Police Squad!
Testimony of Evil (Dead Men Don't Laugh)
TV Flash files “Testimony of Evil (Dead Men Don't Laugh)” as a desk essential hour — Police Squad! (1982) on ABC, season 1, episode 6, aired 1982-07-08, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E06: listed hour 6 of 6 in the Police Squad! guide, last listed hour of season 1. It aired 1982-07-08 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Rendezvous at Big Gulch (Terror in the Neighborhood)” (S01E05). No later hour is listed in this guide.
Essential hour: “Testimony of Evil (Dead Men Don't Laugh)”. Testimony of Evil (Dead Men Don't Laugh) is the sixth and last: the epitaph ABC wrote by canceling a show for requiring eyes.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
The death of a nightclub comic takes Frank undercover to investigate a suspected drug ring.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Testimony of Evil (Dead Men Don't Laugh) sit in the Police Squad! guide?
S01E06 is listed hour 6 of 6 — last listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 6.
When did Police Squad! S01E06 air?
Testimony of Evil (Dead Men Don't Laugh) aired 1982-07-08 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…