Cop Rock: The Complete Series

It's about time all the snickering stops when it comes to this show. Watch the pilot and see that this was such an intense and excellent series. Give it a chance now that it's here. The 5 Randy Newman tunes in this are alone worth a listen, but the gritty cop story is SO compelling. I dare anyone not to have some strong emotions after seeing the last scene and that beautiful Newman lullaby.Take this show home. You will fall in love with it.

Cop Rock was ahead of its time. It had good drama, strong music, and decent acting. I was indeed one of the ten people who watched it eagerly for the weeks that it aired on TV. I loved it. Getting the DVD was a good choice as I relived the episodes. Two songs especially stand out, songs I've actually remembered all these years. One was a poignant ballad sung by guest star Kathleen Wilhoit (may be misspelling her name here) called "Sandman" that I think Randy Newman wrote. The other was a more dramatic "You Can't Keep a Good Man Down" as sung by Peter Onorati.The extra fun thing about this DVD set is a featurette with Stephen Bochco who still loves the show and believed in it all the way. There is another featurette with actress Anne Bobby who was quite enthusiastic in her memories of shooting the series.

They ALMOST got it right. So close. Don't get me wrong, even after all these years I love Cop Rock, and would always wistfully think back to when it aired, and admire their daring and groundbreaking attempt at musical drama for television. Now, all these years later, I'm thrilled that it's available on DVD (I wish a lot of other short-lived shows were also available!)... but the years haven't been as kind to Cop Rock as I remember.In my opinion, about 80% of this holds up, and if it were produced today, with today's sensibilities, I think it would be a massive hit the likes of Empire, Glee, et. al,. The problem I have is that Bochco and company didn't really take the genre of musical theater seriously, nor were they experienced in the subtleties the genre affords when blending music and drama. The musical numbers are played a bit too earnestly in cases, and sometimes, as in the "guilty" number from the pilot, they're removed from the "reality" of musical theater altogether when an attorney flips open his desk to reveal a lighted piano keyboard that he begins to play. In musical theatre, the audience is already ready to suspend belief and accept the fact that the songs are an extension of the dialogue and the characters don't believe they're singing to each other, rather expressing the feelings of information of the scene in a perfectly natural way. At those times, the underscore will move in under dialogue and the actors will transition into the song in a perfectly natural manner. In Cop Rock, however, Bochco abruptly jumps into a musical number and, as in the courtroom scene, loudly screams "Hey, we're doing a musical number now, in case you didn't know it, that's why the guy opened his desk to show us a piano, because this all isn't real!"That's a fatal error. Musicals never let the audience in on the gag, and they don't have to. Even the most bizarre of musical numbers, when played correctly within the context of a musical, will keep the audience engaged with belief suspended. Bochco doesn't give us that luxury here. And don't get me started on the farcical (and frankly, terrible) peformances of his wife Barbara as the city Mayor, and Ronny Cox as the police chief. Bochco has thrown oil and water together with the belief that it will all somehow mix together and it doesn't.There ARE moments of briiliance and one in particular that I remember all these years later from the pilot (as did a friend when I told him I bought the Cop Rock DVD), is the final scene and musical number where a drug-addicted mother sits with her baby on a bus bench, and sings a hauntingly beautiful song about how beautiful life will be soon, as she prepares to sell the baby for drug money. It's beautifully shot, and sung, and performed (with the exception of a moment near the end of the song when the actress starts the final chorus and it startles the baby, and the baby jumps in her arms, causing the actress to laugh, upon which she stares at the camera with a look that wonders if she should go on, or will they cut and start again?) I assume, because it was late in the day, they were losing their light, they were doing this all in one take, and the baby to that point had been extremely cooperative, that Bochco didn't yell cut. He should have. The look into the camera was one more indication that the musical aspect of Cop Rock didn't have the respect it deserved.All that to say, that even though it only lasted 11 episodes, all of which are included in this collection, it's still one of my favorite series of all time. I only wish it had been produced today, and by someone who knew how to produce musicals.

Peter Onorati acting, singing, dancing... What more can you ask for? The series is good stuff. Unfortunately the critics treated it as the "Nickelback" of those days. (I don't understood the Nickelback hate either, they rock!) It's a great price and has aged well. Deserved a more sincere evaluation by the critics.

OK, it's not perfect, but it was a bold thing to try, and most of the time they really got it right. The police drama was as you would expect from Steven Bochco, the really unpredictable adventure was the music. They covered almost every genre: soft rock, hard rock, ballads, country, gospel, rap, etc., and the standard was much higher than I expected.Some of the transitions between drama and music were a little clunky, but it was probably impossible to do it seamlessly every time - there is bound to be a bit of a disconnect. Also there can't be too many candidates for roles which require expertise in both acting and singing, but the cast were excellent. Overall it was great entertainment.One caveat for potential buyers outside Region 1: I have a couple of other Region 1 discs which play on my DVD players, but this doesn't, so instead of watching on the big TV in the lounge with a good sound system, I have to retreat to my study to play it on the computer. I understand why they introduced regional encoding for films to protect cinemas outside the US, but why use it on a TV series which was broadcast 26 years earlier?So five stars for content, zero stars for the regional encoding.

A very underrated series. It needs to be viewed as a Broadway musical rather than a TV show. It seems the singing and dancing made the show "unrealistic" for most of the viewers. I guess you could say the same about "Hamilton". Most of the music is strong (rock, rap and ballads) and the story lines (racist police officer, homelessness, rage in the ghetto) are quite contemporary. Considering this show was made before the Rodney King incident and the subsequent unrest the script was quite prescient.

This past Labor Day, I introduced a group of friends to Cop Rock, watching the whole thing end to end in one sitting.The show has held up remarkably well, and in, lack of smart phones and ubiquitous social media notwithstanding, is terrifyingly on point with current events. In today's market, I think the show would have succeeded, likely as a Netflix or Amazon series.And the finale is a remarkable piece of skill, wrapping up plot lines as much as possible, and deftly mirroring the events of the pilot, before ending in a fourth-wall breaking finale.

Been waiting a long time for this box set and paid a good price

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Been waiting for this release for years. Big fan of this show when it aired. Ahead of its time when you consider the success of Glee. Some great music and although the actors are not professional singers, their performances were superb!