On this day March 11 1989 the groundbreaking reality TV show Cops premiered on Fox. The series followed real police officers on patrol capturing high-intensity arrests and crime responses with its signature handheld camera style.
Cops became one of the longest-running television series in history airing for 32 seasons with 1103 episodes. Its raw unscripted footage and iconic Bad Boys theme song by Inner Circle made it a cultural phenomenon shaping the reality TV landscape for decades.
80s insight: Cops was one of the first reality shows to use real police footage and was originally created due to a writer’s strike in Hollywood which led networks to seek unscripted programming.