And Thus It Started.... Males are usually known for their love and craving for action, excitement and adventure. Therefore, it's only natural for them to watch movies and TV shows pertaining to soldiers, police officers and gang members.
But us females have a rather different taste. Drama and soaps are the types of TV genre that appeals to us and to the most. Before women are not that interested in TV programs about policework. Women in the `70's, had their TV police heroin Angie Dickenson of Police Woman and males had their cop series in the likes of Adam 12, Hawaii Five-O, and Streets Of San Francisco.
Yep, us females would once in a great while peek at the mentioned TV males interest but we didn't have police series which we could really follow up on. Only now starting in the mid 80's up till the present, have TV police officers turned out to be very appealing to us in the persons of Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas (Miami Vice), Michael Pare (Houston Knights) and John Ritter (Hooperman).
The so-called problem of getting our attention to police shows was finally solved. Thanks to the police series mentioned in the line-up not to mention Dempsey and Makepeace, and Night Heat.
But there is still a small problem: all these mentioned shows are now appreciated by older females. How about the younger ones? All these were answered in the laste 80's, thanks to the Fox Broadcsting Network series 21 Jump Street.
21 Jump Street is a totally different police series than any others you've seen before. It has a cast of young talents, modern music, exciting and complicated plots fit for a semi- intellectual and vibrant theme. The show's basically about baby-faced polce officers who mingle around in high schools and even colleges in order to apprehend teenage criminals. Sounds semi- impossible, right? Not really. The concept of utilizing young - looking law enforcers to pose as students have been put into use for almost a decade now. The idea is to penetrate the students' "inner circle" wherein you talk the way they talk, eat what they eat, etc. In short, you really have to get along with them and discover what makes them tick.
Starting out as a Miami Vice clone for the teens with its MTV approach and pulsating soundtrack, the series has gradualy steered away from the format while emphasizing its being issue - oriented with episodes tackling teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, suicide, racial deiscrimination, homosexuality, peer pressure, incest, AIDS, etc.
The 21 Jump Street cast is made up of Johnny Depp as Tommy Hanson, Steven Williams as Captain Adam Fuller ( in chrage of the unit), Holly Robinson as Judy Hoffs, Dustin Nguyen as Ioki, Peter DeLuise as the well - built Dough Penhall and the good - looking Richard Grieco as the rebel cop Dennis Booker. Incidentally , a spin - off series entitled Booker was released afterwards.
All of them (with the exception of Capt.Fuller), roam the streets os LA, blending in with the students in high schools and universities under assumed identities (complete with disguises of course, invading the city's slum areas, and intermixing with juvenile delinquents and teenage hangouts.
With these cops' similarities in age the law they had sworn to protect and enforce the police officer's code of ethics they had promised to follow, they form one of the most efective and up - to -date crome fighting teams anyone had ever seen.
An interesting concept of 21 Jump Street that has never been featured in previous police TV series is that the team is composed of cops from diffeent ehtnic backgrounds. Tommy Hanson, Dough Penhall and Dennis Booker are white, Ioki is Asian, and Judy Hoffs is black. The reason behind Ioki existing in the team is that he'd been selected for his assignment as much for his professionalism as for his language ability and sensitivity to Asian Cultures. Thus, if a case the team is investigating involves an Asian, Ioki would handle it. The same line of reasoning is behinf Judy Hoffs. If there's a teenage murder, for instance, surrounding a black, the first thing the Homicide Division does is call the team. Which in turn makes Judy handle the case.
All these occure, thanks to the clear criminal patterns that exist in LA's racial communities. For one thing hoodlums from one society rarely prey on members of another. Chinese gangs for example, operate almost exclusively in Chinatown. and another thing, the slum neighborhoods are occupied mainly by Hispanics and blacks who are frequently involved in burglaries, armed robberies and other crimes against people of other ethnic backgrounds.
So these breed of crime fightters include three whites, a back and an Oriental in its staff.
One thing is still left unanswered: "What is the meaning of 21 Jump Street?"
This is where I really come in. The answer to that inquiry is not of general knowledge. The answer is not explained in the TV series itself, not in the tabloids, magazines, etc. I'm not saying that only I have the naswer to this question.
21 Jumpstreet is not a street nor a city nor anything else you might first think it is. Instead, it's a term used in the LAPD to describe groups of young looking police officers who are recent police academy graduates. Instead of attaining the rank of "Officer" they go staright to "Detective" as in the case in 21 Jump Street. LAPD rules and regualtions in recruitment indicate that the minimum age to qualify for a police officer's position is twenty one. After the academy, one most of the times attains a rank of officer and after three to four years of service, becomes "detectives". In the case of Tommy Hanson, Dough Penhall, Ioki, Judy Hoffs and Dennis Booker, they "jumped" from police academy striaght to "detective", passing the three- to - four years of being an officer, Hence the 21 Jump Street program. It makes snese, right? So next time someone asks you what the term means, you can proudlty explain the whole to these less fortunate televiewers!
21 Jump Street, by the way, was created by Patrick C. Hasburg and produced by Bill Nuss.
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