| The Mod Squad | |
|---|---|
Title Screen |
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| Format | Police Drama |
| Created by | Bud Ruskin |
| Starring | Michael Cole Clarence Williams III Peggy Lipton Tige Andrews |
| Theme music composer | Earle Hagen |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 123 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 min |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | September 24, 1968 – August 23, 1973 |
The Mod Squad is a television series that ran on ABC from September 24, 1968, until August 23, 1973. This series starred Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton, Clarence Williams III, and Tige Andrews. The executive producers of the series were Aaron Spelling and Danny Thomas.
In 1997, the episode "Mother of Sorrow" was ranked #95 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.[1]
Contents |
The Mod Squad was a police drama that featured three young, hip crime fighters. One White, One Black, One Blonde, was the promotional hype-line. The casting was intended to appeal to a youthful, counterculture audience. The basic premise was that the youthful investigators were offered work fighting crime as an alternative to being incarcerated themselves. The show's primary premise centered on the three cops using their youthful, hippie personas as a guise to get close to the criminals they investigated. The show was moderately popular during its initial run of five seasons and 123 episodes. Tige Andrews (Captain Adam Greer), Michael Cole (Peter Cochran), Peggy Lipton (Julie Barnes), and Clarence Williams III (Lincoln "Linc" Hayes) starred. The show portrayed a multicultural society and dealt with issues of racial politics, drug culture, and counterculture.
The show was loosely based on Bud Ruskin's experiences in the late 1950s as a squad leader for undercover narcotics cops, though it took almost 10 years after he wrote a script for the idea to be given the greenlight by ABC television studios.
A TV reunion movie, The Return of Mod Squad, aired on ABC May 18, 1979.
In 1999, the series was adapted into a film of the same name by MGM starring Giovanni Ribisi, Omar Epps, Claire Danes, and Dennis Farina.
CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released the first two seasons of The Mod Squad on DVD in Region 1.
| DVD name | Ep # | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| Season 1, Volume 1 | 13 | December 18, 2007 |
| Season 1, Volume 2 | 13 | March 11, 2008 |
| Season 2, Volume 1 | 13 | November 25, 2008 |
| Season 2, Volume 2 | 13 | May 26, 2009 |