COPS
What Were They Thinking #1
TV Flash files “What Were They Thinking #1” as hour 747 of 1267 in the TV Flash guide — COPS (1989–present) on Fox, season 20, episode 32, aired 2008-06-07, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S20E32: listed hour 747 of 1267 in the COPS guide, hour 32 of 38 in season 20. It aired 2008-06-07 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Coast to Coast #141” (S20E31). Next is “What Were They Thinking # 2” (S20E33). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
When officers in Portland, OR, are dispatched on a hit and run call, a K-9 unit sniffs out the suspect. In Las Vegas, a man on a bike is stopped, but during questioning, a vehicle crashes nearby and the man takes off. Officers pursue the vehicle and the suspects. Deputies in Leon County, FL, question the driver of a suspicious vehicle and a routine search of the vehicle turns up a not-so-routine discovery.
Viewer FAQ
Where does What Were They Thinking #1 sit in the COPS guide?
S20E32 is listed hour 747 of 1267 — hour 32 of 38 in season 20, season 20 episode 32.
When did COPS S20E32 air?
What Were They Thinking #1 aired 2008-06-07 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Is there a host or a script?
Ride-along vérité: handheld cameras, minimal narration, chaos scored to "Bad Boys." The format is the author.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Handheld ride-alongs set to a reggae hook: policing as weekly spectacle, no narrator required. The format that taught reality TV how to chase, cuff, and cut. Controversial by design — vérité as entertainment, neighborhoods as set, and a chorus that still follows every squad-car clip. View it as craft and as argument; it was always both.
Visual first: handheld grain, a reggae hook, neighborhoods framed as set, no narrator to soften the silhouette. John Langley and Malcolm Barbour's Fox series premiered in 1989 and became a syndication staple through the 1990s. *Ride-along vérité as weekly spectacle.* Inner Circle's *Bad Boys* is inseparable from the brand — the chorus that still follows every squad-car clip. **This was not a procedural costume; this was policing photographed as entertainment.**