good times!!! Maybe you could do something on Sledgehammer (i think it was called) another cop show that I felt was birthed from Police Squad
"Sledge Hammer" was a Dirty Harry spoof. It had its moments but it was no "Police Squad! (In Color)." The one gag I remember was him pulling a bazooka out of his car trunk and firing at a building the bad guys were hiding in...and the show cut to a controlled demolition video of the entire building collapsing!
Great background gag in the first one. Just as Drebin goes in the hospital ward to see Nordberg, you hear a doctor say to a woman. " Well madam we managed to save your husbands arm, where would you like it sent" 😅😅😅
The best back-handed compliment ever given out by someone in TV was given to Police Squad when the reason given for cancelling it was, "it doesn't work because people have to pay attention to the TV to get it."
U need pause and rewind to view the shows
Spot on!
Yes.
@@clayz1Back when VCRs were first making the scene - I remember rewinding the video to catch the "toe truck" sight gag I missed
And he was right. The ratings were bad because people weren't paying attention so they missed half the jokes.
"Married, one child. That didn't work out so he married a grown woman."
Man, that literally made me break into hysterics.
don't fire the gun while you're talking
was the best line ever so deadpan yet made sense
That was deep bro lol
"Married, one child..."
That joke! I always found it simultaneously hilarious and arousing...
@@moistmike4150 Excuse me, but what?!!
“We would have come earlier but your husband wasn’t dead then.” That one just got me. The perfect delivery out of nowhere, I burst out laughing.
"Who are you and how did you get in here?"
"I'm a locksmith and I'm a locksmith."
Same here, that was hilarious
Good call. That might be #1
I see where trump and his gang of idiots got their inspiration. He is not funny, however.
Was that the same scene when they were trying to come up with something for the widow to tell their kids? "I know - he was traded to the Dodgers for Reggie Jackson!" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 etc!
'...and don't call me Shirley, Is probably one of the most well known lines in the history of comedy.
This is TEN TIMES funnier then what passes as comedy today
That old chestnut predates you ;-)
My favorite was always the special guest star. 😂🤣
I like how ALMOST every cast member is described as “probably not a double murderer”.
Yeah. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that he probably thinks OJ is guilty.
Yes, killed it!
Except for the double murderer.
Wait...why did he say that about ALMOST every cast member?🤔 🧤🗡️
My best friends father was Alan North who got second billing on Police Squad. He was a hard working character actor who played second fiddle in movies and television for decades. We all thought that Police Squad was going to be the big break that he so richly deserved, but alas...it was way too ahead of it's time. It's wonderful to see him get the recognition. Thank you.
Spot on Leslie, way too ahead of it's time
Very cool!
I liked him in see no evil, hear no evil. A criminally underrated movie.
Wasn’t he in Highlander, also as a police chief?
"Too ahead of it's time". Oh yes. In italian: "troppo avanti per i tempi". Vanguard is wonderful but... painful.
Top secret is a criminally underrated movie!
I've recommended Top Secret to friends who were looking to watch a comedy they had never seen before. Better Off Dead with John Cusack is another one.
@@thatcanadian6698 "Better off dead" is hilarious!!
Nick: can I take a swing of this?
Chocolate Mousse: go right ahead
Nick: *spits* what is this stuff?
Chocolate Mousse: Gasoline. Muahahahahhaa *gulp gulp gulp*
I die everytime.
the underwater fight scene and the scene filmed backwards are iconic
True - and so is _Amazon Women on the Moon_ It was inspired by KFM but I don't know if ZAZ had anything to do with it.
Either way it's in the same vein as what we're all enjoying w/this yt video
I remember crying ,nearly dying,tears running down my cheeks ,watching some of the gags Frank did .
Thanks for the memories .
Leslie Nielsen really mastered the art of remaining serious while doing comedy.
Just delivering every line with so much conviction.
Are you still around by chance?
@@gamoratitan Yes?
@@gamoratitan No thanks.
And O.J had other type of conviction.
the fact that Adam West is the closest Second says alot.
Fun fact; John Belushi filmed a “dead guest star” bumper for Police Squad just prior to his own untimely end. I don’t believe that it aired. Thanks for your mini-doc. The four episodes that aired are still the best version in my book. The movies were ok in comparison, with the first far outranking the next two which suffered from the deadly “let’s make Frank funny” thinking that likewise killed the last two Peter Sellers Pink Panther films.
