Arrested development: An oral history of Cop Rock

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When a television series ends after a single season, it’s generally consigned to the scrap heap of TV history. Sometimes, however, a short-lived series is deemed so eccentric or downright bad that it remains a part of the collective pop-culture consciousness for the long haul. Such is the case of Cop Rock, the 1990 ABC amalgamation that attempted to fuse a gritty cop drama with a musical. It failed to completely please fans of either genre and was gone from the airwaves after only 11 episodes.

Created by Steven Bochco, whose work on Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue confirms that he knows his way around a police precinct, Cop Rock has become infamous over the years, decried by many as one of the worst television series of all time. Although it’s perceived by the masses as a flop, that opinion is in no way shared by those who helped first bring the series to fruition. That’s not to say that Bochco hasn’t admitted that the fusion he was attempting with Cop Rock didn’t work out the way he’d planned, nor are the series’ former cast members claiming that Cop Rock was without flaws. They are, however, all very quick to indicate that the time they spent working on the series remains one of the highlights of their careers.

In celebration of Shout! Factory finally bringing Cop Rock: The Complete Series to home video for the first time, The A.V. Club spoke with Bochco, 10 of the show’s cast members, and several of its songwriters. While some might argue that those who auditioned for the series and failed to make the cut—like, say, Jeffrey Tambor—dodged a bullet, you’ll soon see that they missed out on what could’ve proven to be one of the greatest work experiences of their careers, short though it might have been.