And the pilot episode, shown in two parts, was absolutely godawful. The above paragraphs sum up the premise, and the inherent flaws in it, pretty well. The city itself seems to have an unlimited number of school districts so that our heroes can “transfer” in, make friends with the students in an impossibly short span of time, crack the case and get out…something the series begins to address towards the end of the second season, by which time our crew has been in, oh, about 40 school districts. The Jump Street program is supposedly a pilot program run out of an old church that puts young-looking police officers into undercover situations in an unnamed American city that seems to hop from the Pacific Northwest to the Northeast and then into some kind of alternate-universe annexed part of Canada (the show was actually shot in Vancouver and there are endless, obvious shots of British Columbia licenses plates throughout the series’ run). Mentoring them all for the first five episodes is an annoying ex-hippie type played by film actor Frederic Forrest. Cooper), and Asian pretty boy Harry Aoki (Dustin Nguyen, now a martial arts star here and in his native Vietnam). The pilot episode introduces us to the Jump Street quartet - fresh faced, naive Tom Hanson (Depp), big lug Doug Penhall (Peter DeLuise, Dom’s son and now Stargate director), African-American preppy-hottie Judy Hoffs (Susan Robinson, later of Hangin’ With Mr. It was this one ep - more on this later - that prompted me to start watching the series last month, as well as maybe wanting to cure myself of any lingering ’80s nostalgia for my teen years. In fact, I had only ever seen one episode front to back, quite by accident, and it was the memory of this episode that peaked my interest, because it was a jaw-dropping hour of television, one of the best single episodes of any show I had ever seen, not to mention an acting tour de force by Depp. I myself had never watched it in its heyday I didn’t have cable then. It’s remembered vaguely for the glittery, scrubbed look of its stars: a sort of younger, prettier version of Miami Vice. Jump Street is notable for launching, from humble beginnings, two of the great media giants of the new millenium: the Fox Network and Johnny Depp. The latest one I’ve been watching, on (and, for the fourth season, youtube), is the ’80s crime drama 21 Jump Street, which is slated for a big-screen reboot in 2011 with Jonah Hill at the helm. I tend to alternate between current shows ( Bones, superb) and old shows I missed the first time around ( I Spy, Robert Culp was a fucking genius). It’s a little out of the realm of this website, but I think it’s a pretty good essay about a show that’s been largely forgotten.īeing the pop culture Luddite that I’ve been lately, and wanting out of that, I’ve gotten into the habit of finding one show on the ‘net and following it from beginning to end (or until I get bored) in the wee hours of the morning when I’m winding down with a glass of wine, yoga stretches or an ice pack. This essay about the TV show “21 Jump Street”, from the period in my life when I was spending a lot of time in my room, was originally posted on a different blog on June 29, 2010. In addition to new content, I’ll be regularly posting old writings, videos and other things that might be interesting for people to look at. Adam goes to bat for an underappreciated slice of ’80s pop culture.
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