I remember watching The Naked Gun downstairs on HBO with my friend and we were laughing so much that my mom yelled for us to keep it down because "nothing is that funny!"
She was wrong.
Hey are you still around?
Can you imagine 2 or 3 full seasons of Leslie Nielsen in his prime? Dear god that would be glorious. But the show didnt fail because the audience didnt get it. Audience actually loved it, one tv exec didnt get and he got it cancelled.
Or is it the TV exec thought audiences wouldn't get it because he underestimated the intelligence of audiences. It seems to me a lot of management in show biz do that, particularly if their eye is more on potential profit than craftsmanship.
I was 12 when it was on. My friend Shaun and I would call each other during the show and laugh our asses off. That exec was an imbecile. I always felt it worked better as a TV show because it was parodying TV shows.
@@markpostgate2551 it's based on you'll never go broke misunderestimating the American public. Not you,but the TV guy.
It's one of those things I do not think you could maintain for three seasons it would be very difficult to keep coming up with stuff like that without returning to formula this is one of these cases where it is what it is enjoy it because it's perfect
People want to tell you television used to better but for get about brilliant but cancelled shows like this.
Maybe most people weren’t ready for Police Squad, but I was. I was in 7th grade, and me, my brother and my dad loved it, and laughed our asses off every week. My poor mom. Until it got canceled. That was a drag, so I was really happy to find it at the video store years later, finally getting to see the two episodes they never aired. When the Naked Gun came out, me and my brother and a buddy went to see it, and I know I’ve never laughed so hard and so much at a movie before. We all did. Forget a reboot, though, without Leslie Neilson, it wouldn’t be Frank Drebin. Love your videos, man, great work!
Leslie Nielson!!
I would've been about the same age as you when I first saw Police Squad!, it was played in the Sunday morning slot here in the UK at the time, so deliberately directed at children (god knows why, there's some adult themes in it). Anyway, my brother and I would watch it and piss ourselves laughing and my mum would turn to us and say "I don't get it". The jokes aren't amazingly complicated but for whatever reason she just couldn't understand why it was funny. A similar phenomena happened when I went to see Ace Ventura with my gf (at the time, circa 1995) and I pissed myself laughing and she didn't laugh once. Hmm...in hindsight my gf probably didn't laugh because it was my film choice that week and I didn't take the hint...our next film pick was her's and it was French Kiss....yeah, so I cock blocked myself at age 14, basically....I had to wait a full 'nother year to score when we were both drunk after a party. God bless the UK! What an absolute shit show...
Yeah. I was working for a medical supply company at the time. I had all my friends watching it. We’d show up the next morning and talk about all the gags.
for sure
Dude!!! Same here! Can't remember if it was 6th or 7th but definitely Jr High! It was just me and my dad at the time and we watched it whenever we could & like you; we were dyin!
"Police Squad!" was the greatest thing ZAZ ever did and one of the funniest things ever put on a screen. It's amazing.
it was way a head of its time and the funniest comedy for the time it on only 6 episodes.
Leslie wasn't a comedian, he was a great actor who could act like a great comedian
That time he hosted SNL, he said as much. I can't remember exactly how it said it, but basically, he said he was a serious actor who got paid to say and do silly things and somehow, that worked.
Screwball comedies require a serious delivery.
His deadpan style made the role.
Great actors have often stated that Comedy is the hardest thing to do in acting.
When i see him in movies he made before police squad and airplane i can't take him seriously 😂 he always has that sly grin and looks like he is taking the piss lol
“Who are you, and how’d you get in here?”
“I’m a locksmith…and, I’m a locksmith.”
My favorite line ever.
Possibly the best comedy line ever written.
My most favourite scene of all time is when Drebin does everything humanly possible to sneak around Ludwig's apartment without leaving behind one single trace - the chair imprint in the carpet, the house of cards still intact...and then he ends up smashing the complete collection of antique vases, tearing up the painting and almost burning the entire building to the ground.
I loved the “Bingo” gag.
And the subsequent dressing down from the mayor for offences including "sexual assault with a concrete dildo"
all to the diegetic rag on a player piano. th-cam.com/video/IkmBXdyL8sw/w-d-xo.htmlsi=gqdSrm9HZa6KS1Rx&t=115
Frank singing the star spangled banner at a baseball game was one of the funniest movie scenes ever.
The whole baseball scene was glorious and i know the 3rd installment wasnt as good as previous 2 but its oscars scene was just as great as the baseball scene from the 1st movie.
You mean to say that it wasn't Enrico Pallazzo?
