C.O.P.S. Review

You're listening to the geek cast radio network

of podcast. This is the brain and you're listening

to the geek cast Radio network. Yes cops central

organization of police specialists Fighting crime

in a future time protecting Empire City from

Big Boss and his gang of crooks Hello and welcome

to the 73rd episode of Tooncast brought to you

by the Geekcast Radio Network. I am your host,

D .F. Joe and Mike, and today I'm joined once

again by Kevin OptimaSolo Thompson. Hello, sir.

Hello. Today we're going to be talking about

Kevin's favorite cartoon, Cops. Not my favorite

cartoon, but we'll get to that later. This is

an episode like I don't know five months in the

in the preparing because Kevin's like oh, I haven't

finished watching the DVD yet well Shut up you

had all damn summer to do that I'm ignoring you

I told you before just hire a cheap Mexican to

do your yard work you can watch cartoons all

summer If only that was possible uh... so what's

going on with you oh geez uh... let's see since

i have my computer back up and running i've been

spending a lot of time doing different things

uh... basically over at a btva we have a thing

where you know if a character has been in more

than one show or more than one you know movie

game like you know batman or superman or optimus

prime whatever we'd basically just a couple months

ago put in a way that you could make them all

listed on one page basically So if you go to

any care any TV show that Batman's in and click

on the Batman picture It brings you up a page

with every Batman on it So I spent this week

going through Every character we have on our

entire site and making sure if they needed to

be a part of one of those they are So that took

hours and hours and hours, but it's done I still

say the Shockwave character page needs to have

a listing for Cory Burton in Animated, because

even though the voice is similar to G1, because

it was Cory who did it in G1, it's not the...

I mean, it is... Well, you're talking about the

voice compare page. What I'm talking about is

a page separate from that, which does have all

of them on there. I know, but still, it's those

things where the voice compare needs to have

it on there, because the... The shockwave in

animated was ten times darker. Yeah, we're actually

going through a debate about that about a bunch

of other characters like that and some people

want only one version of one only an actor to

show up one time and other people say if it's

different it should show up multiple times so

we're kind of debating about that. Well I mean

you know I think if it's different enough it

should be on there. Yeah well I mean it is technically

the same voice but the characterization of shockwave

in animated was different than it was in G1 so

you've got shockwave and animated who is this

super spy double agent for Megatron posing as

long arm prime and then of course he's secretly

shockwave where in G1 he showed up what a total

of six times and said hey you can't come in here

stop them oh no yeah basically you know I mean

But know that the other pages and isn't one with

sound clips like it has like 35 different versions

of Batman on the page and even if voice actors

have done multiple versions They're all listed

and yeah, you can kind of get a look. It's more

for the look of the character than the sound

Yeah, but other than that I did add a bunch of

stuff for a bunch of Disney movies. I added the

whole cast for Cinderella Sleeping Beauty Snow

White I can't remember what else recently so

i got all those in there and i just got done

adding all of the sound clips to all the characters

from the show we're talking about today cops

so if anyone wants to hear how this character

sound the page is done and you can go look at

it that's my plug i'm done now yeah i'm gonna

jump ahead a little bit because when i watch

some of these episodes i was like wow ganon as

a crime boss holy crap Yeah But we'll get to

that so let's jump right into the history lesson

Alright folks cops or central organization of

police specialist is an American animated television

series released by Deke Entertainment Which ran

daily from September of 1988 to September of

1989? The show's tagline was Fighting Crime in

a Future Time, protecting Empire City from Big

Boss and his gang of crooks. The series ran for

65 total episodes. In 1993, the series was shown

in reruns on CBS Saturday mornings, but they

had to call it Cyber Cops so as not to be confused

with the live -action Cops television show. It

also would later be rerun on the Cartoon Network.

The show was based on Hasbro's 1988 line of action

figures called Cops and crooks. Surprise, surprise.

So what do you remember? Do you remember why?

