The Mod Squad
Title screen, 1970 to 1973
Genre	Action Crime drama
Created by	Bud "Buddy" Ruskin
Developed by	Tony Barrett Harve Bennett Sammy Hess
Starring	Michael Cole Clarence Williams III Peggy Lipton Tige Andrews
Theme music composer	Earle Hagen
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	124(list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Aaron Spelling Danny Thomas
Running time	60 minutes
Production company	Thomas-Spelling Productions
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 24, 1968 (1968-09-24) – March 1, 1973 (1973-03-01)

The Mod Squad is an Americancrime drama series, originally broadcast for five seasons onABC from September 24, 1968, to March 1, 1973.^[1] It starredMichael Cole as Peter "Pete" Cochran,Clarence Williams III as Lincoln "Linc" Hayes,Peggy Lipton as Julie Barnes, andTige Andrews as Captain Adam Greer. Theexecutive producers of the series wereAaron Spelling andDanny Thomas.^[1][2]

Thecounterculture police series earned sixEmmy Award nominations, fourGolden Globe nominations plus one win for Peggy Lipton, oneDirectors Guild of America Award, and fourLogies.^[3] In 1970, the second-season episode, "In This Corner . . . Sol Alpert," script byRita Lakin and Harve Bennett, was nominated by theMystery Writers of America for anEdgar Award in the category ofBest Mystery Teleplay, losing to theTV-MovieDaughter of the Mind. In 1997, a 1970 episode "Mother of Sorrow" was ranked No. 95 onTV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.^[4]

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A critic described The Mod Squad as "the hippest and first young undercover cops on TV".^[5] Each of these characters represented mainstream culture's principal fears regarding youth in the era:^[6] long-haired rebel Pete Cochran (Michael Cole) was evicted from his wealthy parents'Beverly Hills home, then arrested and put on probation after he stole a car; Lincoln Hayes (Clarence Williams III), who came from a family of 13 children, was arrested in theWatts riots, one of the longest and most violent riots inLos Angeles history;flower child Julie Barnes (Peggy Lipton), the "canary with a broken wing,"^[7]: 64 was arrested forvagrancy after running away from her prostitute mother'sSan Francisco home; and Captain Adam Greer (Tige Andrews) was a tough but sympathetic mentor andfather figure who convinced them to form the squad.^[1][8][9]

The concept was to take three rebellious, disaffected young social outcasts and convince them to work as unarmed undercover detectives as an alternative to being incarcerated. Their youthful,hippie personas would enable them to get close to the criminals they would investigate. "The times are changing," Captain Greer explained. "They can get into places we (the regular police) can't." Examples included their infiltrations of ahigh school to solve a teacher's murder, of anunderground newspaper to find a bomber, and of an acting class to look for a strangler who was preying on blonde actresses.^[1][9]

More than a year before the release of the filmEasy Rider,The Mod Squad was one of the earliest attempts to deal with the counterculture. The show^[2] also dealt with issues such asabortion,domestic violence,child abuse,illiteracy,slumlords, theanti-war movement,illegal immigration,police brutality,student protest,sex education,soldiers returning from Vietnam andPTSD,racism,euthanasia, and theillegal drug trade.^[10] Spelling intended the show to be about the characters' relationships, and he promised that the Squad "would never arrest kids ... or carry a gun or use one."^[7]: 63

The show was loosely based on creator Bud "Buddy" Ruskin's experiences in the late 1950s as a squad leader for young undercovernarcotics cops, though it took almost 10 years after he wrote a script for the idea to begreen-lighted by ABC Television Studios.^[8]

The showsHogan's Heroes (1965-71),Star Trek (1966–69),I Spy (1965–68),The Bill Cosby Show (1969–71),Room 222 (1969–74),Mannix (1967–75),Mission: Impossible (1966–73),Julia (1968–71),The Flip Wilson Show (1970–74), andThe Mod Squad (1968–73) were among the first programs to feature African-Americans as stars since the stereotyped roles ofAmos 'n' Andy andBeulah (ABC, 1950–53).^[11] Significantly,The Mod Squad presented an African-American character (Linc) as being on an equal footing, as roles went, to the Caucasian characters (Pete and Julie). In oneMod Squad episode, the script called for Linc to give Julie a "friendly kiss". Since thefirst interracial kiss on an American television show was in 1968, this was still fairly new territory in popular culture.^[12] The studio was frightened of a negative public reaction, so they asked Spelling to cut it:^{[7]: 67–68}

"You can't do that," I was told. "You can't have a black man kissing a white girl." I won and ABC agreed to let it in, but they warned me I'd receive thousands of complaint letters. I didn't get one.^[7]: 68

Linc's famous "solid" and "keep the faith" were among the current-day slang used on the show, which included "pad", "dig it", and "groovy."^[8][13]

The "kids" traveled in Pete's oldstation wagon, "Woody": a greenwoodie-style1950 Mercury Eight which became famous until it burned up in a fire after going over a cliff during a chase at the end of the second-season episode "The Death of Wild Bill Hannachek".

