The Mod Squad

Plot

A critic described The Mod Squad as "the hippest and first young undercover cops on TV". Each of these characters represented mainstream culture's principal fears regarding youth in the era: long-haired rebel Pete Cochran (Michael Cole) was evicted from his wealthy parents' Beverly Hills home, then arrested and put on probation after he stole a car; Lincoln Hayes (Clarence Williams III), who came from a family of 13 children, was arrested in the Watts riots, one of the longest and most violent riots in Los Angeles history; flower child Julie Barnes (Peggy Lipton), the "canary with a broken wing," was arrested for vagrancy after running away from her prostitute mother's San Francisco home; and Captain Adam Greer (Tige Andrews) was a tough but sympathetic mentor and father figure who convinced them to form the squad.

The concept was to take three rebellious, disaffected young social outcasts and convince them to work as unarmed undercover detectives as an alternative to being incarcerated. Their youthful, hippie personas would enable them to get close to the criminals they would investigate. "The times are changing," Captain Greer explained. "They can get into places we (the regular police) can't." Examples included their infiltrations of a high school to solve a teacher's murder, of an underground newspaper to find a bomber, and of an acting class to look for a strangler who was preying on blonde actresses.

More than a year before the release of the film Easy Rider, The Mod Squad was one of the earliest attempts to deal with the counterculture. The show Spelling intended the show to be about the characters' relationships, and he promised that the Squad "would never arrest kids... or carry a gun or use one."

The show was loosely based on creator Bud "Buddy" Ruskin's experiences in the late 1950s as a squad leader for young undercover narcotics cops, though it took almost 10 years after he wrote a script for the idea to be green-lighted by ABC Television Studios.

Impact

The shows Hogan's Heroes (1965-71), Star Trek (1966–69), I Spy (1965–68), The Bill Cosby Show (1969–71), Room 222 (1969–74), Mannix (1967–75), Mission: Impossible (1966–73), Julia (1968–71), The Flip Wilson Show (1970–74), and The Mod Squad (1968–73) were among the first programs to feature African-Americans as stars since the stereotyped roles of Amos 'n' Andy and Beulah (ABC, 1950–53). Significantly, The Mod Squad presented an African-American character (Linc) as being on an equal footing, as roles went, to the Caucasian characters (Pete and Julie). In one Mod Squad episode, the script called for Linc to give Julie a "friendly kiss". Since the first interracial kiss on an American television show was in 1968, this was still fairly new territory in popular culture. The studio was frightened of a negative public reaction, so they asked Spelling to cut it:

Linc's famous "solid" and "keep the faith" were among the current-day slang used on the show, which included "pad", "dig it", and "groovy."

The "kids" traveled in Pete's old station wagon, "Woody": a green woodie-style 1950 Mercury Eight which became famous until it burned up in a fire after going over a cliff during a chase at the end of the second-season episode "The Death of Wild Bill Hannachek".

Among the series' guest stars were Desi Arnaz Jr., Ed Asner (three episodes in three different roles), René Auberjonois, Jim Backus, Joe Don Baker, Tom Bosley, Victor Buono, David Cassidy, Jack Cassidy, Tyne Daly (two episodes in two different roles), Sammy Davis Jr. (three episodes in three different roles), Tony Dow, Richard Dreyfuss (two episodes in two different roles), Sam Elliott, Harrison Ford (uncredited role), Meg Foster (two episodes in two different roles), Anthony Geary, Louis Gossett Jr., Lee Grant, Andy Griffith, Clint Howard, Rodolfo Hoyos Jr. (three episodes in three different roles), Spelling's ex-wife Carolyn Jones, Fernando Lamas, Cleavon Little, Barbara McNair, Leslie Nielsen, Stefanie Powers, Vincent Price, Richard Pryor, Robert Reed, Sugar Ray Robinson, Cesar Romero, Marion Ross, Martin Sheen, Bobby Sherman (two episodes in two different roles), Vic Tayback, Danny Thomas (as well as being co-executive producer of the show), Daniel J. Travanti (three episodes in three different roles), Jo Van Fleet, Fritz Weaver, Billy Dee Williams and William Windom.