You don't remember much about this from when

you were a kid, do you? I remember a little bit

of it, but not much. I remember the basic formula,

but as far as individual episodes and storylines,

no. Yeah, I don't remember many of the actual

storylines, but I definitely remembered all the

characters and I remembered even the voices of

some of the characters that really stuck with

me. I did remember, you know, the format's kind

of unique. There wasn't a lot of cartoons that

took the same format as far as like the way they,

you know, opened the show and the way they ended

it and stuff like that. But I kind of remember

this one in the same vein as I remember Mask

and as I remember... You know a couple shows

like that. I think like mask and cops and Maybe

like in humanoids or centurions or visionaries

like that. They're all kind of like these ones

that I You know didn't remember as much as like

Thundercats Silverhawks GI Joe turtles transformers,

etc But they were kind of on that second level

where I I have vague memories of some of them

a little bit better on some of the other ones

I don't know if they were all on at the same

time without looking but You know I remember

this one and mask more than any of the other

ones though See I put mask in that in that higher

bracket. Yeah, you probably good Well, I do because

I remember mask more than you do for the most

part because I was way into that show but To

me this show is a combination of a cartoon version

of a cross between Dick Tracy and RoboCop Would

actually add in a third thing It's Dick Tracy

Robocop and dragnet if you look away the the

episodes and open and close. Yeah, that's true

You had the futuristic epic styles of Robocop

You got like the the gangster types like Dick

Tracy and then the the crime stuff like guess

or like dragnet It was like get smart what the

hell am I thinking? Yeah, miss it that much But

that's kind of how I remember it. I mean I will

admit that this is one of the ones that is better

to me only because of my memories of it. Whereas,

I'm not saying it's aged to the point where it's

unwatchable or anything like that, because I

don't think it's aged that badly, but I just

don't think it's as good as I remember it. Which

is true for a lot of cartoons, but I think specifically

for this one, a lot of times you're like... No,

it's not just the nostalgia, it's not just the

memories, I just really love this show, I love

it now, I love it then, whatever, but this one

I can kind of tell I like it mostly because I

remember it as a kid. Right, right. I wouldn't

force anyone to watch more than a couple episodes

of this one. And I think the other thing is,

for me it was the animation style. Yeah. I mean,

I liked it. But it's one of those things where

it's an animation style or the it's not really

the style. It's more the quality of animation

That I don't think is aged. Well Yeah, and and

basically there is on the animation. I agree

with you There's a lot of animation where it

looks like okay somebody should be saying something

now, and it's just kind of like this static or

like this Kind of like a pause in the action

and the animation just doesn't fit right you

know which happens a lot of times but then every

once in a while and it only happens in a certain

episodes and I don't have the names of the episodes

right off the top of my head but there's a couple

episodes where it does like a comic book sequence

like and the animation kind of looks like the

actual drawing on a comic book and it kind of

does a little sequence or it does like a little

slo -mo action sequence those parts are really

cool but apparently that must have cost too much

or something because they only do it a couple

times but that makes the regular animation look

even worse than it already did. Yeah. But if

you can find one of those episodes or has it,

I mean, it is kind of some cool stuff. It makes

it very much comic book -esque in a cartoon form.

Right, right. But it seemed to me like they were

trying to save money and not let people talk

as much. Like if they could avoid a character

talking, they did. And instead you just had like

a nod or a shake of the head or kind of a grunt.

