First Look: What An Institution! The Story of Police Academy

Hey, you got 10 minutes? That’s about how long this sizzle reel is:

If the embedded video doesn’t load, click to watch
What An Institution! The Story of Police Academy (2019) Exclusive 10-minute Preview at YouTube.

What An Institution! The Story of Police Academy is in production now. The team is still collecting interviews, but here’s a list of confirmed participants:

  • Paul Maslansky, Executive Producer
  • Bobcat Goldthwait, “Zed“
  • Michael Winslow, ” Jones“
  • Leslie Easterbrook, “Sgt. Callahan“
  • Shawn Weatherly, “Karen Adams“
  • Marion Ramsey, “Hooks“
  • Art Metrano, “Captain Mauser“
  • Brant Von Hoffman, “Blankes“
  • Peter Van Norden, “Schtulman“
  • Tim Kazurinsky, “Sweetchuck“
  • Charlie Schlatter, “Connors“
  • Matt McCoy, “Nick Lassard“
  • Julie Brown, “Chloe“
  • G. W. Bailey, “Captain Harris“
  • Brian Tochi, “Nogata“
  • Donovan Scott, “Leslie Barbara“
  • Scott Thomson, “Copeland“
  • Lance Kinsey, “Proctor“
  • Gregg Berger, “Talinsky“
  • Andrew Paris, “Bud Kirkland“
  • P. J. Ochlan, “Lester Shane“
  • Don Lake, “Mr. Wig“

The film is scheduled for release in 2019. I’ll post updates here from time to time, but if you’re on Facebook, you can follow the project here.

Police Academy film series bannger

I’ve been promising something relating to Police Academy for years. It’s much bigger than I planned

Been a while since I posted anything new, and it’ll be a while longer. If you’ve been here before you might have noticed that I’ve updated the design of the site and I’m now going through it and fixing broken links and whatnot. Just to post something (sort of) fresh, I’m recycling a comment I made on a Police Academy post at The AV Club six years ago. I know, you’re thinking, “A comment?!? Seems like a pretty half assed thing to repurpose!” It’s not; the comment is about 1300 words of objectively deep insight. I was intending to write a thesis further expanding on the those ideas, but never did.

The poster for the documentary, What an Institution! The Story of Police Academy
In the 1980s, women had no torsos.

So, why this? Why now? Last month, I became an Executive Producer on the documentary, What An Institution! The Story of Police Academy. I’m the guy who spit out 1300 words off the top of my head on Police Academy, what did you expect me to produce? “A reboot,” you say. Sure, I’d love to, but I doubt that AT&T is going to replace Academy Award winning auteur Jordan Peele with little old me. I’m not really doing any of the heavy lifting on the project, that’s being taken care of by director Gary Smart and the team at Cult Screenings UK with assists from Paul Maslansky and Adam F. Goldberg. Shooting starts this week, so keep your eyes peeled for What An Institution! in 2019. Until then, enjoy this: Continue reading →

Police Academy On TV This Week

Coming up: Social Video, Police Academy, Celebrity Apprentice

What’s up people? I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, but he’s a quick update on some upcoming posts:

It’s been a little over a year since I wrote a post on Viddy. Seeing as how the head of the company stopped by, read it and then addressed pretty much all of my beefs with the next software update, I should have acknowledged that a lot sooner, but in case you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of dick sometimes. Well, that follow up is coming, along with a look at some of the other players in the social video arena (specifically, Tout, YouToo, Qik and Color, because they’re the ones I’ve used).

Also, by (sort of) popular demand, I’ll be writing a piece on the sociological undertones of the Police Academy movies. Yup, that’s right. Last week, The AV Club celebrated Police Academy with a series of articles. I left a detailed comment on one of the articles, which got some good feedback, and a crowd sourced idea for a post. I don’t actually own the movies, because they’re on TV all the time. In fact, here’s what a TiVo search brings up:

Police Academy On TV This Week
They’re still in heavy rotation after all these years

As you can see, with the exception of The Original and Citizens On Patrol, the entire movie series will be on premium cable this week. I’ve already set the TiVo to grab them, and I’ll swing by the library to borrow DVDs of the two that aren’t airing. I’ll watch ’em all and regurgitate something eventually.

Lastly, while writing this, I’m also live tweeting this season’s finale of The Celebrity Apprentice. I’ve been doing that all season, so I’ll be writing a post or two relating to that. Eventually.