Nah, you got it wrong, that was Enrico Palazzo!
"Look it's Enrico Palazzo". When I saw it in the theatres that line had me in stiches. By that point in the movie you had forgotten completely about him singing the national anthem before the game.
"A bunch of bombs in the air!"
Airplane and The Naked Gun are still my top 20 comedies, you can watch them now and still be hilarious…..Thank you Zucker, Zucker and Nielsen 🤙🏾
Lol, that's Nielsen-class😂
"these 2 movies are my top 20"
I see what you did there, respect👌
Kentucky Fried Moved made 1977!
Call Zucker,Zucker and Nielsens law office
Only problem with NG is there is a future killer in it.
@@sha11235 that's not really a problem with NG now is it? Or are you saying they should've known and used another actor?
I Shirley missed this show. RIP Lesley.
I think Shirley has hacked your account.
I missed the show, but why are you doing here, Shirley?
But Shirley your name isn’t Christian then!
@@MacXpert74 😂
STOP CALLING ME SHIRLEY!
'jane your hurting me' is my favourite line from the films when jane is holding franks arm. the series was amazing for me growing up
"Who are you?? How did you get in here??"
"I'm a locksmith... and I'm a locksmith."
comedy brilliance
I was 12 when The Naked Gun hit the theaters. My Dad took me. I was just about that point in life when I started to catch on to adult humor. He and I both laughed so hard throughout that entire movie I know we missed some things and by the end our guts literally hurt. Everyone in the theater was practically on the floor by the end. It was something to be a part of that initial release of the first Naked Gun. Had an effect on my outlook on life forever since then - 34 years later I still don't take much in life very seriously.
same for me...laughed so my stomage was hurting...so fun
It was definitely a gut buster.
Great comment
I understand.
Explains why you have been divorced three times.
You should go to The Blue Note, and drink your troubles away.
Surely you can’t be serious?
“Who are you and how did you get in here?”
“I’m a locksmith. And I’m a locksmith.”
Hands down of the best jokes ever written.
I still quote this all the time after 30 odd years,best deadpan line ever👍
@@GG-ml3vr the show is so quotable! Ill also randomly say 'what if hes not blindfolded!?!'
So how did he, by car
Sadly a reboot wouldn't work without Leslie. He was a great actor and funny guy. The world has lost a wonderful man.
Sledgehammer was a decent copy of Police Squad! So it's possible, just very unlikely.
I don't know. I think Steve Martin could pull it off.
@@davidhall2197 possible
@@davidhall2197 No, it would have to be a straight actor. They tried The Pink Panther with Steve Martin and it was awful.
@@mrchopsticks3 I see your point. Have any ideas?
This series' quick cancellation was one of the greatest tragedies in television history!
"Drebin."
"Frank!"
"You're both right."
Finland is notorious in translating movie titles to cooooompletely different what they actually are. It was at it's worse during the video movie rental boom in the 80's. "Airplane!" was translated "Hei! Me lennetään!" which is "Hey! We are flying!" :D
Here in Brazil Airplane was named "Apertem os cintos o piloto sumiu!" which translates to "Fasten your seat belts the pilot has gone missing!"
love the references to "... who probably isn't a double-murderer..."
and then when you show the actual double-murderer, you show his prisoner number.
I was very sad when Police Squad was cancelled but am grateful for the 3 movies it spawned.
Love the cameo appearances of guest Stars at the beginning of each Police Squad episode where they are instantly killed in inventive ways !!!
The Shatner cameo was just platinum!
@@ECO473 Yes! Good for him for doing something like this... I know he got a paycheck, but he didn't have to do that. He was really in a resurgence of fame at that time.
And wasn't one of the guest stars who got killed in the opening credits Robert Goulet, who would play the bad guy Quentin Hapsburg in Naked Gun 2 The Smell of Fear?
@@mm-gl7sz Yes, that was Goulet.
I was 10 years old when Police Squad! first aired. Me and my friends loved every minute of it and were devastated when it was cancelled.
I loved Police Squad. I could watch that show all day. I was heartbroken when it was cancelled. But, in the years since, I've come to understand that Police Squad's type of genius can never be sustained long-term. Still, it's a classic show.
I think I mentioned the same thing somewhere you cannot grind out TV shows and keep the level up and sometimes it's just better to do one or two and be remembered as being great...although Letterkenny has managed to be consistent over what 10 years. has it been that long?
Hey are you still around?
