The Angie Tribeca Marathon: Limited Edition

I watched the first three episodes of Angie Tribeca on TBS Sunday  night during its 25-hour marathon, and then the remaining seven yesterday, and thought they were generally pretty funny.  Rashida Jones is terrific, and there were lots of good, brief guest star cameo appearances, including Bill Murray, James Franco in a flashback as Angie's first partner and brief fiance before he mysteriously disappeared, running into a tunnel and huge flash of light; also Lisa Kudrow; Adam Scott, Sarah Chalke; and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham.  In addition, Alfred Molina has a recurring role that, for some reason, is uncredited, including on the iMDB database.  I've read, as well, that in upcoming flashback sequence to Angie's childhood her parents will be played by her real-life parents, musical legend Quincy Jones and actress Peggy Lipton (from The Mod Squad), though if that's the case, they don't appear in the first season.

The premiere was co-written by series creators Steve Carell (who directed) and Nancy Walls Carell (who also played the mayor's wife.)

But...the show had a LOT more in common with Police Squad! (the foundation to the Naked Gun films) than I presumed.  It's not The Same, and they do focus a touch more on character, but...I'm sure that if David and Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams were watching, they did so with their jaws dropped.  I'm not going to list all the similar gags, running jokes, and style, but there's so much that I got the sense if they could have figured out a way to get the late Leslie Nielsen to show up, they would have.

To a degree, if you're going to do a total spoof of cop shows there will be stock bits that you'll use.  (Like making fun of chalk lines around a dead body, or blatantly using a stunt man when a star jumps from a ledge.)  But this transcended that -- like when a character says, "Let's just say, I know what you're thinking."  And then the two characters repeat together, "I know what you're thinking."  Or background gags, which are the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker trademark.  A hostage scene where "everyone" is called in as back-up, including cowboys and Indians is out of Naked Gun 2-1/2.  There's even a parody of the pottery-making scene in Ghost -- which was directed by Jerry Zucker.

Interestingly, as well, before he made the movie remake of Get Smart, and in fact before his film career took off (and even before doing The Office), Steve Carell starred in a TV pilot made by David Zucker.  It was called,  H.U.D., that was a spy spoof about how the Department of Housing and Urban Development was actually a front for a super-secret government spy organization.  I got to see it during my days when I was doing work with David Zucker, and went over to his office one day.  He'd just finished making it and was curious what I thought, so I got shunted off int a room by myself to watch.  Hardly ideal conditions to watch a comedy.  It was actually hilarious, and Carell was wonderful.  Unfortunately, the pilot was made for NBC at a time when it just didn't fit in with what the network was doing at the time, so it didn't get picked up.  (I wish it could get released in some way, but that's not likely.)

I wouldn't say that Angie Tribeca is "stolen" from Police Squad.  It's a bit more character-driven, and plenty of original humor.  But it certainly owes a massive amount of influence to it.

But I'm sure that I was one of the ZAZ guys, I'd think differently and be less generous.

On the positive side, though, as I said, I found it pretty funny.  Though that depends on whether or not one likes over-the-top spoofs.  And this is certainly over-the-top, but done with wit and intelligence.  And an incredibly health doss of "homage."