10 Amazing TV Shows You've Probably Never Heard Of
3. Bakersfield P.D. (1993)
Remember that list of Fox shows that were cancelled after only a few weeks? Here’s another to add to it.
Way back in the 1993/1994 television season, Bakersfield P.D. debuted to a murmur of confusion. After all, single camera sitcoms without laugh tracks weren’t remotely as prevalent then as they are now, let alone as popular.
It’s fair to say that Bakersfield P.D. was a good ten years ahead of its time, a precursor to similarly witty single camera shows with a deft absurdist touch like Scrubs, 30 Rock, Community and Arrested Development.
The premise for the show was the a standard fish-out-of-water set up, as ambitious police detective Paul Gigante, is faced with having to move as far away from his Washington DC stomping ground as possible after finding that the fertility doctor who helped he and his wife conceive had put the punk in their trunk using his own junk, if you know what I mean.
Faced with having his son growing up with a dating pool comprised of possibly hundreds of his biological half-siblings, the Gigante family up sticks and move to California. To Bakersfield, in fact, where the police are less a department and more a shoebox full of broken toys.
His partner Wade (the perennially underrated Ron Eldard), in particular, has more or less learned what it means to be a cop by watching television, and has a few very strange ideas about black people. Savvy, impeccably dressed Gigante (the equally underrated Giancarlo Esposito) finds himself to be the only sane and/or reasonable cop in town.
Underrated is a bit of a theme here, in fact - the regular cast was rounded out by Tony Plana, Chris Mulkey and Brian Doyle-Murray (Bill Murray’s less famous but equally talented older brother) all of whom carved out careers as brilliant supporting cast and character actors in some of the best TV and films of the last twenty to thirty years.
Deadpan and unashamedly clever, Bakersfield P.D. was a bit of a white elephant in 1993, but wouldn’t be out of place on any TV network in 2016. Brooklyn Nine-Nine, in particular, might as well be the same show, there’s so little difference.
A gentleman on YouTube appears to have uploaded the first seven episodes. Sit yourself down and see what everyone was missing when Fox (them again) cancelled the show without even finishing out the first season.