Canceled 90s buddy cop show?
July 15, 2012 6:49 PM   Subscribe

Help me remember this canceled buddy cop show from the 90s.

This would have been around 1991 or 1992, and all I can remember is a scene from probably the pilot episode, with the two cops running and chasing someone, and one of them is dragging a chicken that he accidentally shot with his taser. I want to say it was called "Hardball", but neither the 1989 or 1994 series by that name looks right. I want to say one of the cops was Hispanic, and one of them (possibly the same one) wore a baseball cap.
posted by xedrik to Media & Arts (13 answers total)
 
Bakersfield PD?
posted by mistersix at 7:00 PM on July 15, 2012


New York Undercover?
posted by iconomy at 7:06 PM on July 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


I think this might be part of the pilot but I'm not sure.
posted by iconomy at 7:10 PM on July 15, 2012


Not that this helps but cops didn't have tasers in '91. I don't think they were even widely distributed until the late 90's. It's unlikely that a TV show would depict tasers before they were well known.
posted by chairface at 7:14 PM on July 15, 2012


Response by poster: Neither Bakersfield PD or New York Undercover seem to be it. I'm thinking it may have had a one-word title, possibly with an exclamation mark at the end. As for the taser, they may not have been cops, maybe PIs or something... but I distinctly remember the bit with him running down the street, dragging the chicken behind him, still stuck by the taser wires.
posted by xedrik at 7:45 PM on July 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


You might've seen this already, but - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_police_television_dramas
posted by blaneyphoto at 7:47 PM on July 15, 2012


Sledgehammer?
posted by Cuspidx at 7:49 PM on July 15, 2012


There was a show called Hardball. Richard Tyson was the star of this failure of a buddy cop program.
I actually have a personal story about this show. Richard Tyson, or "Bama" as he was known to his friends, was a regular around the Santa Monica public basketball courts at that time, and my then-boyfriend and his brother had become friends with him playing pick-up. The night Bama won the gig for Hardball, he showed up at my boyfriend and his brother's apartment in Brentwood (where we happened to be getting baked and playing Zelda), with a bottle of champagne and a limo sitting out front. He wasn't looking to party with us, he was looking to celebrate with my boyfriend's brother (we were awfully young), but since we were the only ones home, he decided to treat us to the fanciest dinner that either my boyfriend or I had ever had. Thanks, Bama. Sorry your cop show sucked. You were scary in Kindergarten Cop.
posted by msali at 8:41 PM on July 15, 2012 [4 favorites]


Dammit, I just Read the Question, and realized you had already eliminated the 1989 Hardball as a suspect. Mea culpa. I just got so excited to tell my story!
posted by msali at 9:01 PM on July 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


Sledgehammer would never use a taser!
posted by Packed Lunch at 9:19 PM on July 15, 2012 [2 favorites]


For some reason, I keep thinking of Running Scared, funny but tense white/black buddy cop movie with Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal. Came out in 1986, a full year before the first Lethal Weapon, you'll notice. I think there was a shortlived TV version with a different name...
posted by likeso at 10:23 PM on July 15, 2012


Best answer: My guess is Grand Slam, a short-lived 1990 show starring John Schneider and Paul Rodriguez as bounty hunters. Schneider plays a former baseball player nicknamed "Hardball," and according to the sole user review on IMDb, Rodriguez's character uses "some kind of ancient taser device."

The pilot premiered in January 1990, following the Super Bowl, and was released on video (outside the US) under the name "Dead Trouble." The series was canceled by March of the same year.
posted by alyxstarr at 9:16 AM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: That's it, alyxstarr! It all fits. Awesome, thank you!
posted by xedrik at 11:43 PM on August 1, 2012


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