Mean let's be honest. I mean the voice cast for

this show doesn't read like a who's who of voice

casting so no it sure doesn't I mean, there's

like maybe three people out of 15 that I know

Yeah, and a lot of these people work together

on a lot of different not a lot of different

stuff But whenever they show up they show up

together, but you're right. There's only only

about two or three people on this whole list

that You know cartoon fans will have heard of

maybe Depending on what kind of stuff they are

into you know So I guess we can get into the

characters in the voice cast I Just watch the

cuz I watched a pilot episode today. Yeah I find

it extremely hard to believe that Bulletproof,

after his little surgery thing there, where he

gets all the cybernetic stuff, of course, the

bad guys that we're shooting at weren't smart

enough to shoot him in the head. But, I mean,

I just find it very improbable that all the cybernetics

that he has is gonna... it's gonna deflect the

bullets, which it did, but, I mean... There's

gotta be some sort of ricochet off that that

would hit him somewhere up in his flesh. He didn't

have a full helmet though. That's true. There's

11 cops, which you know obviously has the periods

after, but you have 11 cops and you got nine

crooks basically that show up in the show. The

cops like I was telling you I kind of saying

off areas, you know They're kind of a little

bit more bland a little more everyday people

like you would expect Which is not a dig on the

show. I mean, that's what you would do as cops

and the bad guys are much more Unique and much

more interesting like character designs and and

just personas I definitely like the bad guys

better in this show than the good guys. Yeah

But just kind of to go through, obviously you

mentioned Bulletproof, that's the leader. And

like you said, even though, which is weird because

the pilot episode does not air first, the pilot

episode doesn't air until like the sixth or seventh

episode. So you're introduced to these characters

not knowing any type of backstory and then it

brings in the backstory later. So you don't get

Bulletproof's backstory as far as how he's injured

and whatnot until like six or seven episodes

into the series. So it's kind of like a flashback

episode. I mean, yeah. Well, that's the thing

that with the way that they open and end the

show, they could do it in any order because it's

basically just pulling out a case here or a case

there. Right, right. So it saves them from continuity,

I guess, because they could say they didn't,

you know, each case is not necessarily an order

or something like that, I guess. Yeah, that's

kind of like... I mentioned back in episode 70

that I was watching The Big Bang Theory, I was

gonna watch The Big Bang Theory the complete

third season. There's an episode in that where

we finally find out why the elevator in the building

that the geeks live in doesn't work. So it's

taken them three seasons to tell the story of

how... the characters of that show first met

up and all started to hang out and everything

else. So this is the same thing here. I mean,

you know, you have, you know, like you said,

since there really wasn't that much continuity

to the show, they, you know, just pulling out

random case files and you finally, you know,

pull out, oh, this is case number one. Hey, this

is how we all met. And there's very few episodes

that have any continuity to them at all There

is that two -parter origin story, you know, obviously

that has some background Continuity to it. There's

one other one that talks about Bowser and Blitz

and their backstory before the dog was bionic

Other than that out of the I mean, I haven't

watched all 65 episodes. I've watched about 40

of them because the other ones aren't out yet,

but other than those two episodes there's never

really hardly any continuity in any of them and

you know even like guest characters or stuff

like that there's only one or two that make a

reappearance yeah so so really there is not a

lot of continuity to this show at all it's really

basically one -time shots with almost 95 of the

episodes yeah um getting back into it i i kind

of find this surprising but the the cop that

shows up second most is actually mainframe who

is the computer girl yeah I don't know if it's

because her character was always by the phone

or always the one that was by the computer so

they you know is easy to write her in on every

episode but she appears more than any other cop

and I did not remember that from when I was a

kid so it kind of surprised me watching them

back then you have long arm who Was like long

arm because he has the projectile handcuffs or

whatever you want to call him you can shoot?

Handcuffs out of his arm or out of the thing

on his arm And you know that always comes in

handy when you're trying to catch your cop that's

running away from you nice little plot device

there Just, I don't think I saw an episode where

he actually did it, but somehow I'm flashing

to Night Scream from Beast Machines with his

little tooth thing that he sends out to suck

energy out of the Veikons. Yeah. He doesn't do

it as much as you would think he would, but when

he does do it, it's kind of cool. Or you can

grab on something and swing like Tarzan or whatever.

Yeah. Hard Top is the rookie of the group. He's

basically a first -year cop and you know a lot

of the other cops give him a rough time because

he's the rookie or he's a youngster. They think

he doesn't know anything. And he also has a crush

on another character that we'll get to later.

But all the cops kind of have a crush on her,

but he's the one that they reveal the most about

it. Highway is the basically the driver of the

group. He's always driving. He has kind of a

sweet sweet ass car that he drives around He's

also an arrogant prick He's always trying to

get there You know get the TV's attention and

talk to the reporters and usually he brags or

something and then later on ends up getting you

know does something stupid or gets caught on

tape when he's When he fails at something so

then he always has kind of like a humbling experience,

but it seems like the very next episode is he

that he's arrogant again, so And he always gives

hard top a hard time because they're both kind

of like the drivers so I don't know if he thinks

hard tops kind of like you know cutting in on

his turf or whatnot, but Barricade there's not

much to say barricade doesn't show up a whole

lot Compared to the other ones, but he does have

the cool little tool that he uses to Bust down

doors and whatnot. So he basically is the breaker.

He breaks stuff down I don't like the way that

barricade bullseye Highway and hardtop they all

they all kind of look the same You know, they're

all just barricade and longarm are blonde headed

guys and hardtop highway are Brown -headed and

bulls -eye brown -headed guys, but other than

that there's sometime hard to tell apart like

they didn't they didn't change much in the characters

Who else we got of course Bowser's the canine

unit so he has a little dog robot dog named blitz

that he goes around with Mace he's kind of the

oddball cop The renegade that's always quick

to act and he's got some cool shades and he he's

not in the blue uniform like most the other ones

he's kind of got that Orange ish, you know for

him going on. Yeah, I'm like I'm like the rest

and then Two more cop characters sundown. He's

a Wild West cop. He's pretty cool, but they never

use him. I Mean like in the 40 episodes. I watched

he talked in maybe like six or seven of them

So I wish they would have used him more and they

they use the next one even less Mirage is kind

of a random female cop She really has every all

the other ones kind of have like a specific persona

like they're you know This arrogant prick or

they're the rookie or they're the Western cop.

