Aaron Spelling spent
almost two decades in Hollywood as a writer, actor, and producer of failed Westerns
before he hooked up with former undercover cop Bud Ruskin to create The Mod
Squad, a
hip cop show that brought the language of the streets and the sensibility of
late-'60s Sunset Boulevard to standard-issue stories of thugs and drugs. The
premise was simple: Tough-but-open-minded police captain Tige Andrews tried to
reach the young people of Los Angeles by deputizing three troubled kids:
hulking black rebel Clarence Williams III, fresh-faced waif Peggy Lipton, and
super-sensitive rich boy Michael Cole. Each week, the trio would integrate themselves
into some scene or another—staffing an underground newspaper, working at
a local high school, and so on—and after a few red herrings and usually
at least one harrowing experience for the fragile Lipton, they'd figure out who
was pushing dope or strangling young girls or bombing hippie hangouts.
As a police drama, The
Mod Squad
was and is merely adequate. The mysteries usually follow Roger Ebert's "law of
economy of characters," which means that any suspect left unaccounted for by
the final 10 minutes is likely bound for the pokey. And the climactic chase
scenes are fairly inert, even when dressed up with crazy camera angles. (The
Mod Squad's
directors, including cult favorite Richard Rush, loved extreme close-ups,
oddball framing, and conversations shot in reflection.) The main reason to
watch The Mod Squad in 2008 is the same reason audiences switched it on in 1968:
to gawk at the flower children, and hear them say things like "I just got some
new psychedelic curtains."
What's especially
intriguing about The Mod Squad is its conflicted portrait of the counterculture
and those tasked to police it. In nearly every one of the 13 episodes in the Season
One, Volume One
DVD set, Cole confronts Tige about that week's mission, complaining that he
never signed up to deceive his own love-generation brothers and sisters. But by
the end of the hour, the team inevitably discovers that there are finks
everywhere, among the beautiful people as well as the establishment. The Mod
Squad's
heroes are oddly glum, reflecting a disillusionment with the '60s that was
about to become pervasive. To quote Cole: "It's a bum trip, citizens."
Key features: Three short, informative documentaries
about the creation of the show.