Among the series' guest stars wereDesi Arnaz Jr.,Ed Asner (three episodes in three different roles),René Auberjonois,Jim Backus,Joe Don Baker,Tom Bosley,Victor Buono,David Cassidy,Jack Cassidy,Tyne Daly (two episodes in two different roles),Sammy Davis Jr. (three episodes in three different roles),Tony Dow,Richard Dreyfuss (two episodes in two different roles),Sam Elliott,Harrison Ford (uncredited role),Meg Foster (two episodes in two different roles),Anthony Geary,Louis Gossett Jr.,Lee Grant,Andy Griffith,Clint Howard,Rodolfo Hoyos Jr. (three episodes in three different roles), Spelling's ex-wifeCarolyn Jones,Fernando Lamas,Cleavon Little,Barbara McNair,Leslie Nielsen,Stefanie Powers,Vincent Price,Richard Pryor,Robert Reed,Sugar Ray Robinson,Cesar Romero,Marion Ross,Martin Sheen,Bobby Sherman (two episodes in two different roles),Vic Tayback,Danny Thomas (as well as being co-executive producer of the show),Daniel J. Travanti (three episodes in three different roles),Jo Van Fleet,Fritz Weaver,Billy Dee Williams andWilliam Windom.^[14]

In the United States,MeTV reran the series from May 26 to August 29, 2014, and again on Sunday afternoons from January 4 to August 30, 2015.Decades re-ran part of the series on February 24–25, 2018, and again on January 30–31, 2021, for their binge weekend programming block; they presented one final Decades Binge of it on March 25–26, 2023 before the network changed intoCatchy Comedy.Mod Squad is currently airing onMeTV+ weekdays at 2 pm ET.

Atelevision pilot was shot in 1968, with a running time of 74 minutes, but it was never aired in its entirety. The film was edited to 50 minutes and aired as the show's first episode. The uncut 74-minute version appears on the DVD set as the opening episode, with the title "The Teeth of the Barracuda."

A TV reunion movie,The Return of the Mod Squad, was transmitted on ABC on May 18, 1979, featuring the entire original cast. Tom Bosley, a guest star during the original run, also participated as an antagonist targeting Julie Barnes herself. Peggy Lipton said she participated in it as a favor to Aaron Spelling.^{[citation needed]}

In 1999, the series was adapted into afeature film with the same title byMGM; however, this film, which starredGiovanni Ribisi,Omar Epps,Claire Danes, andDennis Farina in Cole's, Williams III's, Lipton's, and Andrews's roles respectively, was not a box-office success.

CBS DVD (distributed byParamount) has released the first two seasons ofThe Mod Squad on DVD inRegion 1.

On August 20, 2013, it was announced thatVisual Entertainment had acquired the rights to the series (under license fromParamount) and would release season 3 on DVD on September 24, 2013. Season 4 would be released on October 1, 2013.^[15] In Canada, Season 3 was released on DVD a week earlier, on September 17, 2013, and Season 4 was released on October 8, 2013. Season 5 was released in Canada on November 19, 2013 and in the US on December 17, 2013.^[16][17] A Complete Series set was released in Canada and the US on November 12, 2013.^[18]

The term "Mod Squad" had been introduced the previous year inDragnet 1967's sixteenth installment, "The Big Kids," where it described a club of high schoolers who had to shoplift at least $20 to become members.

In 1990 on the TV seriesTwin Peaks, in which Lipton was a regular, Williams appeared in two episodes. The pair shared a brief scene that appears to have been an intentional reunion.^[19]

• The Mod Squad (1968) atIMDb
• CBS Television Distribution Syndication Bible (includingThe Mod Squad)
• Mod Squad

• 1968 American television series debuts
• 1973 American television series endings
• American action television series
• 1960s American crime drama television series
• 1970s American crime drama television series
• Television shows adapted into films
• Television shows set in Los Angeles
• Television series by CBS Studios
• Television series by Spelling Television
• American English-language television shows
• American detective television series
• American Broadcasting Company crime dramas

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