21 Jump Street (1987-1991) aired for four seasons on the Fox Network and went into syndication for its final season after the star of the series Johnny Depp moved on to a movie career. Many know about the series now from the movies that were made in 2012 and 2014 starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. Those films leaned into slapstick comedy, making light of the absurdity of the placing undercover police officers into a high school. They became iconic comedies of their era but bore little resemblance to the TV series.
21 Jump Street took on serious topics affecting young people during the late 1980s: school violence, drugs, gangs, social class, bullying, and alienation. The series became an early hit for the fledgling Fox Network and made Johnny Depp, playing Officer Tom Hanson a household name. But the entire cast was strong: Peter DeLuise as the amiable Officer Penhall, Holly Robinson as ever professional Officer Hoffs, Dustin Nguyen as Officer Ioki one of the Asian American actors on television at the time, and finally Steven Williams as Captain Adam Fuller, always a steady presence and moral center. Going through the episodes, one will find many guest stars who went on major careers in film and television.
The show evolved in compelling ways through its run. The first season focused on the novelty of the concept, while the second focused on group cohesion, most of the storylines focused on Hanson. The third season focused on the moral dilemmas of undercover police work. The introduction of Richard Greico as Dennis Booker added to the more self-aware nature of the season. By the fourth season, the series leaned into absurdity and moral exhaustion, making for some of the more memorable episodes. The final stretch on syndication saw Robinson and Williams as the only remaining members from the original cast as the series struggled to recapture the spirit of early seasons, not helped by lower budgets and less ambitious scripts.
21 Jump Street's place in TV history is more than Johnny Depp and the movies it inspired. It shaped the aesthetics of the Fox style, youth oriented, a more cinematic style than the major networks, use of pop music, and unafraid to embrace moral ambiguity. During the 1990s with shows like Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, The X-Files, The Simpsons, the Fox network shaped youth culture. Fox also embraced diversity in the 1990s, more so than the major networks, with shows like New York Undercover, In Living Color, and Living Single.
Revisiting 21 Jump Street will surprise anyone with not only how well the show expressed the cultural angst of the late Reagan era, but how relevant many of the episodes remain in the 2020s.
Here's a list of my favorite 15 episodes in chronological order.
S1E3 "America, What a Town"
Hoffs must supervise a Polish exchange student enthralled with American consumerism, the mall specifically. Meanwhile, Hanson investigates a car theft ring originating from a car repair class - shades of Christine in those scenes!
S1E13 "Mean Streets and Pastel Houses"
Hanson must infiltrate the suburban punk scene, a perfect story for Depp who began his career as an aspiring musician with his New Wave band The Kids. The episode also marked a point in Hanson's evolution from wet behind the ear's rookie to the edgy persona he cultivated throughout the series.
S2E7 "Don't Strech the Rainbow"
A serious episode dealing with racial tensions ripping apart a High School. For anyone nostalgic of the 1980s, episodes like this show a country still deeply divided. At one point, Depp must chase a student through a boiler room recalling Nightmare on Elm Street.
S2E11 "Christmas in Saigon"
Ioki was a steady presence through four seasons, but he rarely got scripts with him as the lead. This story is told mostly in flashback tracing his journey from Vietnam to America. It was rare for network TV to tackle the refugee crisis after the Vietnam War, andthe immigration experience o those who came to America, and issues of assimilation.
S2E13 "A Big Disease with a Little Name"
AIDS was no longer a taboo topic by the late 1980s, but the paranoia and stigma surrounding the disease remained a hot button issue. Hanson is assigned to protect a high school student being persecuted for having AIDS and must overcome his own prejudice in the process. A moving episode, also praiseworthy for taking a stand against homophobia during a time when it was running rampant.
S2E16 "Orpheus 3.3"
Another Hanson episode, this one deals with trauma after he witnesses his girlfriend getting killed in a hold-up. Adding layers to the tragedy, Hanson was about to break up with her. In response, he watches the surveillance video obsessively wondering why he failed to save her.
S3E6 "Hell Week"
The Jump Street crew investigates a fraternity linked to hazing deaths. In the post-Animal House world of the 1980s, fraternity culture was all the rage, but this episode offered a sharp critique.
S3E9 "Swallowed Alive"
Maybe the darkest episode of the series, with Penhall and Hanson going undercover inside a juvenile facility. Penhall quickly breaks and gets pulled out, while Hanson barely survives. Penhall observes, "this is where everyone goes after we arrest them, we send them to hell." Great scene with Hanson and Fuller at the end.
S3E19 "Next Victim"
Richard Greico brought a new dynamic to the third season as Officer Dennis Booker. The character proved popular enough for Booker to have his own TV series for one season. In this episode he takes on the persona of a populist shock jock hosting a college radio show and finds himself courted by white nationalists on campus. Similar to Eric Bogosian's play Talk Radio, but with a college radio twist.
S4E3 "Eternal Flame"
Maybe my favorite episode. Hanson goes undercover at a night club to investigate a drug dealer only to reconnect with a former girlfriend. Directed with flare by Mario Van Peebles, this episode is all late '80s style and panache. Think American Psycho meetas Miami Vice.
S4E6 "Old Haunts in a New Age"
An atmospheric Halloween themed episode with the unit investigating a supposedly psychic high school student causing fires at a school. Crammed with horror/sci-fi movie references, written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, who would go on to write for The X-Files, Millennium, and the Final Destination series.
S4E7 "Out of Control"
Hanson gets ensnared with thrill seeking rich kids. A couple of cool sequences, one involving a car chase and another one involving a roller coaster. Directed Mario Van Peebles.
S4E16 "2245"
Hanson attends the execution of a criminal he knew from an earlier season, the episode provides the backstory of how the man ended up on death row. The execution scene was realistic for network television at the time, and the flashback scenes evoke Badlands.
S4E26 "Blackout"
The final episode with the core cast before the series went into syndication. When a thunderstorm knocks out power at a High School a group of students start terrorizing everyone and it plays out like a horror movie. It feels oddly out of tune with the rest of the series, making it even more interesting.
S5E4 "Poison"
The fifth season saw the departure of most of the cast when the series moved to syndication. Penhall falls for an undercover agent dealing with her own addiction issues. A well-acted episode that rose above the lackluster stories of the final season.
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