Series / The Good Guys

"The bad guys are a bunch of guys running around with guns. The good guys are a team of guys running around with guns."

—Dan Stark, "$3.52"

The Good Guys is a 2010 summer Buddy Cop Show starring Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks, from the creator of Burn Notice. The Pilot aired as a sneak-peek on May 19th of that year, and the series began its first season on June 7. Unfortunately, the show struggled with low ratings via something of a cult audience, and was cancelled after one season.

Dan Stark (Whitford) is a former brilliant detective who still works as if life were in The '80s, while Jack Bailey (Hanks) is his By-the-Book Cop partner. The show's tone is very much like Burn Notice, but unlike Burn Notice's, The Good Guys runs on distilled Rule of Cool. Over-the-top shootouts and car chases are a regular occurrence, and in general, the show's writers seem to plan the plot purely around what's fun.

Not related to the The '90s British show or 1968 Bob Denver sitcom of the same name.

Tropes:

• Affably Evil: Almost every bad guy there was.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: One of Dan's more irrational ideas about computers.
  Dan: Computers. I can't get used to 'em. Aren't you worried they're gonna, you know, turn on you?
  Jack: I'm not particularly worried my computer's going to attack me, no.
  Dan: Sometimes I just...I look at the one in the office. It's like it's thinking, you know, making plans.
  Jack: Well, until it decides to rise up and overthrow humanity, it's a pretty good tool for police work.
• The Alcoholic: Dan
• Anachronic Order: Every episode! A rewind effect is used to go back and explain things.
• Anti-Villain: Nearly all the villains on the show are Affably Evil and/or not fully comfortable with some or all crimes they commit. Which of course makes the main exceptions,Kyle (and identity thief Vic, seem even worse.
• Armed Altruism: Jack does this in the pilot, despite being specifically told by his superior not to.
• Arson Murder And Life Saving: Jack and Dan clearly expect this after they complete their first case. Then, Da Chief tells them they caused over a million dollars in property damage and violated over 30 procedural rules, and they're lucky they still have their jobs.
• Back for the Finale: Frank Savage.
• Batman Gambit: The villain's plan in "Hunches and Heists", using a bank heist as a feint by setting up one inept, unarmed crew so he can get the cops on the wrong side of the river. Then he detonates explosives on the bridge and sends his real crew after a jewelry store. It works perfectly except that Dan and Jack get there and scare the jewel thieves off, but they still don't manage to catch them.
  • Though it ends up working against them, when the jewel thieves see Bailey and Stark at the site of their intended crime they believe that their boss had an even MORE twisted and brilliant scheme that involved throwing them under the bus too. It doesn't go well for any of the bad guys.
• Berserk Button: As Dr. Laviolette found out, Stark hates it when another man sits in his desk.
• Best Friends-in-Law: In The Getaway one criminal used to work with his girlfriends brother. Even after he betrayed and abandoned them, the guy still likes him (his sister on the other hand, wants her ex dead).
• Betty and Veronica / Tomboy and Girly Girl - Samantha and Liz.
• Big Damn Heroes: Julius and Skeeter in episode 3.
  • Also, the Strike Force in "Supercops."
• Big "NO!": Dan lets out three of these when his trailer blows up.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Kyle
• Bittersweet Ending - Episode 7. Stark & Bailey foil a heist but fail to catch the crooks, and no one believes them. Willie, the bumbling getaway driver who helped them, is sent back to prison for his involvement and breaks his promise to his daughter to go straight.
• Bland-Name Product: In the show, the local paper is called the Dallas Daily News. The actual local papers in Dallas are the Dallas Observer and the Dallas Morning News.
• Blatant Lies: In 1x03, Dan is forced to put a toy gun to Gemini's head since his is in the car. Gemini holds up his hands, then looks in the anti-theft mirror.
