A Perfect Storm Birthed COPS
Langley was also inspired by the poorly-received series American Vice: The Doping of a Nation – a show hosted by Geraldo Rivera that Langley had worked on. Despite the poor outcome of that show, Langley was able to come up with this new idea. At that time, Hollywood was suffering a Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike.
Source: Twitter
Networks were in dire need of unscripted programming. So, a sort of perfect storm birthed COPS. It’s safe to say that American television has never been the same since. Langley’s concept was technically simple, but no one seemed to share his enthusiasm. He was repeatedly told that no show would succeed without a narrator, music, or plot. (Ha. Little did they know.)