Television series

Reno 911!

Name: Reno 911!
Genre: Comedy, Action, Crime
Released: 2003
Cast: Kerri Kenney-Silver, Cedric Yarbrough, Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, Niecy Nash

Reno 911! is deadpan chaos: a fictional Nevada sheriff's department filmed like a real cop show, staffed by detectives who are vain, horny, and catastrophically bad at their jobs. Almost entirely improvised, it trades plot for vignette after vignette of small-town incompetence. Fast, filthy, and gleefully low-stakes — ideal when you want jokes, not story.

TVMaze rating

7.2

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Cops1989

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This is the actual show Reno 911 is impersonating — real officers, real ride-alongs, real grainy VHS energy. Watching it after the parody is uncanny: half the jokes turn out barely exaggerated.

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Made by the same State/Reno 911 circle of comedians, with the same commitment to playing utter nonsense completely straight-faced. A cult curio worth knowing about the family tree.

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The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!1988

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