There is nothing like a good cop show, whether it is on the big silver
screen or the blinking eye of a television. Cop shows abound, and in some
seasons, rule.
And why not? Cop shows are natural harbingers of drama, suspense, action, romance.
There is not a better entertainment setting for the struggle of good and evil,
right and wrong.
There is nothing like a good cop show, whether it is on the big silver
screen or the blinking eye of a television. Cop shows abound, and in some
seasons, rule.
And why not? Cop shows are natural harbingers of drama, suspense, action, romance.
There is not a better entertainment setting for the struggle of good and evil,
right and wrong.
Since the early days of movies, good guys have struggled to overcome bad guys.
Who can, to this day, resist stopping the channel flipping at a Humphrey Bogart
kind of guy, a pompadour hat with the brim turned down, standing in the shadows,
doing his detective work?
So, who is your favorite cop character? Humphrey Bogart whose storyline always
had more romantic interest than struggle with a bad guy? Or maybe you are of
the Dirty Harry generation. You still like to see Clint Eastwood do his Dirty
Harry number, whipping out that .357 magnum and appointing himself judge and
executioner of the worst of the Los Angeles criminals.
Or maybe you like Jack Webb’s Sargeant Friday. Every person in Dragnet
was so stereotyped you never had to wonder who was good and who was bad or even
what they were going to say. He and his sidekick always got their person, and
they always reassured you that the virtues of clean living were steadfast. Sargeant
Friday could lecture someone better than my mother could her kids on Saturday
night after midnight.
How about Robo Cop? Arnold Swartzennegger was half human, half robot and could
go after the worst of criminals in the worst of circumstances and use whatever
armament available to not just shoot, but blow up anyone who challenged the
law. He could perform the worst kind of violence on people and property and
do it all in the name of American justice.
After giving careful thought to this entire genre, I have settled on my favorite
cop of all times: Andy Taylor of Mayberry, RFD.
Think about it. If you have to fantasize about a cop you want in your neighborhood,
wouldn’t you want Andy?
In all the years Andy was on television, he never shot anyone. Heck, as far
as I remember, he never even shot at anyone and only pointed a gun at another
person a couple of times, and the ones on the other end of the gun were the
worst of the worst. I think they had robbed a bank over at Mount Pilot.
Andy was smart. Mmm, mm, he was smart. He could figure out what a bad guy was
going to do before the bad guy knew. And then he would be right where the bad
guy was going when the bad guy got there. Andy was so charming and convincing,
bad guys would just give up and ask Andy to take them to jail.
Of course, Andy’s jail was not such a bad place to be. Aunt Bea had it
fixed up like a spare bedroom. And, on those occasions the bad guys would eat
on the show, Aunt Bea even fixed the meals. The only thing that could have been
judged to be cruel and unusual punishment would have been having to listen to
Barney Fife rant and rave about kids jaywalking while they were on the way home
from school for lunch.
Andy could take the worst situation and, with good sense and common decency
and respect, solve the worst of situations. On a regular basis, he took care
of everything from disquieted lovers stoning the house of the object of their
unreturned affection to shysters who came to rip off the country bumpkins of
Mayberry.
Some folks say that Andy of Mayberry was a silly figment of the imagination
of Americans who grew up in rural areas of the country but moved into the cities.
His popularity was a nostalgic yearning for lost days of yester-year. It was
a yearning for the days when all the policemen you met knew your name and where
you ought to be at that time of day, when you did not worry as much about the
fine of a traffic violation, or an arrest on whatever charge, as you did about
what your neighbors would think.
Well, maybe that’s true. But all movies and television shows are imaginary,
aren’t they? So, if we are going to make up some kind of cop, why not make
up one brimmed full of the best of kindness and common sense rather than one
overflowing with violence and retribution? Are we Americans so frustrated and
angry that we best identify with a cop that points a huge pistol in someone’s
face and snarls, “Go ahead, make my day.” Can we no longer enjoy hearing
a cop say, “Okay, you boys go along home.”
Well, honestly, I do take some encouragement from seeing Andy of Mayberry RFD
reruns every day on various cable channels and, on some days, Andy of Mayberry
RFD marathons. Plus, there haven’t been
any Dirty Harry movies on in some time.
It is also encouraging to see Andy quit as sheriff to practice law. He is still
the same good guy, but I don’t know why he changed his name to Matlock
when Taylor seemed a perfectly good name.