Journey Planet 58 - Cancelled Too Soon

Cop Rock debuted on September 26, 1990 and it ended on December 26, 1990 after one season and 11 episodes. The series starred Anne Bobby as Vicki Quinn, Ronny Cox as Roger Kendrick, Vondie Curtis-Hall as Warren Osborne, and Barbara Bosson as Louise Plank. Coming off the success of several police shows and L.A. Law, Steven Bochco was given free rein and came up with the idea of a cop show that was also a musical. The series originally aired on ABC in the U.S. Cop Rock is available on DVD. It is not currently streaming.

“Look, I’m basically going to do Hill Street again…there’s only one thing we’re going to do differently. They’re going to sing.”

– Composer Mike Post describing how Steven Bochco asked him to work on Cop Rock To truly understand the wonder and the glory that is Cop Rock, one must first appreciate the context in which the series was created.

For those who watched TV in the 1980s, the name Steven Bochco was synonymous with dramatic television success. From 1981 to 1989, he won nine Emmy awards for outstanding series or outstanding writing.

He even won Peabody Awards, which honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television.

Bochco is renowned for L.A. Law and for Doogie Howser M.D., but what he is most famous for is cop shows like Hill Street Blues, Bay City Blues, and NYPD Blue.

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