  Gemini: That's a toy gun.
  Dan: It's not! It's an orange gun!
• Brick Joke:
  • Played straight... and literally, in the episode "$3.52". At the start of the episode Dan vows to take down the drug smuggling ring with the $3.52 in his pocket. Fast-forward to the last minute of the episode, when everyone believes that the brick of Heroin is long gone. In comes Dan with a flashback to where he buys a brick for three bucks and a nougat bar for fifty cents, loses the two pennies somewhere along the line, and swaps the bricks.
  • A subtle one in "Old Dogs" when they tell one of the police officers that his "party clothes" make him look like a waiter. When he enters the building people start handing him dirty dishes to take away.
  • The Murderin' Jane's drawn in a nurse uniform.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Dan has showed he is quite the competent cop and usually plays up his Obfuscating Stupidity to get close to a suspect, but he would rather do police work the way he did in the 80's rather than the more by the book way of the current time.
• The Brute: Sasha, the Georgians' muscle.
• Buddy Cop Show: Either an Homage, a parody, or both.
• Buffy Speak: A lot like in episode 4.
  "So the dog poisoner is actually a meth-lab-exploder-man?"
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Dan, despite his Cloud Cuckoo Lander nature, is still good at his job.
  • The Duke, a hitman who lives in his mother's basement, is skilled enough to outwit and overpower two U.S. Marshals and Dan.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Julius, especially in the first few episodes.
  • Perry, played by Wayne Knight, spends his appearance getting verbally abused by cops, criminals and even children, as well as having his stuff destroyed and facing the loss of his job and criminal charges.
• By-the-Book Cop: Jack. Initially, anyway - the longer he spends with Dan, the more he bends the rules. He's still way more by-the-book than his partner.
• Car Fu: When in doubt, drive a car through a building.
• Catchphrase: "Let's go bust some punks!"
• Character Filibuster: Dan spends the last two minutes of the final episode calling all CSI techs stupid and how his method is more fun. Bittersweet when you realize this show is getting canceled while the forensic genre of cop shows still is going strong.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • Inverted in "The Whistle-Blower" with the lack of skill a Corrupt Corporate Executive displays playing golf. His lousy stance also causes him to be a poor shot with a gun in the climax.
  • One of the explosive smugglers from "Cop Killer" recently learned how to fix air conditioners in prison. During a Janitor Impersonation Infiltration, he uses this knowledge to correctly answer a Cover Identity Anomaly test question.
• Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Double subverted in "Whistle-blower", to excellent effect.
• Chronic Villainy: Walter DiParco.
• Clear My Name
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Dan has his moments; see the quote under A.I. Is a Crapshoot, above.
• Combat Stilettos: The Professional Killer in "The Whistleblower" wears a pair of prominent stiletto heels while trying to gun down the heroes.
• Cool Car: Dan and his old partner Frank had a 1979 Pontiac Trans Am back in the day, according to Dan. By the end of the pilot, Dan and Jack have one.
  • Lots more show up in the second episode.
• Comically Missing the Point: Dan is a master of it.
  Jack: I read your book. It was boring and repetitive!
  Dan: And repetitive!
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Special mention has to go to Kyle, Liz's (currently ex-) boyfriend.
• Covert Pervert: Samantha was going to draw the Murderin' Jane next in a leather cat suit.
• Cowboy Cop: Dan is one of the ultimate examples.
  • Also played with, Dan clearly knows the rules inside and out and can twist them to suit whatever he wants to do.
    • Cowboy cops are often loners but Dan is the one who often reminds Jack that they're a team.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Nigel.
• Curse Cut Short