Episodes

Main article: List of The Mod Squad episodes

Broadcast history and Nielsen ratings

Syndication

In the United States, MeTV reran the series from May 26 to August 29, 2014, and again on Sunday afternoons from January 4 to August 30, 2015. Decades re-ran part of the series on February 24–25, 2018, and again on January 30–31, 2021, for their binge weekend programming block; they presented one final Decades Binge of it on March 25–26, 2023 before the network changed into Catchy Comedy. Mod Squad is currently airing on MeTV+ weekdays at 2 pm ET.

Related productions

A television pilot was shot in 1968, with a running time of 74 minutes, but it was never aired in its entirety. The film was edited to 50 minutes and aired as the show's first episode. The uncut 74-minute version appears on the DVD set as the opening episode, with the title "The Teeth of the Barracuda."

A TV reunion movie, The Return of the Mod Squad, was transmitted on ABC on May 18, 1979, featuring the entire original cast. Tom Bosley, a guest star during the original run, also participated as an antagonist targeting Julie Barnes herself. Peggy Lipton said she participated in it as a favor to Aaron Spelling.

In 1999, the series was adapted into a feature film with the same title by MGM; however, this film, which starred Giovanni Ribisi, Omar Epps, Claire Danes, and Dennis Farina in Cole's, Williams III's, Lipton's, and Andrews's roles respectively, was not a box-office success.

Home media

CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released the first two seasons of The Mod Squad on DVD in Region 1.

On August 20, 2013, it was announced that Visual Entertainment had acquired the rights to the series (under license from Paramount) and would release season 3 on DVD on September 24, 2013. Season 4 would be released on October 1, 2013. In Canada, Season 3 was released on DVD a week earlier, on September 17, 2013, and Season 4 was released on October 8, 2013. Season 5 was released in Canada on November 19, 2013 and in the US on December 17, 2013. A Complete Series set was released in Canada and the US on November 12, 2013.

References elsewhere in popular culture

The term "Mod Squad" had been introduced the previous year in Dragnet 1967's sixteenth installment, "The Big Kids," where it described a club of high schoolers who had to shoplift at least $20 to become members.

In 1990 on the TV series Twin Peaks, in which Lipton was a regular, Williams appeared in two episodes. The pair shared a brief scene that appears to have been an intentional reunion.

References

References

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5. Hutchings, David. (April 4, 1988). "Can You Dig It? the Mod Squad's Peggy Lipton, One Marriage and 15 Years Later, Returns to Acting".
6. (2011). "Encyclopedia of the Sixties: A Decade of Culture and Counterculture [2 volumes]: A Decade of Culture and Counterculture". ABC-CLIO.
7. (18 December 2007). "The Mod Squad - Season 1, Volume 1".
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10. The ''Star Trek'' episode "[[Plato's Stepchildren]]", often cited as a controversial 'first' of this kind, was not until 1968.
11. (2002). "Aaron Spelling: A Prime-Time Life". Macmillan.
12. (19 October 1990). "'Mod Squad' Star Returns to TV". Los Angeles Times.
13. "No. 12: Classic TV Beauties 1960s Countdown: Peggy Lipton as Julie Barnes in "The Mod Squad"".
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15. [https://www.amazon.com/The-Squad-Season-Five-Volume/dp/B00ESLAIYK/ ''The Mod Squad'' Season 5, Volume One] at Amazon.com
16. [https://www.amazon.com/The-Squad-Season-Five-Volume/dp/B00ESL6GMI/ ''The Mod Squad'' Season 5, Volume Two] at Amazon.com
17. [http://www.visualentertainment.tv/products/the-mod-squad-the-complete-collection-dvd ''The Mod Squad: The Complete Collection''] at VisualEntertainment.tv
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