The Mod Squad

The Mod Squad
Title Screen
Format	Police Drama
Created by	Bud Ruskin
Starring	Michael Cole Clarence Williams III Peggy Lipton Tige Andrews
Theme music composer	Earle Hagen
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	123
Production
Running time	60 min
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	September 24, 1968 – August 23, 1973

The Mod Squad is a television series that ran on ABC from September 24, 1968 until August 23, 1973. This series starred Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton, Clarence Williams III and Tige Andrews. The executive producers of the series were Aaron Spelling and Danny Thomas.

Plot

Williams, Cole, Lipton, and Andrews

The Mod Squad was a police drama that featured three young, hip, crime fighters. One White, One Black, One Blonde, was the promotional hype-line. The casting was intended to appeal to a youthful, counterculture audience. The basic premise was that the youthful investigators were offered work fighting crime as an alternative to being incarcerated themselves. The show's primary gimmick centered on the three cops using their youthful, hippie personas as a guise to get close to the criminals they investigated. The show was moderately popular during its initial run of five seasons and 123 episodes. Tige Andrews (Captain Adam Greer), Michael Cole (Pete Cochran), Peggy Lipton (Julie Barnes), and Clarence Williams III (Linc Hayes) starred. The show portrayed a multicultural society and dealt with issues of racial politics, drug culture, and counterculture.

The show was loosely based on Bud Ruskin's experiences in the late 1950s as a squad leader for undercover narcotics cops, though it took almost 10 years after he wrote a script for the idea to be given the greenlight by ABC television studios.

Television movie and 1999 film

A TV reunion movie, The Return of Mod Squad, aired on ABC May 18, 1979.

In 1999, the series was adapted into a film of the same name by MGM starring Giovanni Ribisi, Omar Epps, Claire Danes and Dennis Farina.

DVD releases

CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount) has released Season 1 of The Mod Squad on DVD in Region 1. Season 2, Volume 1 was released on November 25, 2008. Season 2, Volume 2 was released on May 26, 2009. [1]

External links

• The Mod Squad (1968) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Mod Squad at TV.com
• The Mod Squad at TV.com
• CBS Television Distribution Syndication Bible (including The Mod Squad)