  Dan: Crime is like women. When they demand attention, you just gotta whip out your gun and- (car peels away)

• Da Chief: While not technically an actual chief, Ruiz fits most of the conventions of the trope.
• Dark Action Girl: The "Murderin' Jane".
• Deconstructed Trope: While alot of Dan's outdated Cowboy cop methods are surprisingly effective, they're hardly approved in the modern day. Such as when evidence he found must be thrown out due to him having coerced it out of a suspect under(false) threat of harm.
  • Jack dramatically unloads two pistols at a guy at point blank, only to miss every shot. As the criminal calmy points out "its harder than it looks".
• Deconstructive Parody: To the idea of the Cowboy Cop. See trope entry.
• Description Cut / Ironic Echo Cut
• Documentary Episode: Episode 11.
• Dirty Coward: Kyle, complete with instant loss of all audience sympathy. It didn't help that he blamed all of his cowardice on Jack. This later bites him in the butt when Liz realizes that Jack would have never acted in such a cowardly way and breaks up with Kyle
• Drunken Master: Dan can take on the world's second best assassin in a gunfight while heavily drunk. Which is handy, because he's heavily drunk at all times.
• Dynamic Entry: Dan tries to kick down a door in 1x03, "Broken Door Theory". His technique is horrible; he keeps kicking the door too high, on the hinge side of the door instead of the handle. And then, of course, Jack just pushes the door open.
  • And, of course, any time they drive a car through a wall.
  • Lt. Ruiz gets one in "The Whistleblower". She appears from behind a tree and clotheslines a guy hard enough to flip him over.
• Epic Fail: Jack empties two pistol magazines at his opponent at point blank range and manages to miss every shot^note Close examination of the scene reveals that he has his eyes closed, which is an Epic Fail of its own. The assassin shrugs and comments, "It's harder than it looks."
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The Duke again.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: George, Jack's ex-partner, who was The Mole. He believes Jack would also become a mole solely for extra money and a promotion.
• Evil Vegetarian: The Big Bad of episode 7 is a vegan.
• Even Evil Has Standards: When Pedro has a gun to Jack's head, Jack states he is only interested in saving a female hostage that has nothing to do with this situation. After a brief pause Pedro not only allows him to live, but covers him as Jack makes his escape. Pedro later writes to him and tells him he admired his bravery and told his kids about him.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: Subverted hilariously when we find out the guy who was in the trunk of a car pushed off a cliff was not blown up. But he was pissed. What was his Madness Mantra again?
  • Justified in one episode when Dan shoots at a van full of explosives using his "Sunday Gun".
• Exact Words: After being told not to get within a mile of a case, Dan and Jack wait at a drugstore exactly 1.01 miles from the criminals house.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: After a hostage situation where it is revealed that Jack's former partner is a Dirty Cop and took him hostage Jack beats him while venting out his pent-up frustrations until Dan and Frank pull him off. Frank gives him one more kick while he's down.
• Fan Disservice: Dan wearing nothing but lime-green underpants for a sizable portion of "Silvio's Way".
  • Liz doing the same only in a lacy nightgown in "The Getaway", however, is not.

• Fluffy the Terrible: The Georgians' muscle, Sasha, is treated like he's a cherished pet.
• Friend to All Children: Dan. He has kids doing exercises and pushups as part of a community outreach program, and they love him for it. They apparently join the police force at a rate that Lt. Ruiz can only describe as "Alarming."
• Fun with Subtitles: Similar to Burn Notice, it features rather snarky informational subtitles. As with Burn Notice, later episodes start to have more fun with them such as making them a part of the scene they show up in and interact with objects.
• Gambit Pile Up: In Episode 5, Paco arranges to double cross Young to their buyer, Young arranges to do the same to Paco, but the buyer decides to kill them both and steal their drugs.
• Genki Girl: Sam's habit of skipping around the Dallas PD and waving her arms around, not to mention her "getting into the moment" and greeting Liz like a best friend, definitely qualifies her as this.
• Gentleman Thief: The Tech Bandit who just does that for a living to support his real love, blogging about food.
• Gilligan Cut: at least once an episode, usually more often - and all too often involving the equivalent of someone saying "Even Stark wouldn't do X".
• Glory Days: The '80s, for Dan.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: What makes Hodges a terrible cop. He seems to see using an informant as "working with the enemy" and doesn't even consider the robbery to be an inside job because said owner is a doctor. Even after finding out the man insured it three times, he still is completely oblivious.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Or as Dan likes to call it: Good Cop, Sick Cop. He means this literally.
• Good Old Ways: Dan's philosophy, which is perpetually stuck in The '80s.
• Gold Digger: The Doctors girlfriend in "Silence of the Dan". Who only uses said Doctor to max out his credit cards and offers him sex whenever he complains.
• Grammar Nazi: Apparently, Jack got partnered up with Dan because he couldn't resist informing the captain that there's no "statue of limitations" while in front of the Chief.
• Guns Akimbo: Pedro is highly trained and very good at trick shots so he can pull this off, at least according to Hollywood. When Jack tries this it results in the Epic Fail of missing with every round from only a few meters.
  Jack: Not even one?
  Pedro: It's not as easy as it looks.
• Hello, Attorney!: Jack's ex-girlfriend Liz is an assistant D.A. with a pretty face and skirts that rarely fail to subject to her Male Gaze scenes.
• Hero of Another Story: Most of the cases Jack and Dan take on. They stop something big happening but get no respect or recognition for their actions. However Dan is completely fine with this as all he wants to do is stop bad guys.
• Hideous Hangover Cure: Dan's cure for hangovers is a "Guacamonut" (a cinnamon donut dipped in guacamole).
• Hitman with a Heart: Pedro, the world's second best assassin. He's got two kids and is a pretty nice guy who frequently tells people that he doesn't want to have to kill them.
  • That's most likely why he's the world's second best assassin.
    • Not anymore.
• Ho Yay: Some believe there's some of this between Jack and Dan.
  • Invoked (sort of) in "Silence of the Dan", after Jack tells Dan he loves him:
    Dan: You realize this is Texas, right?