@@gamoratitan unfortunately
@@hankkingsley9300 Would you be interested in a Naked Gun fanfic?
@@gamoratitan what is wrong with you
"Top Secret" is one of the funniest movies ever. I laughed so hard the first time... but also the other times! So many memorable scenes.
"Our surgeon's did their best, but it took them 5 hours, just to remove the smile from his face"
Is this the potato farm...yes I am Albert potato and don't mind him he's a little horse 🐴
Leslie Nielsen is truly unique.
No other actor in history ever went from all drama to all comedy.
Much easier than going the other direction.
@@stickinthemud23 Hardly...off the top of my head...
Bill Burr Robin Williams Richard Prior Bob Odenkirk Eddie Murphy ....
ok that took about 20 seconds
William Shatner - often in the same episode.
Brillant spoof comedy shows & films with great deadpan comic timing & delivery, so many great gags, one of the best Police Squad! gags I remember was Frank as the boxing promoter asking his trainee boxer about an upcoming fight challenge.
Frank "so do you think you can really beat the reigning champ in 12 rounds?"
Boxer "I could easily beat him whilst wearing a blindfold!"
Frank "yeah but what if he decides not to wear one." 😂😂
Hilarious!
No one can ever play Frank Drebin the way that Leslie Neilsen did. He was the best of the best!!!
What about Don Rickles
@@stevenford727 No. Rickles, while a legend in his own right, couldn't pull off the level of obtuseness that Nielsen did.
@@ECO473 Jonathan Winters could have been a candidate for this role.
@@stevenford727 Yes, Winters could have made it work assuming they wanted a pure comedian.
Give Jason Bateman another 10 years and we may be looking at an actor worthy of filling Leslie's shoes.
"Cigarette?"
"Yes, I know."
"Well...." 😂
For years I've been thinking about getting Police Squad on DVD for my grandson & Stam, this vid just convinced me to do it.Really like your channel. Thanks!
It's recently been put out on blu-ray. 🤩🥰
I bought the set!
To Grandson may not like it and think you are losing your mind and have you sent to a nursing home.
I watched the first Police Squad episode
on the internet not long ago, some forty years
after seeing it on television. Has the birthday party
at the beginning. Later I found out the original
used "The Birthday Song" which is copyrighted.
So when it became available on compact disk, they had dubbed
in "Something Different" which was even funnier than the original.
"It took me two weeks to find Stella's apartment. She had neglected to give me her address." Absolutely slaughters me every time.
12:57 They left out the commissioner's best line: "You killed five actors, Frank! GOOD ONES!"
"Airplane" is the one movie that makes me sad that I can only see it for the first time once. 😂
What an amazingly loving summary! LOVED that show! "We would have been here sooner, but your husband wasn't dead yet."
One of my favorite movie trilogies. Especially the parade scene.😂😂😂😂
Airplane is my favorite movie of all time. I can watch it from start to finish at any time
No DVD collection is complete without this series in it. 40 years on and still busting out tears from laughing
I was in high school when this series ran in 81 or 82. One of the most hilarious experiences I've ever had, to this day! This was a great retrospective!
Ed: I sent the note to the lab. They’re demanding one million dollars.
Frank: Why would the lab demand a million dollars?
In the legendary Hungarian overdub Frank's response was much funnier:
-So far they've worked for free.
😂
I remember being around 13 and my mum bought me The Naked Gun on VHS. She just told me “Airplane was golden but try this, you’ll love it.” Even at 13 I got the gags and I’ve never laughed so hard at a movie since Airplane! Frank urinating at the press conference with his Mic still on had me on the floor in stitches, Frank and Jane making love while dressed in full body sized condoms, the airbags in his car going off and inflating so over the top that it knocks the car into drive and down the hill while he’s shootings at it while asking “Did anyone get the licence plate? Did anyone get a look at the driver?”, and when he sent Nordberg flying over the railings at the baseball game right at the end, to name but a great many number of gags. I loved the sequels, albeit they seemed like carbon copies of the first one I still found them funny as hell. Leslie Nielsen, was, and still is, a comedy icon
You hit the nail on the head top shows of all time. Seems that the people don't have the same ideas of what is funny.
"We would have come earlier but your husband wasn't dead then" is one of my favourite comedy lines.
Wow, this show was brilliant. I was a young kid when it first arrived, you're right every re-watch unearths another comedic gem. Thanks for this, it made my day.
