A lot of people can be credited with beginning something and some folks have managed to earn a lot of praise when it comes to their contributions to entertainment, but John Langley is one of those that managed to create a show that endured for longer than a lot of people thought it would. The creator of the reality show Cops passed away recently at the age of 78 due to a heart attack apparently while he was with his son at the Coast to Coast Ensenada-San Filipe off-road race in Baja, Mexico. Off-road racing had been a big part of his life and a favored hobby for a while as John had started up his own team years ago. It’s a tragic end to a life that was obviously spent having a good time with family, and at this time one can only hope that his loved ones are being given their time to grieve rather than answer a host of questions about the man and what his life meant to so many. While he did create several other projects during his time, Cops was most definitely John’s biggest and most well-known creation since it managed to stick around until 2020 when anti-police sentiment grew exponentially following the death of George Floyd.
The show started out in 1989 and lasted for 32 seasons before being taken off the air, which is definitely impressive and kind of amusing since if there’s one show that criminals appear to enjoy watching while they’re in jail it was Cops. That’s not an exaggeration since many inmates would admit that during their allowable TV time that many of them would in fact choose to watch Cops over many other programs. It’s hard to say why anyone that’s already in jail would want to watch a program based on the people that put them there, but this is apparently something that happens. It’s likely that most of those that watch the show don’t give a lot of thought to the person that came up with the idea, but it’s simply amusing to think of an inmate sitting down to watch Cops while being entertained. It’s not that surprising, just amusing.
It does sound like the earlier attempt that Langley came up with three years before Cops debuted, American Vice: The Doping of a Nation, might have laid the groundwork in his mind for the show that would one day become his greatest creation since the initial show was roughly the same as Cops was in that a camera operator would follow law enforcement officials on a bust. When he brought the initial idea for Cops to the table not long after though he was denied in a very big way. After finally getting the attention of a Fox executive he was told that he would need a narrator, would have to perform reenactments and would need music to go along with it. Langley said no to each one and stuck to his guns, which was kind of unprecedented since Fox was trying to make a show of it, while Langley wanted the program to be honest and realistic. Obviously the liability that would come with such an act had to be taken into account, but eventually, the project was given the green light and as the saying goes, the rest is history.
Cops actually became so well known that it filtered throughout a good part of pop culture over the years as one sitcom after another and even several movies made use of the show’s popularity and even went so far as to parody the show in a number of different ways. Two of my personal favorites came during the show Married…With Children and My Name is Earl, which both created their own version of the show in a manner that was hilarious and highly memorable. Some might want to say that the shows were mocking Cops in a way, but in truth, they were taking a well-known formula and applying humor to it in a way that would make sense to people and make it clear that the original show wasn’t being openly attacked. The only real attacks on the show came in 2020 when Cops had no choice but to shut down due to issues with the murder of George Floyd.
Langley was given a star on the Walk of Fame for his contribution to TV and was celebrated throughout the years as he won a few different awards and saw his show enjoy one of the longest runs on TV. The fact that Cops was taken off the air is a bit ludicrous, but at the same time, all great things must come to an end at some point. All we can say now is that we hope his family is holding together in these trying times. Rest in peace sir, you’ll be missed.
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