John Langley (born June 1, 1943) is an American television and film director, writer, and producer who is best known as the creator and executive producer of the long-running television show COPS, which premiered on FOX in March 1989.
Prior to that, he was among the reality television pioneers as a producer of various two-hour event specials in syndicated television markets during the 1980s. In fact, Langley is often credited as being the "father of reality television" with the appearance of COPS in 1989.[1]
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Langley worked the intelligence unit of the United States Army from 1961 to 1963 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 1971 and later a Master's degree in literature and composition.[2]
Langley briefly participated in the doctorate program for philosophy in University of California, Irvine.[2] Among Langley's credits are American Vice: The Doping of a Nation, featuring three "live" drug busts across the United States during primetime viewing; Who Murdered JFK, an examination of the John F. Kennedy assassination; and Terrorism: Target U.S.A., an early warning of the coming problems with terrorism in the United States as well as across the world. Langley's credits also include various network, cable and syndicated TV shows, including the television series Code 3, Anatomy of Crime, Video Justice, and Cop Files.
He has also produced various independent films and directed film and documentary film, including the Dolph Lundgren workout video Maximum Potential, Dogwatch, Tiptoes and Wildside. His most notable achievement perhaps is the innovation of the "video verite" signature style of the award-winning COPS television program, which notably influenced TV advertising and news reporting, not to mention other network and syndicated programming. COPS has broken records for primetime network television with nearly 800 episodes aired (as of 2008).[3]
Langley was a producer of Antoine Fuqua's Brooklyn's Finest, which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 2009.[4][5]
Langley also produced a television series called Inside American Jail for TruTV with his son Morgan. In an innovative move, the show was also sold to and airs as Jail on MyNetworkTV. Jail is also an unscripted series following corrections officers as they process suspects through city and county jails. Morgan Langley is credited as co-creator of the new series, which incorporates the video verite style of COPS. Father and son then produced Las Vegas Jailhouse as yet another examination of crime and the justice system in America. Fox Home Entertainment released Langley's COPS 20th Anniversary DVD on February 19, 2008. The 2 disc DVD edition has a wealth of bonus material and footage shot over the past 20 years in a 388 minute extravaganza that includes spoofs and tributes, famous fan favorites, the history of the show and various specials and spinoffs.
COPS has been renewed for its 23rd broadcast season (2010/2011) on Fox while continuing its national run on syndicated and cable TV, thus becoming one of the longest running entertainment show in television history.
During the 2010/2011 television season, Langley was also responsible for the following series running concurrently: COPS,' Jail, Las Vegas Jailhouse, Street Patrol and Vegas Strip". More recent TV shows include Road Warriors on SPIKE.
Langley has won various awards for the COPS television series, including the American Television Award and four Emmy Award nominations. Other awards include the Cine Golden Eagle and Houston International Film Festival winner for the documentary Cocaine Blues. His DVDs, moreover, have won various awards for greatest sales records in the mid 1990s when he founded Real Entertainment and pioneered the reality DVD market with VHS releases of multiple reality titles like COPS: Too Hot for TV and The Amazing Video Collection. The term Too Hot for TV was coined and trademarked by Langley during this period and was used in marketing until he sold the company.
John Langley was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February 2011 for his contributions to television.