• Hypocritical Humor: In 1x03, Jack and Dan are in a store when the suspect walks in. Dan asks where Jack's gun is; in the car. Dan chews him out for it, then is asked where his gun is. It's in the car.
• I Call It "Vera": Frank Savage's gun, which he has named Stella.
• Idiosyncratic Wipes: Normal visually, but accompanied by the sound of a revolver spinning. Occasional variations, such as a Taser sound effect in episode 9.

• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Walter, the worst getaway driver in the business. Also a Minion with an F in Evil. He is such a bad getaway driver his favorite getaway car is a station wagon.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: In Small Rooms, Dan shoots out the tire of an escaping vehicle with one shot while he's also doing the driving.
• Is It Something You Eat?: Inverted in episode 18 when a Middle Eastern restaurant being used as a front for diamond smuggling is robbed and the owner tries to cover it up.
  smuggler/restaurateur: It's a Middle Eastern restaurant. What's there to steal, falafel?
  Dan: Depends. What exactly is falafel? Is it a drug, 'cause if it is you're under arrest-
  Jack: It's a food, Dan. It's fried chickpeas. It's safe to say no one was here to steal that.
• It's All About Me:

• Jerkass: Assistant Chief Guthrie of Internal Affairs is this full stop, since his Pet the Dog moment at the end of the episode in which he first appeared occurs rather begrudgingly and up until that point he was a completely unlikeable Smug Snake.