I don't know what Mirage's purpose is in this

show Yeah, I only heard her talk like three times

So I guess it was just to sell another action

figure for her Do you did in the episodes you

watch did you have like a favorite one of the

good guys or did you? Have some that you liked

or some of you disliked? I Like seeing Bowser

and blitz but that's cuz I've always kind of

liked the whole canine unit thing but I guess

mainframe Yeah, she's pretty cool. Yeah, I like

I like longarm like I said cuz I kind of always

like the handcuffs and I guess I kind of like

bulletproof But other than that, I don't I don't

really like hardly any of the good guys I am

a bad guy fan on this show besides bulletproof

longarm and I do like a couple I like the voice

of barricade which we'll get into later But as

far as just characters go bulletproof and longarm

are about the only two I like yeah Her heart

top was supposed to be kind of the fan favorite.

He was supposed to be the one that the kids could

could kind of relate to, because he's the rookie,

the youngster in the group. And he definitely

shows up a lot. Other than mainframe and bulletproof,

he probably shows up the most. But I just didn't,

I don't know, I just didn't find him as appealing

as I think they hoped kids would. Right. And

then for the bad guys, you have Big Boss, who

is the main bad guy, Crimson, to get leader.

I'm telling you. You give Ganon a mob accent,

you got Big Boss. I don't know, this is the other

thing. Big Boss reminded me again, going back

to what we said earlier about this show is a

combination of multiple things. It reminded me

of Big Boy Caprice from Dick Tracy. Yeah, he

reminded me of that. He reminded me a little

bit of Dr. Claw at times, just because he always

had this little weasel cat thing that he had

in his lap. out of all of them, he's the biggest

kind of hark back to the old gangster type flicks.

Then you have Dr. Bad Vibes who is the scientist

or the brains and the schemes and invent and

whatever. I don't know, at first I thought he

reminded me of Prune Face and then we'll get

to this one later. I saw Buttons McBoom Boom

which he is definitely a Prune Face type. I don't

know, Dr. Bad Vibes just didn't, I don't know,

just wasn't my favorite. He's your typical mad

scientist weirdo. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. And

then Berserko was pretty much either Bebop or

Rocksteady of the group. Yeah. He's also the

nephew of the Big Boss, so they always talk about

that, and the Big Boss is always embarrassed

of him. Yup. Then you have Rock Crusher, who

is the... dumb muscle so again insert bebop or

rocksteady reference there berzerko and turbo

two -tone that's an excellent description they're

basically or not turbo two -tone berzerko and

rock crusher are basically bebop and rocksteady

yeah especially since one of them is called rock

crusher i know yeah really i actually like turbo

two -tone he's the smart muscle of the group

yeah he's a little different than the other two

because he actually has some brains and i'm with

you i kind of liked him out of the three of them

Then you got squeaky clean. Oh boy I Don't know

if I can Say what I wrote down about him, but

that's horrible. It's basically big bosses bitch

butlers and servant It is basically what he is

You know every mob a mob man has their little

sidekick guy that does all the shit for him it's

like uh it reminds me of and you're gonna hate

this cuz I'm gonna bring up a silver hawks, but

Reminds me. What's that copper kid? No, not copper

kid moan star had the little guy that always

turned his thing on to create oh Yeah, yeah,

and he's just like that little bitch guy that

just like does whatever he's told and like helps

out the main guy When you're your guy here next

yeah Buttons McBoom Boom and just I swear, he's...

Oh, I didn't know that, but... I didn't know

he had a gun for a chest, but... He basically,

yeah, if he opens his coat, a gun protrudes out

from his, like, stomach or chest area and he

just, like, blows things up. But just the way

his character design is on his face, it reminds

me of Prune Face from Dick Tracy. Oh, yeah. Him

and Big Boss are definitely the old -school mobsters.

