Fighting crime in a future time, protecting Empire City from Big Boss and his gang of crooks.
C.O.P.S. (Central Organization of Police Specialists) was an American animated television series released by DIC Entertainment (distributed by Claster Television) and Celebrity Home Entertainment. It ran from 1988–1989 for 65 episodes. It takes place in the year 2020, where in Empire City, tBrandon “Big Boss” Babel (along with his gang of crooks) is holding the entire city under the palm of his iron hand and the Empire City Police Department can do nothing to stop him.
As a last resort, Mayor Davis requests federal assistance. The FBI sends in Special Agent Baldwin P. Vess (Codename: Bulletproof) to help take down Big Boss. However, Vess suffered very serious injuries in a car wreck during a fight with Big Boss’ criminal henchmen and had to be taken to the hospital. Facing years of rehabilitation, Vess is outfitted with a cybernetic bulletproof torso that allows him to walk again.
While staying at the hospital, Bulletproof, knowing he cannot do all of this alone, sends out Empire City police officer P.J. O’Malley (Codename: LongArm) and rookie officer Donny Brooks (Codename: HardTop) to round up the best law enforcers from all over the country. With these men and women — including David E. “Highway” Harlson, Colt “Mace” Howards, Stan “Barricade” Hyde, Tina “Mainframe” Cassidy, Walker “Sundown” Calhoun, Suzie “Mirage” Young, Hugh S. “Bullseye” Forward, and Rex “Bowser” Pointer and his robot dog, Blitz — he forms a team that is “the finest law enforcement agency there is in the country.” Bulletproof becomes the proud founder and commander of COPS. Together, he and his COPS team are able to take down Big Boss and his gang of crooks and thwart the first of many of Big Boss’ criminal schemes.
Each episode has a title that begins with “The Case of…” with a different phrase being added to it (i.e. “The Case of the Iron C.O.P.S. and Wooden CROOKS”; “The Case of the Half-Pint Hero”; and “The Case of the Crime Nobody Heard”) along with the COPS file number. Bulletproof would narrate at the beginning of the episode as well as at the end, concluding by repeating the COPS file number and title, ending it with “Case Closed” with an “Closed” mark being stamped onto the file folder. The two exceptions are the first parts of each of the two-part episodes, “The Case of Big Boss’ Master Plan” and “The Case of C.O.P.S. File #1,” where the conclusion of the episode is marked with a “Case Continued” plastered on the files.
In the cartoon, the COPS frequently shouted, “It’s Crime Fighting Time!” as a battle cry when it was time to bag the CROOKS and solve a caper. Meanwhile, the CROOKS would shout “Crime’s a-wasting!” whenever they went to do another caper, whether it was pulling another heist (as in so many episodes such as “The Case of the Blur Bandits”), giving C.O.P.S. a hard time to the point of replacing (actually disposing) them for good (as in “The Case of the Big Boss’ Master Plan”) or taking captive a certain individual to be held prisoner for ransom (as in “The Case of the Ransomed Rascal”).
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You do know that C.O.P.S. also had a comic book adaptation by DC Comics, which had a much different storyline that was darker and edgier.
In the first issue, we learn that Big Boss blames Bulletproof for the imprisonment and death of his identical twin brother, so he has Rock Crusher blow up the 647th Precinct with Bulletproof inside.
After Bulletproof gets injured and is operated on, he decides to form the C.O.P.S. team to take the fight to Big Boss and his Crooks.
You see, Bulletproof and Big Boss respectively leading their armies just to get back at one another is one big chain of revenge.
In the cartoon, they made it pretty clear: Bulletproof is the good guy, and Big Boss is the bad guy. But in the comic, things are a little murky, so you really can’t blame either of them for wanting their revenge, and that’s what makes the C.O.P.S. comic worlds apart from the cartoon.