• Karma Houdini: Liz's BF Kyle in the whistle-blower episode. He does get dumped by Liz for lying to make himself good (and Jack look bad), though, so he doesn't go completely unpunished.
• Karmic Death: In one episode, the villains get away because Jack and Dan's ride is totaled, but then they kill each other in a shootout.
• Kavorka Man: Dan.
  • Well, he is Josh Lyman. The ladies, they can sense it.
• Lampshade Hanging: The show is very self aware.
  "And there was a giant explosion, which, as far as I can tell, is a recurring motif in a staggering number of your cases."
• Large Ham: Brad Whitford.
• Le Parkour: Done by a graffiti tagger who Jack and Dan are chasing attempting to chase in the opening sequence of "The Getaway".
• Let Them Die Happy: A variant in Little Things, where no deception is involved. The Affably Evil villains of the episode give a man who smuggle them across the border a very large wad of cash, then shoot him seconds later for knowing too much and retrieve the money from his body. It's stated that they gave him the money before killing him (as opposed to just shooting him before giving him the money) so that he would have that moment of happiness first.
• Magic Plastic Surgery: Played with in the pilot. Escalante demands that the plastic surgeon make him look exactly like Erik Estrada. The surgeon is somewhat afraid to tell him that it doesn't work like that.
• Malaproper: Dan. In the first episode, he manages to mispronounce 'humidifier' in several different ways, and he gets worse from there.
• Male Gaze: Liz as a hooker and US Marshal Justine Marino.
• Manchild: The Governor's son. Doesn't help that Dan still sees him as the child he saved all those years ago.
• Memento Macguffin: When trying to convince Frank, who had tossed everything from his and Dan's partner days away, to help him save the governor's son, Dan notes there's one thing he didn't get rid of... his mustache. This is what convince him to help.
• Mexican Standoff: With actual Mexicans!
• Meaningful Echo: Much of the scenes in "Silence of the Dan" between Jack and Hodges mirror the first few episodes of the series. You have the uptight, fastidious, by the book cop (Hodges) with a more senior partner (Jack) who reminisces about stuff their old partner did.
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: The higher-ups paired Dan with Jack and send them to investigate minor crimes to keep them out of trouble, but they always stumble across something much bigger.
• Mistaken for Badass: Maxson from episode 4 who was blowing up every meth lab in Dallas was just a concerned father, who cries a lot.
• Mistaken for Dying: Stark turned out to have gotten a toxic reaction from his indigestion meds which have been out of circulation for 20 years.
• Mistaken for Gay: In episode 18, when Dan and Jack track down the stolen diamonds to a strip mall jewelry shop and the owner blows them off.
  soon-to-be-Asshole Victim, on the phone: All right, yeah, sorry, uh, one of the Village People wants to buy a ring for his boyfriend.
• Dirty Cop / The Mole - Kristen Kirsten
• Motive Rant: In the pilot, drug cartel thug Escalante sends his boss/cousin a letter describing his Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal (among other things, he gets paid less than his cousins pool boy).
• Ms. Fanservice:
  • Liz. Although naturally, it's far from all she is. Her hooker outfit from "Common Enemies" counts in-universe as well, turning the heads of everyone in the room and rendering Jack unable to stand up.
  • Samantha too, thanks to Nerds Are Sexy.
  • Most of the female guest stars seem to be aiming for this, really.
• Nerds Are Sexy: Lampshaded in 1x20.
  George: Along with that strangely attractive nerd with the Urkel glasses.
• Newscaster Cameo: Several episodes featured news reports from local Fox affiliate KDFW Channel 4, being read by long-time anchor Clarice Tinsley.
• Nice to the Waiter: In "The Little Things", a pizza manager is quick to reveal information about a customer who Jack and Dan tell him is an Identity thief because the man has ordered over a thousand pizzas without ever tipping.
• No Name Given: "The Murderin' Jane".
• Noodle Incident: Stark and Ruiz blowing up a taco truck (implied that it contained evidence) and whatever Stark tried to do with the Dallas Task Force's battering ram, and the time Dan almost made lieutenant and decided to go out with Frank to celebrate.
  Dan: At the end of the night, they found us trapped in a city garbage truck... buck naked. We did not make lieutenant.
• Not What I Signed Up For: Lee the translator in The Dim Knight had no idea he was accepting a job for a murderous drug trafficker and is constantly terrified across the episode and in one scene is angrily calling the guy who got him the job to ask what he was thinking.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Dan. He will often be going along with an obvious con or liking a clear sleazeball, but he later reveals he was faking it very convincingly to get the targets guard down.
• Once More, with Clarity
• One of the Boys: Samantha
• Pastiche: Of the Buddy Cop Show genre: all the reasons those techniques no longer work in the present, and barely worked in the past, while holding onto the things that made them so much fun to watch.
• Product Placement: Bailey distracting Hodges by talking about his lunch from KFC.
• Professional Killer: The world's best and second best assassins, who appear in the first episode.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni / Sensitive Guy and Manly Man
• Retired Badass: Frank
• Right Behind Me: Done with style in episode 2
  (Kiersten flirts with Jack, giggles and walks away)
  Dan: What is your freaking problem? Kristen is offering herself up to you on a platter. It's like this woman is in heat.
  Jack: Dan, her name is Kiersten.
  Dan: Hey, man, doesn't matter what her name is. You're never gonna see her naked.
  (camera pans up to reveal Kiersten's returned)
  Dan: I know I won't.
• Rousing Speech
  Stark: You wanna make a movie about lab wienies or do you wanna make a movie about cops?
• Running Gag: In "Silence of the Dan", Jack and Dan are looking for a missing piece of art that is designed to look different for each person. Que someone stating some weird image that is on the picture every time they see it.
• Scenery Porn: Well, sort of, for Dallas natives anyway. If you're familiar with the Big D you will squee at least Once an Episode as you recognize some landmark. In fact the whole reason the show is set in Dallas is because the director stating that is the city you want to see a city shot of every episode.
• Shoot the Builder: In "The Little Things", a pair of cartel members who rob their bosses to start a new life attempt to kill the men selling them their new fake IDs.
• Shown Their Work: Very accurate regarding North Texas geography and life. The working title, Code 58, is the real Dallas PD code for "routine investigation."