Yeah. And then you got Nightshade, who is the

thief and the young female. And Ms. Demeter,

who is the older female crook. I love that they

called the character Ms. Demeter. Ms. Demeter,

yeah. They always do stuff like that in cop shows

like this. Not just animation, but that name

has been used forever. Yeah. I hate Ms. Demeter.

i'm just gonna jump right in with bad guys i

hate i hate misdemeanor i just don't think she

was necessary i think she's kind of like mirage

was for the cops they just weren't necessary

uh... and i also hate berserko and rock crusher

they're just dumb muscle jackson i can't stand

berserko's voice so i i don't like them you heard

it here first folks kevin hates bebop and rocksteady

i like turbo two -tone cuz he actually has some

smarts to him and i kinda like his look I like

Buttons McBoom Boom because he's just a badass.

He's just that silent assassin who's awesome.

I like Nightshade because I've always liked those

kind of like the ones that are, I mean she's

like the smart like undercover type like under

the radar thief that can just like do whatever

Mission Impossible style. She's cool. I like

Squeaky Clean even though he's a bitch. And I

don't know, Big Boss and Dr. Bad Vibes I don't

really have too many. I don't like or dislike

them. But if I had to pick my favorite bad guy,

it's probably buttons McBoom Boom. Yeah, I'd

have to agree So moving into the very lackluster

voice I just before we get there I should just

say real quick. The only characters really that

recur at all are Whitney Morgan who's a reporter?

and Mayor Davis, who's basically the mayor of

Empire City, and Whitney Morgan is the one that

Hardtop has the crush on. So just throw those

two out there. I don't really like either character,

but just throwing them out there. Yeah, so getting

into the very lackluster voice cast, like I said

before, there's maybe three names in this entire

voice cast that I recognize. Len Carlson, Dan

Hennessy, Paulina Gillis, I think there was one.

Don Stocker. Should be John Stocker. He's in

like Yeah, and I like Teddy Ruxpin or like some

other he was in other stuff in the 80s Yeah,

but the rest of them. I don't recognize any of

these people Yeah, and most of them like I said

they work together and other projects like they

were all in Alf or whatever It was the animated

series or not all of them, but like four or five

of them were yeah But most of these people did

not do anything before or after cops So it was

kind of weird but just kind of saying besides

the people that I you know We haven't really

heard of besides like you said Len Carlson and

you know, Dan Hennessy or whatever As far as

voices, I liked on the series. I loved bulletproofs

voice Just because I thought it was perfect for

this role He does he's the main cop. He does

the you know, the introduction he introduces

and closes every show, you know And he just has

this super deep voice and I can't believe he

did not get more voice work outside of this unless

he wasn't looking for it. But I love his voice.

I love Big Boss's voice. I actually have a friend

that can do Big Boss's voice perfectly, and it

always cracks me up. And I love, uh, Barricade's

voice. Other than that, the voices are just very,

the other voices are just kinda, I don't know,

I don't know if it's because they had a lack

of experience, but like Bullseye, for example,

his voice is terrible. And most the other guys

just have kind of bland voices that they don't

really do much with yeah with the exception of

maybe dr. Bad vibes and Squeaky clean they do

Have some unique voices. I don't necessarily

love them, but I kind of like squeaky cleans

But most of the cops are just generic voices

Yeah, I mean you know Ken Ryan is bulletproof.

You know he like like you said he does have a

really commanding voice, and it's a nice voice

for the series and then You know, I keep referencing

Ganon from Legend of Zelda because, let's face

it, Len Carlson was Ganon. And just when I was

watching some of the episodes, I'm like, oh,

that sounds like Ganon the Crime Boss. Oh, another

thing Len Carlson's on, I just forgot, Len Carlson

and Marvin Goldhier, who are Big Boss and Squeaky

Clean, they're both on the show from the 80s

of the Raccoons. I don't know if anyone remembers

that, but... Basically a family of raccoons or

not a family of raccoons, but like animated raccoons

It was pretty popular in the 80s had a lot of

episodes, but they're both on that So one other

thing they did besides elf So are we done with

this one yeah, I think we're pretty good I don't

think there's any other names necessarily that

are worth mentioning besides the ones we did

already. Yeah, and I'm actually surprised There

is no Clarification for blitz the dog very surprised

at that because you know usually you have a dog

It's done, but I'll Frank Welker, and he's nowhere

attached to this series whatsoever Yeah, so I

don't know if one of these if possible that just

one of the regular voice actors did the sound

effects for blitz Or maybe they did so actually

use sound effects. I don't know Sounded like

it was a person though Yeah, I'm not sure so

getting into the behind -the -scenes segment

here. We have for producing the series Andy Hayward.

Oh, hey Robbie London and Richard Reines and

dick or not dick a judge about my anus shut up.

