Why ABC Canceled Leslie Nielsen's Police Squad!

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

The phrase "ahead of its time" gets thrown around a lot, but it's nowhere near as apt as when describing "Police Squad!" It remains the definitive parody of police procedurals, starring stone-faced funnyman Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin, who excelled at delivering many of the puns and non sequiturs that has given the series a cult following. The show even spawned a beloved film franchise with "The Naked Gun" movies that saw Nielsen reprise his role of Drebin while getting into bigger and sillier misadventures. Nielsen has been in plenty of great spoof movies, but "The Naked Gun" series lampooning detective stories is a cut above the rest. That's not even counting the 2025 legacy sequel that sees Liam Neeson taking over from the late, great Nielsen.

Given how influential and far-reaching the original show has been, it may be surprising to some to learn that ABC cancelled "Police Squad!" after just one season consisting of six episodes. Leslie Nielsen gave an interview for the "Police Squad!" DVD release where he mentioned that Tony Thomopoulos, ABC's president of entertainment at the time, had said "the viewer had to watch it to appreciate it." In essence, you actually had to sit down and pay attention to all of the jokes; otherwise, the best parts would fly over your head. It wasn't the type of show you could have on in the background while doing chores, and there wasn't a laugh track to cue people into when a funny moment occurred (every episode would've just had a phantom audience laughing every single second).

In a way, society hasn't evolved that much. Streaming services craft shows and movies with the expectation that viewers are also looking at their phones, so there is excessive exposition to cue people in when they're distracted. But having to constantly re-explain the plot gets in the way of jokes, and that's something "Police Squad!" is still leagues ahead of compared to many modern comedies (and it's nice that the newest "Naked Gun" movie, which /Film's Ethan Anderton calls "the funniest movie of the year," keeps that spirit intact).

One thing that should astonish you watching "Police Squad!" all these years later is how many jokes are crammed into a single episode, including rapid-fire visual gags and jokes that reward rewatches because you always find something new. That's the other thing; the show has held up incredibly well despite coming out in 1982. The only problem was that it was too funny for ABC; the series never even had a chance to make an impression during its initial run. It would take six more years until "The Naked Gun" would hit cinemas (and probably made the network reconsider its decision).