I am dead...and don't call me Shirley (Leslie Nielsen has passed)

exis

I remember loving him in Naked Gun when I was a little'un. Think I might see if I can track down a DVD set.

CaptainPeacock

Variable wrote: »

Vyolynce wrote: »

Alistair Hutton wrote: »

Thomamelas wrote: »

Athenor wrote: »

Man. Leslie Nielson...

I feel sad that I never knew there was a Police Squad TV show. Of course, it came out the year I was born, so it's not surprising... but yeah.

It was canceled well before it's time.

The tiny handful of episodes makes it all the more special, there is not a single bad second in Police Squad, not one frame is anything less than hilarious.

One of the directors' commentary tracks on the Naked Gun movies mentions that it was the sheer volume of sight gags in PS! that contributed to its cancellation. Apparently a lot of people didn't get most of the jokes because they weren't actually watching the show; like most TV, it was just on in the background.

in roger ebert's piece linked a few pages back nielson says something like 'it wasn't meant for TV because it had humor you had to pay attention to'

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Squad

Wikipedia wrote:

ABC announced the cancellation of Police Squad! after four of its six episodes had aired in March 1982. The final two episodes were aired that summer. According to the DVD Commentary, then-ABC entertainment president Tony Thomopoulos said "Police Squad! was cancelled because the viewer had to watch it in order to appreciate it."

Tomanta

Yeah, we wouldn't want people watching our TV shows.

Glad to see some things never change!

Variable

apparently they all had the same view of why it failed

and I'm sure they're all right

MetaHybrid

I don't know where I'll be then, Doc," he said, "but I won't smell too good, that's for sure."

Bionic Monkey

Man. Just... man.

I grew up with Leslie Nielson already old and gray haired, so somewhere in my mind, I just considered him an immortal and he'd always be around. I'm not the biggest fan of slapstick anymore, but damn if this man couldn't pull it off with panache.

Rhesus Positive

I dug up an episode of Police Squad! last night to show my girlfriend before bed. I warned her that there were lots of sight gags, but she still had her eyes closed for some of it. I told her that the show was cancelled because of people like her.

"I can beat him blindfolded!"
"He won't be wearing a blindfold."
"I can still beat him."

Alfred J. Kwak

Damn, hate to hear that, I really liked the guy

Gaddez

*raises a beer to the noble canadian actor*

Tomanta

I'm disappointed at Netflix's Nielsen streaming options. But I stuck Police Squad towards the top of my DVD queue since I haven't seen most of it.

chamberlain

This feels appropriate.

Vyolynce

Rhesus Positive wrote: »

I dug up an episode of Police Squad! last night to show my girlfriend before bed. I warned her that there were lots of sight gags, but she still had her eyes closed for some of it. I told her that the show was cancelled because of people like her.

We all do it to some extent, really. It's just the nature of what TV has become (and clearly has been for some time now). I wouldn't be surprised if it was a contributing factor to why a lot of shows get cancelled.

Alistair Hutton

Police Squad was practicallyto be watched in a darkened room with no distractions on the biggest screen you can get due to the number of sight gags and density of jokes.

Pretty much the opposite world to how people normally watch a television show.

Wulf

Must have had the fish...
Sad when one of my personal icons dies :cry:

Vyolynce

Alistair Hutton wrote: »

Police Squad was practicallyto be watched in a darkened room with no distractions on the biggest screen you can get due to the number of sight gags and density of jokes.

In other words, as a movie. Which they did three times.

Yougottawanna

NOOOOOOOOOO

two days late, but still

Yougottawanna

Oh yeah, Police Squad was brilliant

Frank Drebin questions a witness wrote:

Sally: I was right here at my desk, working.
Frank: And when was the first time you noticed something was wrong?
Sally: Well, when I first heard the shot, and as I turned, Jim fell.
Ed: He is the teller, Frank.
Frank: Jim Fell is the teller?
Sally: No, Jim Johnson.
Frank: Who's Jim Fell?
Ed: He is the owner, Frank.
Sally: He had the flu so Jim filled in.
Frank: Phil who?
Ed: Phil Inn, he's the night watchman.
Sally: If only Phil had been here.
Frank: Now wait a minute, let me get this straight. Twice came in and shot the teller and Jim Fell.
Sally: No he only shot the teller, Jim Johnson. Fell is ill.
Frank: Okay, then after he shot the teller you shot Twice.
Sally: No, I only shot once.
Ed: Twice is the hold-up man.
Sally: Then I guess I did shoot Twice.
Frank: Well, so now you are changing your story.
Sally: No I shot Twice after Jim fell.
Frank: You shot Twice and Jim Fell.
Sally: No, Jim fell first and then I shot Twice once.
Frank: Who fired twice?
Sally: Once!
Ed: He is the owner of the tire company, Frank.
Frank: Okay, now, Once is the owner of the tire company and he fired twice. Then Twice shot the teller once.
Sally: Twice.
Frank: And Jim Fell and then you fired Twice.
Sally: Once.
Frank: Okay, all right, that will be all for now, Ms Decker.
Ed: We will need you to make a formal statement down at the station.
Sally: Oh, of course.
Frank: You have been very helpful. We think we know how he did it.
Sally: Oh, Howie couldn't have done it, he hasn't been in for weeks.
Frank: Well. Thank you again, Ms Decker.
Frank: Weeks?
Ed: Saul Weeks. He is the controller, Frank.

ANTVGM64

My Dad and I don't have a lot in common. He enjoys gardening, working outdoors, and Locomotive Trains and I like Football, technology and keeping my hands soil free. Growing up this made it hard for us to bond. it wasn't a strained relationship by any stretch of the imagination, but it was still sort of hard growing up with a dad you really don't relate too.

Well, we both liked Sour Cream and Onion Chips.

Anyway, I was 7 or 8 when my dad was flipping through the channels and we came across this movie with OJ simpson in it. He was stuck under a bus. We. Were. Confused. Didn't he just kill someone?

It was one of the Naked Gun movies. This was my first introduction to comedy I can remember. Sure, there was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, dude, and Power Rangers, and I had never seen anything like this. A car? Driving through a dining room? What? Look at all the stuff going on in the background! Look! Look!

And my dad loved it too. He'd slap my leg or kind of playfully shove me at jokes, especially when the queen went face first into pie or that outfielder got hit by a car. And then we did the impossible and went to the video store and rented it so we could see it from the begining. past 7pm. to our shock that there were more of these movies was a delight to me. More of this? Yes Please! And we're buying chips? And Dip? What a holiday!

These were our movies. Leslie Neilsen movies. Naked Gun, Spy Hard, even Mr. Magoo. For those seven or eight hours that he was acting a ham on TV, I felt a little bit more like my dad's kid.

Thanks Leslie.

You da man.