Oh God, that's horrible Then Jack Spillum Jack

Spillum. Yeah, I'm in my Reines. Oh God We have

heard of Andy Hayward though, so. Yeah, yeah.

And of course, the production companies was Deke

and Hasbro. The directors and writers, I recognize

some of these guys. Director Kevin Alteri I recognize

from, he would go on to do Batman the Animated

Series. Writers, of course, David Wise, Dwayne

Capizzi, and Bob Forward, I recognize those guys.

I also remember, I also recognize Carl, I don't

know if you say it, Masik or Masik, I don't know

why I recognize him, but I do recognize him from

something. I don't. Well, you bastard child.

So, yeah, so I mean, I mean, you've got some

good, you know, regardless of the animation of

the show or the animation, but just the way it

was laid out and just the the quality of the

animation more than the actual style of it besides

that you know you've got some really good writers

writing this stuff so oh he uh... carl masek

was one of the main writers on robotech for those

people that know what robotech is on me all right

moving on then no i i like the writing that and

you know That's why I said it's aged all right,

because the stories and the writing is still

good. It's just like you said, the animation

is what has not aged well at all. Yeah. And then

again, you know, we are still 10 years off from

when this actually took place. So yeah, it doesn't

happen yet. So getting into the actual show,

do you want to summarize the plot for us? Yeah,

I mean, basically, we're in 2020, the year 2020.

So we're 10 years ahead of what we are right

now. in a place called Empire City, which might

as well be called New York City. And basically

you have this bulletproof guy who's recruited

by the mayor to form a team, recruit members

to be on this special cops team and fight against

the crime syndicate led by Big Boss. So that's

basically the gist of it. Every episode has a

title that begins the case of and then insert

whatever you want, like the case of the baby

bad guy, the case of the highway robbery, you

know, stuff like that. Yeah. And then basically,

along with the cops file number, each each episode

has a specific number, completely irrelevant

what it is. And then Bullproof would narrate

at the beginning of the episode as well as the

end. And he would always conclude by repeating

the cops file number and then saying. case closed

and then a closed stamp would go over the file

because it actually showed a file with like a

black and white picture of something. There was

two two -part shows the case of Big Boss Master

Plan and the case of cops file number one which

is the origin story those are both two parts

so instead of saying case closed at the end they

just said case continued. Right. And then of

course just to kind of give you some stuff that

always happens every episode one member of cops

whether it's bulletproof or Any of the other

cops says it's crime fighting time at some point

That's kind of the battle cry for when they're

all gonna, you know, finally go get the get the

crooks and they always kind of shout it and they

actually make fun of themselves because one episode

bulletproofs not there and they get the call

that they need backup or whatever and uh, I can't

remember if it's highway or I think it's highway.

He looks around he's sitting at his desk. He's

like Come on, who's gonna say it? And then he's

like It's crime fightin' time, or whatever. So

it's kind of funny that they kind of make fun

of their own things. And then the crooks always

say, crime's a wastin'. And that's usually, Berserko

says it the most, but they kind of spread that

around too. It's not quite as cool as it's crime

fightin' time, but. And then what else? Oh, at

the end, and this is one part about this story

that I kind of have a problem with. At the end

when they're doing the case closing right before

that he'll explain he'll sum up what happens

So something was stolen bulletproof will be like

the diamonds were returned to the Empire City,

you know bank or whatever and then he'll say

So and so berserko and turbo two -tone landed

up and you know ended up in jail or were arrested

He doesn't say that every episode but most episodes

he'll say so and so has been arrested The very

next episode they're out of jail Apparently.