I watched "Police Squad" with my family when I was a kid, and we all laughed SO hard every week. ❤️
Police Squad..totally underrated totally laugh out loud. In the comedy greats baby❤
I actually watched these when they were on TV because I had seen and loved Airplane! I couldn't understand how it wasn't the biggest thing going while MASH was still limping along. Later I was delighted when they made The Naked Gun.
My wife and I saw them before we saw Airplane... and loved them. So disappointed it ended.
We saw it cold and it was so funny that we knew it wouldn't be a hit. To much attention needed to be paid.
Thanks for sharing. Checked out the TV series after seeing the first feature on home video. Some funny stuff. Shawn R., Mo-Mutt Music/Sacred & Secular
14:30. Best gag in the whole series! I wish it circulated more widely!! George Kennedy's delivery was ALWAYS perfect, WHAT a sport!!
Airplane was the beginning of a new comedy era and I am glad that I was there for the beginning.
Can you imagine the laughs they had while making these movies. What a job THAT would have been! I don't know how they got their lines out, they were so funny! 😂😂
I was 16 turning 17 when Police Squad came out and never laughed so hard in my life!!
Nobody got it it was a little too much for the time.
The airplane movies were toned down a bit...but goddamn I loved Police Squad.
The comedy in naked gun is timeless. Silly but just serious enough lol
"I *promise* you we won't rest until we find out who did this. Now let's go get a bite to eat."
Thank god for Zucker, Abram, Zucker, and the Monty Pythons (oh, and Mel Brooks ^^)! Their absurd humour is otherworldly :)
And I hadnt paid attention to "Top Secret"! yet, thanks for the pointer, I'll most definitely have a look at a young Val Kilmer in such a movie :)
Top Secret was, unfortunately, not that great! Way too much singing and dancing, among other things...A few gags were really excellent though!
I enjoyed Top Secret. It is not quite as good as the Charlie Sheen "Hot Shots" movies, but well worth the watch. There are some "musical" parts, but that is because Val Kilmer's character is a Rock singer and that is the angle used as part of the plot.
The singing and dancing parts were brilliant as they were completely taking the piss out of Elvis movies. When the old violinists starting smashing their instruments and his reworking of "Are you lonesome tonight" that was icing on the cake.
In times like these that's what we need! Great Leslie Nielsen!
my aunt here in Canada lives in the house Leslie lived in when he was born until he was about 4 years old & then they moved ☺
Leslie Nielsen had a brother named Erik Nielsen who was a very well known politician in Canada. Erik Nielsen had a reputation for being very taciturn with the media, which earned him the name "Velcro Lips". I always found it interesting that two brothers could have such different lives.
As a child of the 80's, I am the grateful recipient of Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker's work!
Saw Airplane! when it came out, remembered Zero Hour and
Airport from my youth, just about the funniest parody I'd ever seen..
In 1982 we had no television, no washing machine, so took
our dirty clothes to washateria to watch their TV and do the clothes.
I had read about Police Squad so we did that each week on the nights
it was on. Police Squad was certainly the best tv comedy along side the
Andy Griffith show and Seinfeld
*imagine if the andy griffith show had been done in the style of police squad or Airplane... in some alternate reality along the multiverse it probably was...and we're stuck in this one ...booo*
I remember watching Naked Gun 2 1/2 after my parents rented the film, one of the biggest laughs I remember having at the time.
Comedy gold!
As far as I’m concerned, Nordberg’s shootout scene in the Naked Gun and the “drinking problem” in Airplane are the funniest gags in cinema.
6:37 "Act II: Bruté" still slays me. :-D
Oh they did puns on “Act II” in every episode:
ACT II: YANKEES ONE
ACT II: GESUNDHEIT
ACT II: LIEBER
+ two others I forget.
I think the best scene in Naked Gun 33 1/3 is the beginning recreating the train station scene in the Untouchables'.
I've obviously been missing a load of Stam Fine uploads! Airplane and its brethren are an extraordinary bunch - thank you for featuring them!
I remember when this showed originally aired, we thought is was the funniest thing ever, and I still do. What makes it so funny is the actors play is straight, parody of the police procedurals. I jokes and gags come so fast, you really have to pay attention.
I remember Police Squad, it was, and still is one of the funniest TV shows I've ever seen!
As usual, an excellent presentation. (I especially liked the joke about the UB40 vinyl).......