• Sitcom Archnemesis: Hodges & Lang.
• Skewed Priorities: One of the major problems with Dan as he treats every minor case as if it was a high priority and will do things that counter any actual good. Such as when he ran through a $300 glass window to catch a petty dine-and-dasher.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Dr. Laviolette thinks of himself as an expert forensic scientists and hot on the trail of a master criminal. Said criminal doesn't even care about him and Jack, who thought he was great at the beginning, wanted to strangle him after meeting him for a few minutes.
• Smokescreen Crime: One episode has the Villain of the Week set up a bank robbery to be performed by expendable henchmen (including "the worst getaway driver in the business"). This was only meant to draw the entire Dallas police force to that location so the villain could set off explosives on the bridge between the cops and a jewelry store, which was his real target. Jack and Dan figure out the plot just in time to scare the thieves off, but aren't able to catch them. Their presence does make the legitimately dangerous crooks wonder if their Manipulative Bastard of a boss had set them up to be the fall guys, however, leading them all to kill each other off.
• Spanner in the Works: Dan and Jack will completely foil a big crime solely because they follow a Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot. More often than not it's because the criminals thinks the police are onto them when they clearly have no idea.
• Status Quo Is God: No matter how heroic Stark and Bailey are, they will never be promoted.
• Straight Edge Evil: Dolph from episode 7.
• Take That!: Ep. 1-20, "Partners" there's an ambiguous one, which is why it's here and not on the main page
  George: I'm the kind of guy you want to have a beer with.
  Jack: I had a beer with you, George. It wasn't that great.
  • They also mocked a certain CBS show in episode 3.
    Dan: It's called the Broken Door theory. I saw it on that cop show starring that leprechaun who never takes off his glasses
• Taking a Third Option: A somewhat sleazy one happens when Kyle is introduced. Two coworkers approach him for advice after discovering their boss is a Corrupt Corporate Executive. One of them wants to turn him in to the police, and the other is terrified of them being fired and black-balled and wants to bury their evidence. Kyle proposes that instead of giving the information to the police or ignoring, they sell the information to a corporate competitor, who will naturally reveal the information anyway in order to discredit his competitor. That way their boss faces justice, but their names stay out of it, and the three of them (naturally he wants a cut) get a nice bundle of cash from the competitor to boot.
• This Is Reality: In "The Dim Knight." Dan is bummed when the guy he imagined as a shrewd criminal mastermind turns out to be a mild-mannered dad who was causing meth lab explosions by accident.
• Three Lines, Some Waiting: Frequently employed.
• Title Drop: Dan does this twice in episode 6, "Small Rooms."
• Token Good Cop: Many cops in the show are Lawful Stupid (with the odd Dirty Cop thrown in) and disregard some correct hunches of Dan Stark (who avoids this trope himself, despite his heroic instincts and keen nose for crime, due to being an occasional pervert with no grasp of the roles forensic and surveillance technology or Due Process play in modern policing). Dan's partner Jack, while not quite as smart as he thinks he is, tries to rein in Dan's worst excesses, hear out his theories, and support him in a fight. By the last quarter of the show, the same can be said of eager forensics tech Samantha and a post-Defrosting the Ice Queen Lieutenant Ruiz.
• Trash the Set: Dan's trailer gets blown up in episode 19.
• Troubled Sympathetic Bigot: Played for Laughs with Eric in "Small Rooms" who believes his brother to have been killed by a Guatemalan gang, and burned the Guatemalan flag at his funeral, as well as smashing the windows of Guatemalan restaurants. He seems kind of chagrined in addition to being angry when he finds out that wasn't what really happened.
• True Companions: The Georgians and Sasha, with Sasha being arrested buying the others time to escape and them working hard to get him out of jail.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Molly DiParco.
• Villainous Breakdown: Senator Buddy Haverton after realizing he's in a police sting. Also has shades of an Alas, Poor Villain moment.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Happens several times. Notably Mr. Spivey, the meth kingpin/home owners association president from The Dim Knight.
• Wardens Are Evil: Done unusually in Vacation. The Warden isn't sadistic, but corrupt, taking bribes to help prisoners escape from jail.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Hodges' partner Lang who disappeared for many episodes. He said he was on vacation.
• Who's Laughing Now?: Escalante in the pilot when he returns for revenge against his cartel cousin.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Dan Stark acts as if life is an Eighties Buddy Cop Action Comedy, which nearly everyone else on the show disagrees with him about. He's actually right more often than not - although not all the time, since the show is an Indecisive Parody that runs on Rule of Cool and Rule of Funny.
  • Meanwhile, Jack goes around thinking that this is a standard Police Procedural with him as the By-the-Book Cop. He's right on the latter, most of the time, but wrong in that this show is more a send-up of procedurals.
  • In one episode, the governor's son is apparently kidnapped and Dan and his old partner decide to leap into things, thinking they're once more the mavericks taking charge...unaware that the police consider them the prime suspects.
  • Also, many of the criminals make the assumption Dan and Jack are truly competent and brilliant policemen to be on their trial, unaware that half the time, the duo have no idea of the crime schemes they're unravelling. More than once, a crook will snarl at the two of them on his case when they have no clue who he is.

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