History Series / PoliceSquad

After the success of the movie ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' in 1980, Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker returned to TV, resulting in ''Police Squad!'' (Creator/{{ABC}}, 1982). A blatant parody of 1950s- through 1970s-vintage [[CopShow cop shows]] (specifically 1957's ''M Squad'' and practically every Quinn Martin Productions crime drama ever made -- ''Police Squad!'' even uses Creator/HankSimms, the announcer for many QM shows), this HalfHourComedy featured Creator/LeslieNielsen as Lt. Frank Drebin, and filled its half hour with an incredible panoply of fast-paced and hard-hitting puns, surreal non-sequiturs and over-the-top sight gags of the kind that had become familiar thanks to the ZAZ movies.

->''"My name is Sergeant Frank Drebin, Detective Lieutenant, Police Squad. There'd been a recent wave of gorgeous fashion models found naked and unconscious in laundromats on the West Side. Unfortunately, I was assigned to investigate holdups of neighborhood credit unions. I was across town doing my laundry when I got the call on the double killing. It took me twenty minutes to get there. My boss was already on the scene."''

** Johnny the shoeshine, Drebin's (and indeed the entire city's) sole informant. Not only does he seem to know literally everything about everyone, but he'll also have the documentary evidence in his pocket.

** In the first episode, every time he is shown in his car, Drebin has laundry in it, presumably on the lookout for the nude, unconscious fashion models that were being found in laundromats.

** While it didn't quite happen every episode, a few times Drebin and Hocken would step into an elevator, and then we'd see inside as they talked about the case. In the background, an unlikely passenger would enter, then the elevator doors would open to a setting that makes no sense for an elevator to be present, but makes sense with the outfit the passenger is wearing, who disembarks (A woman in a bathing suit who heads to a floor with a swimming pool, for example).

I'm gonna break his face.

** The first episode alone had a lengthy conversation that went like this. But what do you expect when you're investigating a double murder involving guys with names like Ralph Twice and Jim Fell? For extra fun, they throw in Phil Din, Once, and a hunch back at the office.
** Not to mention Sergeants Takeheraway and Booker.

* {{Cameo}}: In addition to the BodyOfTheWeek, many of the people who came to Johnny the Shoeshine Boy for advice, including Creator/DickClark and Dr. Joyce Brothers.

* {{Narrator}}

** Frank and Ed drive to Little Italy, which the projected background helpfully indicates by having the two drive away from the Colosseum.
*** And at their destination, you can clearly see the Leaning Tower of Pisa out the window.

* ExcitedShowTitle: The show's official title is written with an exclamation mark at the end, as if it's screaming the name at you.