Sunday, August 12, 2012

Daytime Heroes: C. O. P. S. (1988)

Here's a toy tie-in series, based on a Hasbro property, that wasn't produced by Marvel Productions. C. O. P. S. (The acronym stands for Central Organization of Police Specialists) aired initially in syndication in 1988, produced by DIC and distributed through Claster Productions, which usually handled distribution for Marvel & Sunbow's series.

C. O. P. S. was set in the year 2020, where a mobster code-named Big Boss has taken control of Empire City, leaving it up to a specialized team of officers. On the surface, it's a reworking of GI Joe, substituting cops & robbers for military characters. Like, was Hasbro really fooling anyone? Apparently not, as the show was cancelled after 1 season, only to return, as a weekly series of reruns under the name CyberCOPS on CBS in 1993, presumably as a mid-season replacement. The name change was to avoid confusion with a certain Fox reality series that far outlasted the cartoon.

Here's the open:



The series was blessed with terrific animation, though some of the villainous characters had all the presence of stale bread.

Rating: A-.

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