An Unconventional Origin Story
Here’s something to ponder. When producer John Langley assigned camera crews to film “on location with the men and women of law enforcement,” for the COPS debut on Fox on March 11, 1989, The Simpsons was still eight months away from premiering, and Reagan had only been out of the White House under two months.
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John Langley and Malcolm Barbour conceived the idea of COPS while working on their 1983 documentary series Cocaine Blues. In the project’s research phase, Langley went on ride-alongs to several drug busts, which is what gave him the idea for COPS. He thought of creating a no-frills chronicle of police officers’ everyday encounters. The working title at that point was Street Beat.