C.O.P.S., which stands for Central Organization of Police Specialists, was an animated series produced by DiC Entertainment that ran from 1988 to 1989 as one of the many Merchandise DrivenSixty Five Episode Cartoons made for syndication. A few years later, it had a brief run on CBS' Saturday morning schedule under the name Cyber COPS. The show was based on a toy line called C.O.P.S 'n' Crooks, which were futuristic police and criminal based action figures produced by Hasbro.Set in the year 2020, the show took place in the metropolis Empire City. The main story revolved around Agent Baldwin P. Vess, codename Bulletproof, who has been sent out to stop Big Boss (no relation), a criminal mastermind who has taken over the city. However, after being attacked by the henchmen of Big Boss and suffering a near-fatal wound, Vess is taken to the hospital and given a new bullet-resistant torso. While he is recovering, he contacts Officer P.J. O'Malley (aka LongArm) and rookie Donny Brooks (HardTop) to find the best law enforcement officers around. They are able to recruit several people. Among them are David E. "Highway" Harlson, Colt "Mace" Howards, Stan "Barricade" Hyde, Tina "Mainframe" Cassidy, Walker "Sundown" Calhoun, Suzie "Mirage" Young, Hugh S. "Bullseye" Forward, and Rex "Bowser" Pointer and his robot dog, Blitz. Together these people make up C.O.P.S., using their combined power to stop Big Boss.At the very same time as the cartoon, there was also a C.O.P.S. comic book by DC Comics, which had a much different storyline that was Darker and Edgier.Not to be confused with the live action series COPS. Compare with You're Under Arrest!, an anime with a similar (if not more realistic & relatively modern) perspective.
Dating Catwoman: The affair between Sgt. Mace and Nightshade.
Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Nightshade entering, then ripping off, a beauty pageant (which she would've won fairly, had she held off for five minutes).
Even Evil Has Standards: Big Boss refusing to help sell a designer drug because "drugs kill".
Big Boss' decision was probably influenced by his nephew Berserko nearly dying from an accidental overdose of the drug.
He'd already turned the dealer down before then. Berserko's near-death led to a temporary truce between the C.O.P.S. team and Big Boss' gang until they caught the drug dealer.
Berserko in The Case Of The Bogus Bride. I guess polygamy is illegal in Empire City according to Berserko.
Berserko: I can't marry both of them. It ain't legal!!
Every Skateboard Is A Pinto: One episode ("Case of the Bogus Justice Machines") has two kids fall off their skateboards which run into a stack of boxes and explode. Seriously.
Every Episode Ending: Bulletproof gives the lowdown on how everything ultimately turned out and says "Case Closed".
Everything Is Big In Texas: Sundown specifically points this out when he can't fit into Turbo Tu-Tone's superspeed suit. "Shoot, this thing's plum too small! Sorry, but we're grown big down in Texas."
Flowers for Algernon Syndrome: In "The Case of The Brilliant Berserko", Berserko steals a "chess crown" meant to augment intelligence and becomes a well-mannered (if still criminal) supergenius. In the middle of the episode, the battery momentarily fails, setting up the common "it's just temporary" plot - but subverting it when he gets it working again almost immediately.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: The flowers that were mentioned stolen for Berserko's wedding, when you see them at the wedding, are wreaths that say "R.I.P." on them.
In the episode with the cave man, Buttons walks by a figurine of a woman with exposed nipples, picks it up, and looks at it, before walking off with it.
Mirage's cleavage in the Berserko wedding episode.
Lampshaded in one episode, where a waiter asks Mace if he wants a cocktail, and Mace says he doesn't drink. The waiter says, "very good, sir!", walks off, and promptly says, "normally I wouldn't have said that, but this is television..."
Lampshade Hanging: In the final issue of the comic, the team went after Big Boss for an unpaid parking ticket, knowing that his gang would try to stop them—and racking up tons of charges they could pin on the previously untouchable Big Boss. As he was being put in the paddy wagon, he proclaimed that they'd never be able to make the charges stick, and that sort of thing happened only in comic books. Bulletproof turned to the reader and said, "That's good enough for me."
