"POLICE SQUAD!" - The Funniest TV Show of All Time

There are cult shows. There are funny shows. There are shows that changed the game. Police Squad! is all three. In fact, I’d go a step further, Police Squad! is the single funniest television series of all time.

That’s right. The funniest. Not The Office, not Arrested Development, not even SCTV or The Simpsons. Nope. Police Squad!, six episodes, that’s it, is pure Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker (ZAZ) perfection. And it changed the way comedy worked on television. Forever.

Origins of the Madness: ZAZ Takes On Cop Shows

Created by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker (the same trio who gave us Airplane!, Top Secret, and The Kentucky Fried Movie) Police Squad! was their attempt to take the rapid-fire sight gag and wordplay style of Airplane! and apply it to the world of television.

Specifically, to the staid and self-serious world of 1950s and '60s cop dramas like M Squad, Felony Squad, and The New Breed.

Leslie Nielsen, forever transformed from serious leading man to comic icon thanks to Airplane!, starred as Detective Frank Drebin, a no-nonsense, deadpan cop in a world gone gleefully insane.

Alan North played the perpetually exasperated Captain Hocken. Peter Lupus was Norberg (later Nordberg in the films). And then there was Ed Williams as Ted Olson, Ronald “Tiny Ron” Taylor as the headless-in-frame Al, and William Duell as Johnny the Shoeshine Informant.

Every single role played straight. Every single line delivered like it came from a gritty drama. And that’s what made it work.

Jokes Per Second: A Masterclass in Comedy Density

The brilliance of Police Squad! is that it demanded you watch. No half-listening while folding laundry. No zoning out for a scene or two. You had to pay attention, because every single frame, every single frame, had a visual gag, a sign joke, a pun, a surreal moment, or some wild twist on a tired TV trope.

Freeze-frame endings where the actors pretended to freeze, but coffee kept pouring or prisoners kept struggling. The fake episode titles that didn’t match the ones announced aloud.

The opening credits gag where a “special guest star” like Lorne Greene, William Shatner, or Florence Henderson would be immediately killed off. It was genius. It was daring. It was chaos disguised as structure. And it was glorious.

Too Smart for TV? ABC Blew It

And what did ABC do with this stroke of comedic brilliance? They put it up against Hill Street Blues (the most acclaimed, watched cop drama on television) and buried it after just four episodes. Two more were burned off in the summer. Six episodes total. That’s it.

They claimed audiences had to “pay attention” to get the jokes. Yeah. Imagine that, a TV show that expected viewers to watch it.

TV Guide later called that the dumbest reason ever given for canceling a show. They weren’t wrong.

But maybe it was too smart for 1982. There was no laugh track. No “audience sweetening.” No familiar sitcom rhythms. Just a relentless barrage of intelligence masquerading as stupidity. It was the American TV version of Monty Python, and nobody knew what to do with it.

From Cult Favorite to Box Office Hit: Enter “The Naked Gun”

Thankfully, Police Squad! didn’t die. It just mutated. In 1988, ZAZ turned the concept into a feature film: The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! , and Nielsen returned as Drebin.

George Kennedy replaced Alan North as Hocken. O.J. Simpson became Nordberg. And the film was a hit. A massive hit. So much so, it spawned two sequels (The Naked Gun 2½ and Naked Gun 33⅓) and the disappointing reboot that is currently in theaters with Liam Neeson.

The movies are funny, especially the first one. But here’s the truth: the original Police Squad! series is funnier. Funnier, weirder, and more consistently brilliant. The films had to adhere to a plot. The show didn’t. It was joke after joke, reference after reference, gag after gag. Six half-hour masterpieces.

Frank Drebin: From Serious Actor to Comic Legend

Before Airplane! and Police Squad!, Leslie Nielsen was a respected, serious actor (Forbidden Planet, The Poseidon Adventure, all that), but ZAZ saw something in him. That icy, authoritative delivery? Perfect for a man surrounded by insanity. He wasn’t trying to be funny. That’s what made him funny.

His deadpan delivery, saying lines like “Nothing to see here!” as a fireworks factory exploded behind him, became iconic. And it all started with Police Squad!.

Belushi, Guest Stars, and What Could’ve Been

One of the most inspired gags? The idea that John Belushi would appear as the “special guest star” in every episode and die in a different way during the opening credits.

Tragically, Belushi passed away just before the series aired, and the producers pivoted. But the idea? Hilarious. Twisted. Pure ZAZ.

Other bits were equally smart. Ted Olson explaining science with horrifying demonstrations. Johnny the Shoeshine getting tips from everyone from cops to ballet dancers to mob bosses. And those blink-and-you-miss-it background jokes that rewarded obsessive rewatching.

Legacy: Comedy That Changed the Rules

Police Squad! didn’t last, but its impact did. It paved the way for joke-dense comedies like The Simpsons, 30 Rock, Arrested Development, and the very funny distant cousin to Police Squad!, the brilliant Angie Tribeca.

It proved that comedy could be smart and stupid at the same time. That you could combine slapstick with satire, visual gags with sharp writing, and chaos with structure.

It’s one of the most influential shows in television history. And it’s only six episodes long.

Final Thoughts: The Six Funniest Episodes Ever Aired

I watched every episode of Police Squad! when it first aired. I recorded them on VHS. I watched them over and over and over. I still laugh. Out loud. Every single time.

And yeah, The Naked Gun is great. But the original Police Squad! series? That’s the gold standard.

So, if you’ve seen the new Naked Gun with Liam Neeson, or if you’re a fan of smart, ridiculous comedy in general, go back. Watch the source.

Experience the show that blew the doors off TV comedy, got canceled for being too clever, and still stands as one of the most creative, hilarious things ever broadcast.

Six episodes. That’s all we got. But oh man… what a six.

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