Police Squad!
Rendezvous at Big Gulch (Terror in the Neighborhood)
TV Flash files “Rendezvous at Big Gulch (Terror in the Neighborhood)” as a desk essential hour — Police Squad! (1982) on ABC, season 1, episode 5, aired 1982-07-01, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E05: listed hour 5 of 6 in the Police Squad! guide, hour 5 of 6 in season 1. It aired 1982-07-01 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Revenge and Remorse (The Guilty Alibi)” (S01E04). Next is “Testimony of Evil (Dead Men Don't Laugh)” (S01E06).
Essential hour: “Rendezvous at Big Gulch (Terror in the Neighborhood)”. Rendezvous at Big Gulch (Terror in the Neighborhood) is compact master class: the jokes still in the background if you look up.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Frank and Norberg go undercover to investigate a protection racket.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Rendezvous at Big Gulch (Terror in the Neighborhood) sit in the Police Squad! guide?
S01E05 is listed hour 5 of 6 — hour 5 of 6 in season 1, season 1 episode 5.
When did Police Squad! S01E05 air?
Rendezvous at Big Gulch (Terror in the Neighborhood) aired 1982-07-01 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Is that really the whole show — six episodes?
Yes. ABC, 1982, then cancellation for requiring too much attention. The Naked Gun movies are the revenge tour. A compact master class; there is no backlog to fear.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Six episodes. That's the entire series. Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker visual-gag density with Leslie Nielsen discovering deadpan as a religion, then ABC canceled it for requiring too much attention. The Naked Gun movies are the revenge tour. A compact master class in background jokes that punish anyone who only listens.
Six episodes. That is the entire silhouette. ABC, 1982: Detective Frank Drebin investigates with nonstop background gags and straight-faced absurdity — Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker visual-gag density, Leslie Nielsen discovering deadpan as a religion, Alan North as Capt. Ed Hocken, Peter Lupus as Norberg. Police Squad! is a look that requires eyes. *Background jokes as tailoring, deadpan as a costume, a frame packed until it photographs as a dare.* Style is the plot. If you only listen, you are watching half the show —…
Filed against
- Leslie Nielsen as Det. Frank Drebin
Leslie Nielsen discovered deadpan as a religion playing Det. Frank Drebin on Police Squad! — six episodes of Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker visual-gag density before ABC decided attention was too much to ask. Background jokes as a full-time job.…
- Alan North as Capt. Ed Hocken
Alan North’s Capt. Ed Hocken straight-faced Police Squad!’s entire six-episode life — Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker visual-gag density, Leslie Nielsen discovering deadpan as a religion, ABC canceling it for requiring too much attention. The…
- Peter Lupus as Norberg
Peter Lupus’s Willy Armitage was Mission: Impossible’s human set piece — IMF muscle as a specialist, strength as one instrument in a weekly machine of disguises and briefings. Competence was the glamour. TV Flash still files the strongman…