10 Best One Season Wonder TV Shows

While it lasted only six episodes, Police Squad! managed to influence a few generations of comedy with its commitment to cramming an obscene number of jokes into a half-hour runtime. The likes of The Simpsons and 30 Rock take their cues, directly or otherwise, from the dense layering of Police Squad!, a show which has so much going on that a rewatch or two is essentially mandatory.

Starring the unbeatable Leslie Nielsen, Police Squad! is foremostly a spoof of cop and detective shows, with Nielsen’s bumbling Frank Drebin taking on a case of the week, making matters ridiculous with his buffoonery, and somehow getting his collar at the end of the day.

The plots are commendably well laid out, but more important is the veritable barrage of nonsense. There are sight gags, wordplay, bits of background business - nothing is off limits in service to the comedy. Everything is played absolutely straight faced, too, which only adds to the already critically high nonsense levels.

Police Squad! had a short shelf life on TV, but made way for the three Naked Gun films, which provide diminishing returns but are all entertaining at least. It’s about as evergreen as comedy gets.