That's enough of a hackney history lesson, let's break this show down to see just how good and bad it really was. To lead off I want to provide the following frame of reference. All action/adventure cartoons prior to Batman the Animated Series are horrible. So when I review a show like this it's meant to be in context to other shows of that time period, not the cartoons we enjoy today. Lastly, I was only able to watch 22 of the shows 65 episodes (apparently Shout Entertainment meant to do 3 volumes of 22 episodes on DVD but stopped after one. UPDATE: As of 2011 Mills Creek has released all 65 episodes over two separate DVD sets).
The concept of COPS is simple enough. In the year 2020 (not that far off now) Empire City is caught in the grip of the evil mobster Big Boss. Helping Big Boss terrorize Empire City (mostly by stealing) is his gang of crooks: Berserko (Big Boss' semi-retarded nephew), Dr. BadVibes (mad scientist), Turbo Tu-Tone, Rock Krusher, Ms. Demeanor (who looks like a cross-dressing dude and whose name even sounds a lot like Mister Meaner at times. I always wondered if that was intentional) and Nightshade (catburgler).
Standing between Big Boss and our fair city are the (you guessed it) C.O.P.S. They are led by B. P. Vess AKA Bullet Proof (B.P. Vess, Bullet Proof Vest. Get it?), Mainframe (computer specialist), Hard Top, LongArm, Mace, Mirage, Bowser and Blitz (a guy and his robot dog), Sundown (a cowboy. That's right I said he's a cowboy) and some other ones I don't feel like mentioning since I'm sure you get the point. All in all it's not an entirely bad concept, but it's not a particularly great one either. Very few of the characters really standout, though the shows creators tried to hedge their bets by having so many. Ultimately I think that young boys (the shows target audience) were going to be more drawn to a giant transforming semi-truck than a guy hauling around a battering ram.
The show's writing on the other hand was not so mediocre. It was terrible. Now I have to say again that all of these types of shows from the 80s had bad writing, but the writers on C.O.P.S. really seemed to not care. I hope I'm wrong but it feels like this show was just a paycheck to these people. Specific things I hated when watching the DVD box set were as follows. The terrible dialog. It's stilted, awkward and corny (especially the shows catch phrase "It's Crime Fighting Time"). The complete lack of suspense. Now of course no one is going to die, but at no point in the show do the writers manage to establish even the slightest sense of danger. Not even when B. P. Vess is first injured and medically altered to become Bullet Proof do you get the impression that he's hurt. I mean the guy is just talking and acting normal, but he may die at any minute? Finally the out and out silliness of some of the stories. A guy robbing banks with bugs he keeps in his hive hat. Berserko's theft of a giant balloon. Midget thieves hiding out in an orphanage posing as babies! Common, I know this show's for kids but give them a little more credit than that; no wonder this show has so little nostalgia factor.
Normally I would not spend a lot of time talking about the voicing talents of a cartoon. Over the years I've just come to expect - at the very least - relative competence. So the reason I'm going to focus so much on the voicing talents of C.O.P.S. is because of just how unbelievably bad the voices in the series were. The acting is so terrible in fact, I would have to put this show on par with Thundercats as the worst sounding action/adventure program of the decade.
So let me define "unbelievably bad". The character Big Boss is a fat, glutenous, ugly monster of a man. He carries around a cigar and is loosely based on the Edward G. Robinson movie mobster Johnny Rocco. Now if you know a little Looney Toons history you know that Johnny Rocco was the basis for the famous Bugs Bunny episode where he battles the mobster Rocky. Naturally Mel Blanc did a hilarious spoof of the Johnny Rocco voice, especially his over emphasis of the "mahh" and "seeee". Well Big Boss is like listening to an exaggerated Mel Blanc Rocky. Where Rocky was a funny over the top caricature Big Boss is like a caricature of that caricature. In short, this terrible impression is so outlandish and over the top you can't stand it. That combined with the aforementioned terrible dialog produces a character who sounds nothing like what he appears.
Other terrible impressions include Squeeky Kleen, whose voice is based on Peter Lorre. He sounds so nasally you would think he was some kind of servant to a mad scientist in a Ed Wood horror movie; instead he's an OCD butler/chauffeur to Big Boss. Finally there's Berserko. Berserko was designed to be a grossly incompetent, overly stupid criminal. To help get this across the show gives him this very strange Bobcat Goldthwait type voice. Though I think the similarity was unintentional the result was - once again - awful.
The rest of the show's character voices are not as offensive but are none the less bad; even by the standards of the time. I don't know who to blame for this, the sub-par voice actors, a terrible voice director or the shows producers; probably all three. Regardless I found myself groaning and rolling my eyes just about every time someone spoke on the show.
Fortunately the visuals in C.O.P.S. fare much better. Though the animation was pretty typical for the time period (awkward, unnaturally stiff movements) many of the shows backgrounds and design work were in fact excellent. Being set in the future there were - of course - robots, hover cars and other future tech. that needed designed. While other shows from the 80's (such as Defenders of the Earth) also had the same necessity, C.O.P.S. really excelled in this department. I especially enjoyed the vehicle and robot design as well as the detailed backdrops found in many of the episodes.
Another visual aspect of the show I liked was the use of highlights and shadows. Many of the reflections on things such as metal and glass looked fantastic as did the shadow effects when characters were driving in the standard issue C.O.P.S. cars (the front of the car was slatted like blinds and the animators did a great job of moving the horizontal shadows over the interior while the vehicle was in motion). You could tell that there were people working on the show who really cared about these details and took the time to render them admiringly. It's sad to think that while the writers and voice actors were hacking out their portion of the show that production and character designers, animators and background painters were putting a lot of love into their work. Still it was that attention to visual detail that helped get me through all 22 episodes of my DVD box set, so for what it's worth thanks.
Taken in its entirety I would have to say C.O.P.S. is a pretty bad cartoon, even for its time. It had thinly veiled PSA lessons for kids (don't steal, listen to your elders etc.). It was a victim of the heavy handed Standards and Practices of the time (minimum violence, in fact you would be hard pressed to find a single animated punch that actually connects with its intended target) and it had plenty of marketing tie-ins (comics, toys etc). Would I recommend this show to anyone? Only if you have a lot of nostalgia for the series (I for one had just entered my teens when this show started so I was already too old to look past the obvious flaws) otherwise you should best steer clear.
UPDATE: As of 2011 Mills Creek has released all 65 episodes of this series over two separate DVD volumes. So basically you can now purchase the entire series pretty cheaply if desired.