Lawful Stupid: When Ms. Demeanor is arrested and sentenced to an experimental rehabilitation program, she is made to wear a mind-altering tiara that forces her to abide to the law. All laws. By the book. She finds a car parked three inches out of a space into a red zone and lifts it out by hand, destroying its tires (and presumably its suspension) when she drops it back down. The judge decides to pull the plug on the project when she arrests him for littering.
Leave Him to Me: When Sundown's crooked former partner comes calling, he's taken off the case because it's too close to him - but he just can't let Johnny Yuma get away without a word.
Manchild: Berserko and Rock Crusher are both essentially giant children. The Baby Badguys are this to the point that they mess up their own plans fighting over a rattle.
Oh Crap: All of the Crooks have a shocked/horrified expression as they're caught in the opening.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Virtually all of the COPS and Crooks, to the point that Longarm is exclusively referred to by his codename by both his father and his son.
Power Fist: Big Boss has a cybernetic right hand that gets a workout whenever he gets really steamed.
Pretty in Mink: A few, such as a huge white fox coat among the prizes Nightshade tried to steal from a Beauty Contest. It turns out she could have even kept it if she hadn't tried to steal them.
Punny Name: Many of the names, including "Ms. Demeanor".
The Quiet One: Buttons McBoomBoom has speaking roles in very few episodes. Adding on to this he has a low sinister voice.
Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: Big Boss does this while working on his keynote speech for the crime convention. "The hotel management would like me to inform you that someone has been stealing towels. Pause for laugh..."
Right-Hand Cat: Big Boss' pet Scratch is actually a weasel, because subtlety is for chumps.
Rogues Gallery: Fittingly enough, given that this is a police show. The recurring enemies are: Big Boss, Berserko, Dr. Badvibes, Nightshade, Buttons McBoomBoom, Rock Crusher, Ms. Demeanor, and Turbo Tu-Tone.
Shout Out: In the episode where Longarm's father tries to rejoin the force, the board of directors that signs the rejection form include Paul McCartney and Michael Jordan. When the COPS computers list any sort of information, they are actually listing the supply inventory for the cartoon.
The character Checkpoint's name is Wayne Sneeden III. According to his filecard, his father was a member of a top-secret military team that operated in the '80s and '90s. The G.I. Joe member Beach Head happens to be named Wayne R. Sneeden.
Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy: Taser was a blond white man in the cartoon and a bald black man in the action figure line.
Also, Hardtop had brown hair in the cartoon and black hair in the comic.
The Crooks barely resemble their toy counterparts thanks to vast exaggerations on the part of the animators.
Status Quo Is God: Despite the crooks usually being arrested at the end of any episode where they make a significant appearance and Bulletproof's closing narration that they went up the river for a long time, they're always back out by the next episode.
Mainframe and Mirage surprisingly avert this, both being relatively even handed in design. Neither is overtly "girly" (with Mainframe only investigating a beauty pageant after the surprise suggestion that should enter) and both have shown a few tomboyish traits (Mainframe directly picking up a dead mouse and Mirage carrying Mainframe on her shoulders while running uphill on a treadmill).
While Ms. Demeanor is pretty blatantly a tomboy, she still gets offended if not treated like a lady.
There actually is valid logic for it, because you can't make money off of dead people, so from a business perspective drugs kill off people he could continue making money off of (one can consider his exclaiming 'drugs kill' just leaves off the 'the suckers I make money off of' due to moral watchdog requirements, something many old-school real life crime bosses held to).
On the other hand, he may just have a moral code. Killing police officers may have been an acceptable act if they got in the way (though more than often, he was content to capture and detain them), killing random people seemed beyond him... for that matter, why'd he let Addictem go rather than just having McBoomBoom shoot him?
Video Phone: Video phones are the norm to the point that even public phone booths have screens; they are, after all, fighting crime in a future time. And yes, cell phones pretty much don't exist.
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