Show Name: Police Academy: The Series (aka Police Academy: The Animated Series)
Directed By: Cosmo Anzilotti, Bill Hutton, Tony Love and Charles A. Nichols
Number of Seasons: 2 (65 episiodes)
Run Dates: September 10, 1988 to September 2, 1989
Introduction
Who does not remember the Police Academy movies. Even if you were not a fan of the movie franchise, you know about the film. If you do not know about the movie, you definitely know about the characters like Larvell Jones played by Michael Winslow.
However, I am sure very little people remember about this particular show. Again, it is a T.V. show that played at 4 pm after school everyday. I would watch it as I did like the movies. Well, I liked the first 3. After that lost interest in the franchise. Let us see how this show holds up after all these years.
Theme
The theme song sounds very late 80's. It is heavily inspired by the Rap / Hip Hop scene and was performed by The Fat Boys. They were very popular in the 80's. Here is the theme below.
Characters
Your favourite characters are back. Mahoney, Jones, Hightower, Laverne Hooks, Sweetchuck, and many others. I could go through the full list of characters but there are too many. I will take the descriptions from the Wikipedia page for this show.
Carey Mahoney – The most clever among the cadets. Mahoney is always ready to lend a hand to his companions. He is the patrol partner of Larvell Jones.
Larvell Jones – Mahoney's usual sidekick. He's a martial arts master, but his main talent is beatboxing – he is able to make every kind of noise (sirens, gunfire, helicopters, etc. ...).
Carl Sweetchuck – Sweetchuck is the most cowardly of the group. He is very accident prone and oblivious to the harm caused by his clumsiness. His patrol partner is Zed.
Zed McGlunk – Zed is the messy and unkempt member of the group. Zed usually drags his partner along in his wily and erratic pursuits.
Moses Hightower – Hightower is known for his great size and physical strength. His stature often comes into play when the characters find themselves in situations in which bars must be bent or walls need to smashed through. He is patrol partner with Laverne Hooks.
Laverne Hooks – Hooks is small, soft-spoken, and passive. However, she has shown herself capable of being extremely forceful and loud in situations in which she is provoked.
Thomas "House" Conklin – "House" is known for his large frame and his congenial nature. He is always hungry and proves himself to be cowardly. He patrols with Sweetchuck and Zed and often accompanies them in their escapades.
Eugene Tackleberry – Characterized by a pronounced jaw almost always wears glasses and helmet, is a weapons fanatic; has a weakness for his fellow patrol Callahan. Often uses the armored car of the police which he usually wrecks. Often uses a bazooka.
Debbie Callahan – Is the statuesque beauty of the group who is tough-as-nails and has a beautiful singing voice.
Capt. Thaddeus Harris – Always carries a walking stick and is almost always in the company of his sidekick Proctor. Often tries to humiliate the officers in order to gain a promotion, but fails miserably.
Sgt. Carl Proctor – Is Capt. Harris' idiotic lieutenant.
Capt. Ernie Mauser - Is a captain and head of the K-9 corps. He became good friends with Mahoney and his gang. He acts similar to Hurst when facing up to Harris' shenanigans.
Com. Eric Lassard – The easygoing and idealistic commandant.
Professor – He is the inventor of numerous devices.
K-9 corps – They are trained dogs. They can talk, but only to themselves and other animals.
The characters are basically the cartoon versions of the ones that we see in the movies. Then again, the ones n the movies were kind of cartoonish to start off with.
Show
The show itself was a little more family friendly, since this was geared more to kids. This was a normal cops cartoon with Cops vs. bad guys. There were a list of villains in the show, but I will be honest, I remember almost nothing from them. There is no one other than the main characters that have stayed in my head after all of these years.
The shows apparently take place between the movies Police Academy 4 and Police Academy 5. From the list of characters it makes sense. They took the most popular characters from the first 4 movies. The only actor to appear in every Police Academy movie was Michael Winslow.
There is not much here in terms of plot. It is very basic. The cast themselves always get themselves in trouble and the comedy is mostly slapstick. You can see some gags from the movies inserted in certain parts.
Sample Police Academy: The Animated Series Show
Bottomline
There is a reason my most people do not remember about this show. It was just made to bank on the name of Police Academy. There are some funny things here, but all these years later, I barely remember any of the characters.
The theme song is ok. I always liked the Fat Boys so that is cool, however, I am not sure that most people will remember or even like the theme. It sounds like a run of the mill mainstream rap from the 80's.
They never fully released this cartoon on DVD. There is a special edition box set with 3 DVD's and 30 episodes and that is it. I do not even remember this playing on the Retro Cartoon network ever. I assume the demand is just not there.
Would I recommend it? Probably not. The show is not the worse thing ever on TV but it is not great either. It is in the middle of the pack. However, it is fun to watch this from time to time, just to remember how cartoons used to be in the late 80's and early 90's.
What do you think? Do you remember about this cartoon? let me know at the coordinates below.
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