MovieChat Forums > 21 Jump Street (1987) Discussion > Last season: I thought was still on Fox,...

Last season: I thought was still on Fox, but it was syndicated.


I don't remember much of the last season with Depp, so maybe I was some of the audience that simply left the show.

When it came back the following year, I guess I thought it was still on Fox because it aired on the same station in NYC.

But, now I found out that it was in first-run syndication and now that I see an episode from that year, I can see how they really cut the budget. Only a few actors, no extras, etc.

The high school looks entirely empty. Even the station house has nobody in it.

They only seem to use one or two sets.

It's pretty bad.

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The last season was done strictly to get the show over the 100 episode mark so that it would be more attractive to stations to strip it (run it five days per week). They did it on the cheap and it shows. Depp wanted out even if the show had stayed on Fox, but I wonder if Dustin Nguyen was even asked back. I suspect that they paid Holly Robinson and then hired the other (cheaper) guys.

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That last season was invisible to any regular Jump St watcher. IDK anyone that even watched more than one episode before just giving up. It was that bad. And it was a shame because this show (as idiotic as the premise might seen now) was really something back then. If only as a guilty pleasure.

Those of us who were older then, too old to be in high school but not old enough to have teens in school wondered, seriously, if these high school narc programs even really existed or were all a TV fiction.

Was L.A. that weird & desperate or did this happen in Nowhere, America somewhere?

Partner and I at the time remember watching a 28 yr old (mind you somewhat youthful looking for the time, but please... not that we minded) David Cassidy back in 1978 in a Police Story episode (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0676289/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_25) that I'm sure helped launch 21 Jump Street. We thoroughly enjoyed the entire season of the hilariously title David Cassidy - Man Undercover (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0144180/?ref_=nv_sr_1) involving DC as a youthful cop in weird undercover positions all 10 episodes that it lasted! 1978 was never so much fun! At least the actors in 21 Jump Street were just a little younger and just as good looking 😀.

At least, and ironically enough as it still does today completely against character from its sister "new" station, FOX did address some very taboo subjects in 21 Jump Street, which made the rest of us, at minimum, feel visible, at a time when we were not.

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there was a lot of confusion, myself included, over some early Fox Content and the syndicated shows of the era...

not only did Fox have fewer hours (2 hours a night vs the Big 3's 3 hours) meaning that they had more room to air syndicated materials, but not having Affiliates in all the major markets would see Fox shows syndicated to the Off-hours of other network affiliates... the average viewer today doesn't pay attention to this stuff, it was almost unheard of for Joe Viewer to over think it back in the 1980s... especially since it had been just the 'Big Three' for over 30 years... and it's be another 5 years before the PTEN experiment and almost another 10 years before UPN and WB

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That last season was invisible to any regular Jump St watcher. IDK anyone that even watched more than one episode before just giving up. It was that bad. And it was a shame because this show (as idiotic as the premise might seen now) was really something back then. If only as a guilty pleasure.

Those of us who were older then, too old to be in high school but not old enough to have teens in school wondered, seriously, if these high school narc programs even really existed or were all a TV fiction.

Was L.A. that weird & desperate or did this happen in Nowhere, America somewhere?

Partner and I at the time remember watching a 28 yr old (mind you somewhat youthful looking for the time, but please... not that we minded) David Cassidy back in 1978 in a Police Story episode (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0676289/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_25) that I'm sure helped launch 21 Jump Street. We thoroughly enjoyed the entire season of the hilariously title David Cassidy - Man Undercover (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0144180/?ref_=nv_sr_1) involving DC as a youthful cop in weird undercover positions all 10 episodes that it lasted! 1978 was never so much fun! At least the actors in 21 Jump Street were just a little younger and just as good looking 😀.

At least, and ironically enough as it still does today completely against character from its sister "new" station, FOX did address some very taboo subjects in 21 Jump Street, which made the rest of us, at minimum, feel visible, at a time when we were not.




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That last season was invisible to any regular Jump St watcher. IDK anyone that even watched more than one episode before just giving up. It was that bad. And it was a shame because this show (as idiotic as the premise might seen now) was really something back then. If only as a guilty pleasure.

Those of us who were older then, too old to be in high school but not old enough to have teens in school wondered, seriously, if these high school narc programs even really existed or were all a TV fiction.

Was L.A. that weird & desperate or did this happen in Nowhere, America somewhere?

Partner and I at the time remember watching a 28 yr old (mind you somewhat youthful looking for the time, but please... not that we minded) David Cassidy back in 1978 in a Police Story episode (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0676289/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_25) that I'm sure helped launch 21 Jump Street. We thoroughly enjoyed the entire season of the hilariously title David Cassidy - Man Undercover (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0144180/?ref_=nv_sr_1) involving DC as a youthful cop in weird undercover positions all 10 episodes that it lasted! 1978 was never so much fun! At least the actors in 21 Jump Street were just a little younger and just as good looking 😀.

At least, and ironically enough as it still does today completely against character from its sister "new" station, FOX did address some very taboo subjects in 21 Jump Street, which made the rest of us, at minimum, feel visible, at a time when we were not.




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But, now I found out that it was in first-run syndication and now that I see an episode from that year, I can see how they really cut the budget. Only a few actors, no extras, etc.


It got so bad that last season even BOTH Deluise brothers jumped ship. YOu're also right about the obvious budget cuts. Episodes would go by where the only members of the "team" were just Mac (the Hanson lookalike Johnny Depp replacement) and Capt. Fuller. Too bad they never added another female to the group or something. The fifth season of Jump Street has to go down in history as one of the biggest failures of a once successful television series.

When there's no more room in Hollywood, remakes shall walk the Earth.

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