Oh, yeah I just wish like they would have like

had a couple times where like let's say they

put like For some of the characters that don't

show up as much like misdemeanor put her in jail

and then show have a couple episodes where she's

not in and Then have an episode where you actually

like break her out or something that I thought

that would have been cool But again, you're you're

going against what the show type. Yes, which

was there's basically random Yeah, there's no

continuity whatsoever. So But as a kid I remember

that bugging me because I'd be like why aren't

they in jail? The cops already caught them because

I wanted I wanted to be like basically you caught

Let's say rock crusher. Yeah, he goes in jail

and then you don't really have to see him again

They bring in a new bad guy. You know what I

mean? I kind of always wanted new bad guys and

once you were in jail, you were basically done

But obviously you can't do that if you want to

sell toys So getting into the music segment here,

the music for the series was created by, surprise

surprise, Saban and Levi. Shooky Levi who wrote

and composed music for the real Ghostbusters

mask, X -Men the animated series, Dragon Ball

Z, English dubbed version, Digimon, English dubbed

version, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, while

the Cop's theme music was written and composed

by the creator of the Power Rangers series, Ham

Saban. It was sung by Nick Carr. Which, you know,

again, it's a good theme song. Yeah, you like

the theme song? It's okay. I don't necessarily

like it. I like bulletproof and I like the musical

part, but I like my theme song to have some type

of song to it. I actually like the outro better,

because it's more or less music put to him. Telling

you who's on the cops team and who and that was

that was kind of a cool way I know it was probably

just for toy selling purposes So you didn't forget

who's who? But I really liked that at the end

They did a roll call of all the cops and all

well, they missed a couple but basically all

the cops and all the crooks Yeah, I thought that

was really cool how they showed each one and

you know bulletproof doing it They're his voice

Ken Ryan was great choice Yeah, so getting into

the legacy segment here How's that IMDB list

doing? I'm not going to list Cops anywhere. It

does have DVD releases on February 28th, 2006.

Shout Factory released Cops Volume 1, a 4 -disc

box set featuring the first 22 episodes on DVD

in Region 1. It includes concept art, storyboard

to screen, and some of the original PSAs that

were shown after the episodes. Volume 2 was released

as a Shout Factory select title available exclusively

through their online store. In the Shout Factory

box set part one of the case of the cops file

number one has two introduction scenes of highway

and sundown excised from the episode. It is not

known other possible time constraints why Shout

Factory did this. The cops three episode DVD

single cops fighting crime in a future time does

have the footage however. That's kind of weird.

Well I have both volume one and volume two of

the DVDs. They each have about 20, 22 episodes

or so. Yeah, that's so you know that they made

it so there could be a volume three with 20 more

episodes Which would get it to at 65. Yeah the

if you're an art person, I Guess the DVD bonus

features would be alright because there's lots

of concept art or like painting or storyboard

to screen type stuff And but the the bonus features

on these DVDs suck There is nothing, no behind

the scenes, no talking with writers, no talking

with directors, no talking with producers, no

talking with voice talent, no information about

things. They don't even show the toys, like nothing.

And I realized that they knew it wasn't going

to be a big selling DVD, but the stuff that they

have on the bonus features might as well not

even be bonus features. It's almost like saying

it's a bonus feature that it includes the widescreen

and full screen on like a movie. You know, I

think the DVDs did a good job of cleaning up

the the animation as much as or the look of it

as much as possible Yeah, it's decent quality

as far as viewing the episodes, but come on throw

me a bone shout You usually do much better than

on the bonus features Yeah Boo boo on the DVD

bonus features Sorry So I'm not done on the DVDs

I gotta rant one more thing Not only did they

cheap by not having the bonus good bonus features

the actual graphics on the DVDs In the the first

volume you have long arm on the first disc Bulletproof

on the second one Bowser on the third one and

then a combination of mainframe and sundown on

the fourth one They used the exact same pictures

on the volume 2 DVD And The pictures match, the

back of the DVD, like the back cover art of the

DVD are the same pictures in a group shot. So

it's like they took this group shot, took each

one of the faces, and cropped it out, put it

on a DVD, and then used the exact same one for

the next volume of DVDs. So I guess they didn't

really care too much about this one. Guess not.

I'm done now. So there are toys. Cops and Crooks

was a line of action figures produced by Hasbro

and sold between 1988 and 1989. These figures

are made up of police and criminals of the future

and used as a tagline, fighting crime in a future

time. In the packages containing the Cops figures,

only the Cops logo is shown while the packages

containing the Crooks figures feature only the

phrase, and Crooks. That's weird That's kind

of weird shown right next to the logo each figure

is fully articulated and posable standing about

six inches tall on The average came with a cap

gun and accessories that allow the kids who played

with them to fire off Their weapons by pulling

back the trigger and releasing it to cause a

spark and popping noise When the trigger slams

into the strip the cap firing paper actually

I take that back. I do remember the toys now

Because it was awesome that they had a cap on

with them How often could you buy a toy that

actually had a gun that fired shit? Yeah, I guess

Awesome. I do have the I currently have the big

boss toy Without the cap gun He just has something

else and that he's carrying. I don't even really

know what it is But he's a decent figure but

now that you mentioned it. I do remember I don't

know if I ever actually had one but maybe one

of my friends had one and I remember shooting

the cap gun and thinking that was so cool as

a seven -year -old. This sounds like the worst

toy line ever. Each figure also had a file card

printed on the back of the package that contained

a biography of the character. These file cards

are written by Larry Hammer. We also wrote the

file cards for the Hasbro's GI Joe action figures.

