May 7 (2012-05-07) – August 13, 2012 (2012-08-13)[2]
Related
World's Scariest Police Chases (1997 pilot)
World's Wildest Police Videos (shortened to Police Videos during its fourth season)[3] is an American reality television series that ran on Fox from 1998 to 2001.[3][4] In 2012, Spike announced that it had commissioned 13 new episodes with the revival of the original name and John Bunnell returning as host,[5] which premiered on May 7, 2012, and ended on August 13, 2012. The series deals with police videos from across the world. Video footage of car chases, subsequent arrests, robberies, riots and other crimes appear on the show.
Production
World's Wildest Police Videos began in 1998 and ran for four seasons, comprising a total of 56 episodes, before being officially canceled in 2002. In Season 4, the name was shortened to Police Videos.[3]
Most of the police videos featured on the show were from various U.S.police departments, but footage from other nations such as Argentina, South Korea, Brazil, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom also appeared. Video sources included police dashcams, cameras from police and news helicopters, store security systems, news reporters, and private citizens from around the world. Much of the aired footage had previously only been seen by law enforcement officials before it appeared on the show.[6]
The show became popular with viewers. It had the highest ratings of any Fox network television special to that date. It was also featured on Entertainment Tonight and was re-aired later that month.[7] It was the first sweeps-month special ever to run twice during a sweeps period by Fox.
Format
The series began with a special entitled World's Scariest Police Chases, which was broadcast on February 2, 1997. It was narrated by actor Peter Coyote, and featured commentary by Captain C. W. Jensen of the Portland Police Bureau. Five more editions of World's Scariest Police Chases aired, with the second on April 27, 1997, third on November 4, 1997, fourth on February 17, 1998, fifth on April 28, 1998,[8] and the sixth on April 29, 1999.[9][10][11]
A further two specials called World's Scariest Police Shootouts aired around this time as well. It was hosted by John Bunnell, a retired police officer and former Sheriff of Multnomah County, Oregon. The two specials focused on police shootouts rather than chases themselves, although some of the clips featured a car chase along with a shootout. The first edition of World's Scariest Police Shootouts aired on May 15, 1997, and the second edition entitled World's Scariest Police Shootouts 2 aired on April 23, 1998. Both episodes were narrated and hosted by Bunnell. The episodes featured more well-known content, such as the North Hollywood shootout, the murder of Darrell Lunsford, the 1991 Sacramento hostage crisis, White supremacist Chevie Kehoe and his shootout with police, and the 1996 Honolulu hostage crisis.[12]
Eventually, the show was broadcast weekly. Bunnell's commentary was often characterized by puns, multiple clichés, and over-dramatic descriptions of the struggle between good and evil, the police and criminals, victims and abusers, etc. Although Bunnell hosted and commented on most of the show, most police video segments were dubbed with the actual law enforcement officials acting in the situation presented. Tire screeching noises, horn beeps, automobile collision sounds and sirens are often overdubbed in these segments; this is especially noticeable in footage where vehicles are driving over dry grass or sand.
It has been widely noticed that the same voice is used in almost every helicopter footage scene, regardless of the location the footage is from. This uncredited role is said to be that of Lawrence Welk III, who usually goes by "Larry Welk", and is a reporter and helicopter traffic pilot for KCAL-TV and KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. He is also the grandson of famed musician Lawrence Welk.
Originally, a typical episode included sections entitled: "PIT Maneuver", "Car Thieves", "Rainy Chase", "Big RigRoad Block", "Jumping Off Bridge", and "Drunk Drivers". This was dropped after the first season, and replaced with a string of clips, each commentated on by Bunnell. After a few videos, a small clip of Bunnell would be shown, often describing the police mentality behind the videos that were about to appear.
Occasionally, episodes were dedicated to police officers killed in the line of duty and an episode featured the footage of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 in 1996.
There were VHS releases of the first three World's Scariest Police Chases specials with additional footage in late 1997 and a video game was released near the tail end of the series' original run in June 2001.
February 24, 1998 (1998-02-24) (Sky One – UK)[41] September 1, 2006 (2006-09-01) (Spike – USA)[42]
N/A
The special was originally planned to air after the "World's Scariest Police Chases 3", and was to air again after the premiere of the "World's Scariest Police Stings", but was pulled a week before its intended premiere due to its controversial content, and replaced with "The World's Deadliest Swarms".[38][39][40] It would air overseas in Europe, Canada, and Australia until making its debut in America on Spike in 2006.
3
"Riots: Mobs Out Of Control"
October 13, 1998 (1998-10-13) (Sky One – UK)[43] December 12, 2002 (2002-12-12) (FX – USA)[44]
N/A
The special was originally planned to air in June 1997 but was pulled for unknown reasons. It might have been pulled under similar circumstances that "Prisoners: Out Of Control" was pulled. It would air overseas in Europe, Canada, and Australia until making its debut in America on FX in 2002.
The show appears to be a source of inspiration for the in-game television show "The Underbelly Of Paradise" in the video game Grand Theft Auto V.
Worldwide syndication
Americas
United States: April 2, 1998 – September 7, 2001[3][4] on Fox. The series was syndicated on local stations, such as UPN, both CourtTV/TruTV from 2002 to 2011, and on Spike TV/Spike until 2015. It was also seen as World's Most Dramatic Police Chases in the early morning on TNT. Spanish language re-runs were also syndicated on Telemundo.
Australia: Some premiere episodes were shown on the Seven Network and Network Ten, and re-runs of all episodes appeared on Fox8. Episodes of the 2012 series began airing on the Seven Network in 2013.[116]
There were also home video releases on VHS of the first three World's Scariest Police Chases around late 1997, which included never-before-seen footage that wasn't shown on FOX. The specials would be re-released as Deluxe Versions in the late 1990s, with minor differences.
In early April 2023, it was announced that New York-based streaming provider FilmRise had acquired the digital distribution rights to the entire series from Pursuit Productions, it was made available on their streaming service and on iTunes/Apple TV, which included some of the additional specials that premiered during the shows original run.[117][118][119] Between April-July 2023, FilmRise would upload the entire series to their "FilmRise True Crime" YouTube channel, releasing full episodes of the show on a weekly basis.[120][121][122][123][124] Between July-August 2023, some of the additional specials were also uploaded to the channel, with the specials (excluding World's Scariest Police Chases) being incorrectly labeled as "Season 6".[125][126]
