Future Cop [tv]
Entry updated 13 November 2023. Tagged: TV.
US tv series (1976-1977). Paramount Studios, ABC Television network. Produced by Everett Chambers. Directors included Robert Douglas, Earl Bellamy and Vincent McEveety. Scriptwriters included Ken Kolb, Harold Livingston and Mann Rubin. Cast includes John Amos, Ernest Borgnine, Michael Shannon and Irene Tsu. Eight 50-minute episodes. Colour.
Future Cop was a remake of the previous season's comedy on the same subject, Holmes and Yo-Yo (1976), played in a straightforward manner. Officer Joe Cleaver (Borgnine) takes on rookie cop John Haven (Shannon) as a new partner, although he knows Haven is an Android with Superpowers; their occasional partner Officer Bill Bundy (Amos) is ignorant of this, however. Haven's creator Dr Tingley (Tsu) remains on call if needed. A pilot Television film preceded the regular series. The concept proved to be perhaps ahead of its time as this series was cancelled even more quickly than its predecessor. Future Cop was mostly a routine police series, with Haven's super-strength causing as many problems as it solved, although it can be considered an ancestor of RoboCop (1987) and similar films and television series.
This series should not be confused with Super Cop (1984) or its sequel Super Cop 2 (1991). Its similarities to "Brillo" (August 1970 Analog) by Ben Bova and Harlan Ellison (Brillo being a police Robot who functions as "steel fuzz"), and to a teleplay treatment of this story offered to ABC in 1973, led to a substantial payment in damages from ABC/Paramount to those authors. An attempted relaunch of Future Cop as Cops and Robin got no further than the March 1978 pilot episode. [GSt]
see also: Mann & Machine.
links
previous versions of this entry