Hands-down one of the best spoof TV show and movie ever invented right next to Airplane and anything Mel brooks made
I loved them all, the television productions, the movies, Airplane, Police Squad, The Naked Gun...they were stupid, crazy, and fun🤣🤣🤣
The perfect narration for some of the best comedy ever written. 👌
Nielsen was a legend he was a classical style actor and to embrace this idiocy for a new take on a career was epic
Excellent summary
Great fun to watch and learnt more about the series
Abosolutely brilliant, hilarious show. That was a 17 minute video packed with the best parts, and you could easily pack twice that length. He must have had a hard time chosing what to include.
Myself and my eldest still do that fake freeze-frame ending (at weddings and such). Feels great when both of us are told to GROW UP at the same time!
"Say when."
@@douglasdavis8395 "Whe"
"Hey buddy, no sax before a fight". Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Genius!
1:50 "Apart from this guy" .... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ... you made my day. I remember when the movie first came out, I was thinking the exact same thing way back then.
loved the show and, now, have seen all, of the too-few episodes. I don't understand the reason it wasn't an hit. It took until "Airplane", tp grasp/embrace the humour? Thank-you, so much, for doing this!
I watched every episode of this show.I loved it because they went out of their way to pull you into the joke.I miss it.
It was great
- Who are you and how did you get here?
- I'm a locksmith. And I'm a locksmith.
Police Squad will never ever be old or boring, theres something for everyone, except for the humourless 😅
Thanks for the Video Stam! Really enjoyed it!
I still can't believe only 6 episodes were ever made of Police Squad. Every one a complete jem. Alan North was the perfect foil for me. He played it perfectly straight.
I totally agree ♠️ also are you a relative of mine...my name is Andrew Belshaw from the north of England and their are hundreds of us up here lol
These were hilarious. Re-watching nearly always brings a new humorous tidbit, missed on other watches. 😂😂
My Dad and I didn't have a lot in common, but a sense of humor was one thing we shared. We were both heartbroken when Police Squad was cancelled. During the short time it was on, it was the funniest show on TV, by a wide margin.
5:09 Adding "In Color" to the title still makes me laugh. By the end of the premier's show's opening credits I was already in love.
It was likely before your time, but before the mid-1960s almost everything on TV was in black & white. The networks would run a bit of animation before the rare color episode or movie to let you know what you were missing: "The following program is brought to you in living color by NBC." (CBS & ABC had their own versions.)
In the mid 60's more and more shows were being produced in color; rather than run that animation constantly, it was scaled back to an "In Color" graphic at the show's beginning. Once *everything* was in color there was no need to point it out anymore - which of course is why "Police Squad! (In Color)" did!
I'm 60 years old. I remember B&W TV and when it became color just fine, hence my amusement. @@joestrike8537
*Airplane!* *Top Secret!* *The Naked Gun* *Hot Shots!*
All those movies by Zucker brothers and Abraham I watched them all as a kid and loved every second of it.
Just saw this video for the first time. It's really well done and entertaining in its own right. The slammin' Stams down under have a little gem here worth watching. With respect, I should know, as together with my partners in comedy crime, I produced Police Squad and the three Naked Gun movies. At the start of my career, I produced serious training films for the LAPD. To act in some of these, I drafted friends David, Jim and Jerry (ZAZ, respectively...or is it, Jerry, Jim and David?...Hmmm...maybe SF can clear that up in a prequel to this Police Squad!/TNG video.
Thank you for the kind words, Mr Weiss. And thanks for these movies and shows!
@@StamFine I too was thinking it was really well done & entertaining... usually they're impossible to follow along
An absolute honor to have you post here, Mr. Weiss. I was born in 1959 and have watched a lotta TV (way too much TV, that is) in my life…but Police Squad! still takes the crown as the funniest TV series ever.
I'm not a lover of American comedy but the Naked Gun series is hilarious.
Police Squad was just too good. Used to watch this with my mum. And we both would be in tears for at least an hour after the episode finished!! Thanks Stam for reminding me of some good times!!!
Maybe you could do something on Sledgehammer (i think it was called) another cop show that I felt was birthed from Police Squad
"Sledge Hammer" was a Dirty Harry spoof. It had its moments but it was no "Police Squad! (In Color)." The one gag I remember was him pulling a bazooka out of his car trunk and firing at a building the bad guys were hiding in...and the show cut to a controlled demolition video of the entire building collapsing!
Great background gag in the first one. Just as Drebin goes in the hospital ward to see Nordberg, you hear a doctor say to a woman. " Well madam we managed to save your husbands arm, where would you like it sent" 😅😅😅
Great to see Police Squad getting the respect it deserves. It's really a ground breaking comedy.