"Reno 911!" (2003)TV series 2003-????

Creators:

Robert Ben Garant
Kerri Kenney
Thomas Lennon

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Release Date:

23 July 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime

Tagline:

They Might Not Be The Best...But They're The Best We Got.

Plot:

An irreverent look at what goes on behind-the-scenes in the city of Reno's police department.

Plot Keywords:

Phone Number In Title | Mock Documentary | Bleeped Dialogue | Pixilated Nudity | Number In Title

Awards:

1 nomination

US TV Schedule:

Sat. May 17	2:30 AM	WGNSAT
Sat. May 17	3:00 AM	WGNSAT

Cast

Cedric Yarbrough	...	Deputy S. Jones / ... (59 episodes, 2003-2008)
Robert Ben Garant	...	Deputy Travis Junior / ... (59 episodes, 2003-2008)
Thomas Lennon	...	Lieutenant Jim Dangle / ... (59 episodes, 2003-2008)
Kerri Kenney	...	Deputy Trudy Wiegel / ... (59 episodes, 2003-2008)
Niecy Nash	...	Deputy Raineesha Williams / ... (58 episodes, 2003-2008)
Carlos Alazraqui	...	Deputy James Garcia / ... (58 episodes, 2003-2008)
Wendi McLendon-Covey	...	Deputy Clementine Johnson / ... (58 episodes, 2003-2008)
Mary Birdsong	...	Deputy Cherisha Kimball / ... (26 episodes, 2004-2008)

Country:

USA

Language:

German | Japanese | Mandarin | Spanish | English

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | USA:TV-14 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Carson, California, USA

Company:

Jersey Films

Trivia:

Almost all character dialogue is improvised by the actors.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In one episode while the cast is trying to guess what caused the injury to a victim, one of them guesses that it was the rumble of the controller of "the new PlayStation". The Playstation that was released shortly before the episode's air date was the first console in the series with controllers that don't have rumble.

Quotes:

Deputy Clementine Johnson: [after a suspect drives off with a police car] We are screwed! We are screwed!
Deputy Williams: We gonna say he tried to rape us. We gonna lie, we gonna say he tried to rape us. He attacked us.
Deputy Clementine Johnson: He took it out.
Deputy Williams: He tried to...
[looks at the camera]
Deputy Williams: Give us the tape.
Deputy Clementine Johnson: Hand over the tape.
[the cameraman runs away]
Deputy Williams: Give us that tape!
Deputy Clementine Johnson: I will cut you!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Ten (2007)

Glad Comedy Central believes in this

A feeling of pride wells in me when I think of this show. I recall when this show premiered in the Summer of 2003. I've watched a lot of Comedy Central over the years,and I've sen a lot of shows come and go on that channel,some good,some not-so-good. Outside of Chappelle Show(which imploded under CC's unreasonable production demands after just threes successful seasons),Win Ben Stein's Money(which was quietly shelved)and The Man Show(which disassembled itself after five seasons),the network has retained few shows it has rolled out since 1996,the year the Daily Show was launched. But this show has survived,and the quality of the product bears it out.

A film crew follows the round-the-clock gongs on of seven Reno,Nevada Sheriff's deputies: Lt.Dangle(Thomas Lennon),Deputies Jones(Cedric Yarborough),GArcia(Carlos Alozraqui,spelling?),Johnson(Wendi McLendon-Covey),Junior(Ben Garant),Weigel(Kerri Kinney-Silver) and YAtes(?)(Mary Birdsong),a la the FOX TV institutional hit "Cops". Of course,nearly all of these deps have little good sense about them,and all seem to have increasing difficulty conducting their jobs as enforcers of the law with each episode. Naturally,one hopes that the REAL Reno police is not nearly this incompetent.

The improv talents of each actor is SUPERB,and the camera-work and seamless "documentation" of the events unfolding make this comedy that one has to stay acutely attuned to. For me,that is the sign of a strong comedy that's willing to allow gags and plot lines to hang back and let the viewer come TO it,rather than vice-versa. And as per my previous favorable critiques of comedies,one of the more favorable qualities of it is this show's lack of a laugh track,which would be absolute poison to it(even more so than some more "conventional" sitcoms),anyway.

With this show most recently going to the big screen--and the jury's out on if I want to see Reno 911!:Miami--I feel pretty good about this show's status on CC(perhaps wrongly so). Still,with four seasons in the books,I'm glad CC invested in this hilarious,smart show.