The artwork made for each package is illustrated

by Bart Sears, Mark Pennington, and McNabb Studios.

Several female cops and crooks characters, Mainframe,

Nightshade, Mirage, and Ms. Demeter, appeared

in the cartoon and the comics but were never

released as action figures. Thank God for that.

And that's why they were probably only on the

shelves for a couple years, because people probably

were like, wait a second, they have guns that

you can fire? Yep. I want one of those cap guns

now, damn it. No. In my ever ongoing search for

a bulletproof figure, and for all those listening

out there, if you can find me a bulletproof figure,

let me know. I will pay almost whatever I need

to pay for it. Screw that. Make it a donation.

Just donate it. Yeah, I mean, I have, I basically

have a collection of heroes and villains and

I need bulletproof to go with Big Boss to complete

my cops so I can move on to another show. Oh

boy. I have ten of them. You have ten of them?

Ten of the same figure? No, no, no, good guys,

bad guys, like Optimus Prime and Megatron. Okay,

I was gonna say, what the hell? T -Man, Skeletor,

that type of stuff. Alright, so I guess we're

gonna head to some voicemail and we'll be back.

Chief Quimby here, and your assignment is to

listen to all the Deepcast Radio Networks podcasts.

This is Dr. Wiley, and I will destroy Mega Man

while listening to Tooncast! Hey guys, my name

is Edward Cho, uh, Ed3D Prime, uh, username on

PS3. I really loved, uh, the Cops cartoon back

in the late 80s. Bulletproof was the man, was

kind of like the Obama of the LAA's taking charge

of that goofy cop squad. And Dr. Bad Vibes wasn't

too bad of a villain himself as the sort of typical

mad scientist, evildoer. Alright, keep up the

good work. Bye. So final thoughts on cops um

I kind of like what I said before I loved cops

when I was a kid I loved that the toys came with

cap guns. I loved Bulletproof I loved some of

the bad guys, and I loved the way they did it

that being said I wouldn't nest I would never

put it up with the other ones We mentioned before

this was kind of like a second tier boys action

cartoon in the 80s It's worth watching a few

episodes especially if you like you know like

Not just cop cartoons, but if you like like Crimes

you know like Dick Tracy type stuff if you like

like old -fashioned not like current comic book

stuff But if you like old comic book like even

Marvel and DC stuff it kind of has that whole

Vibe to it of the old stuff So it's worth watching

a few episodes I don't necessarily suggest buying

the DVDs not because it's not worth it, but because

the bonus features are so terrible But I would

definitely put it in like a, you know, like a

top, I don't know, top 40 or 50 list of cartoons

from the 80s, but it would not break my top 20.

Well, thank God for that. Silverhawks is better

than it. I can agree with that, but Thundercats

is better than Silverhawks. Oh, God. And I don't

know, I just. This show really didn't do it for

me at all. It just didn't. The you know the voice

acting and you know the the character voices

is great for what the show was I put mask way

ahead of this show Mask is on that for me. It's

on that main level with transformers GI Joe all

the you know the big 80s names this because and

I think another thing really So this really suffered

from was look when it came out 88 89 88 to 89

Hello turtle mania and and it's basically the

same format I mean it's not the same format,

but it's like the turtles and the fact that you

have basically it's an action thing where you

have a group of good characters fighting a group

of bad characters, but I Know turtles wasn't

as like comic as like the as they were in like

turtles forever But turtles was kind of a you

know make jokes be funny and have the action

And that's kind of what cops was trying to do

too So it wasn't you know having two things competing

against each other when one's so much superior

was not a good idea. Yeah. I guess if, you know,

you pour some mutagen on Bulletproof and everybody,

you could have them turn into turtles, I don't

know. Yeah. I mean, they were both, they didn't

take themselves so seriously that they couldn't

make fun of things and, you know, kind of have

some humor involved, whereas, like, you didn't

really see that in the previous action. Like,

you didn't have a lot of humor in, like, you

know, Transformers and G .I. Joe, or at least

not the same type of humor. Right, yeah, yeah.

Alright, so I think that's going to do it for

us. Thank you for joining us here on Tooncast.

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calm. Thank you for listening until next time