There’s always something chaotic transpiring in The Biggest Little City in the World. Or, at least, that’s how it appears on Reno 911! 20 years ago, viewers were introduced to a police force that was anything but the best and brightest. They were incompetent, unprofessional, and just as ridiculous as the troublemakers they encountered. And watching their buffoonery was hysterical. Though Las Vegas is known as a City That Never Sleeps, there’s no rest to be found in its mini-me of a city.
At the beginning of the series, there are seven officers, each with their idiosyncratic shortcomings. Every episode, they have morning meetings, preparing them for the fresh hell that awaits them. Jim Dangle (Thomas Lennon) is the lieutenant. Dangle is gay, wears his iconic short shorts, and has an ongoing issue with having his police bike stolen. James Garcia (Carlos Alazraqui) is one of the longest-serving officers at the Reno police department, unfortunately for Reno. He has a conservative and narrow-minded view of his work and of the US. Raineesha Williams (Niecy Nash) does not tolerate the shenanigans Reno throws her way. She’s good with rebuttals, but, like her co-workers, also shouldn’t be a cop. Trudy Weigel (Kerri Kenney-Silver) is an enigma; she takes a myriad of medications, has cats–some living, some deceased–and often finds herself to be the joke of the department. Sven Jones (Cedric Yarbrough) often partners with Garcia and the two have a quasi-father-son relationship, albeit a dysfunctional father-son relationship. He’s typically pursued by his co-workers and views himself as the voice of reason in his motley crew.
Clementine Johnson (Wendi McLendon-Covey) bares her cleavage and makes no secret of her lascivious behavior. And Travis Junior (Robert Ben Garant) oversees the K9 unit and constantly wears sunglasses that hide his crossed eyes. Additional officers are added in later seasons, like Cherisha Kimball (Mary Birdsong), a tough and pious woman whose sexuality is constantly questioned. The officers’ individual brand of humor is able to bounce off each other, which is why so much of the humor excels. Many of the actors also played recurring blur-faced characters, like Nash and Kenney-Silver, utilizing the talents of the actors effectively for the comedic skits.
Reno 911! parodies Cops. But while Cops is meant to reflect positively on law enforcement, Reno 911! exposes the officers’ ineptitude. They have badges and guns, and that should terrify everyone. A typical workday can include encountering a streaker who always manages to evade them, dealing with sex workers, and having to address domestic disturbances. But Reno throws everything at them, never allowing for a dull moment.
While the insanity the offices encounter isn’t relatable to most (hopefully), there’s a duality to this series because not one of the characters is an overachiever, if they were, they’d be out of place on the force. Each is lacking in some way–common sense, logic, brain cells... In many ways, Reno 911! serves a similar function as The Jerry Springer Show: I may not be perfect, but at least I’m not them. After watching the lunacy from the community and the people who are supposed to protect it, viewers can look at their situations, whatever they may be, and take solace in the fact that whatever their lives might entail, it’s probably more placid than a day in Reno 911!’s version of Reno.
The show, as with most entertainment, serves as escapism from whatever someone has become inured to in their own life. It can be cathartic watching a show like Reno 911!, where everyone lives at rock bottom when there are so many shows like Silicon Valley and Grey’s Anatomy with characters that reach such great heights. And while it can be inspiring to look up to people, it can also cause us to look down on ourselves. Reno 911! shows people whose lives haven't turned out how they want but still manage to have laughs along the way.
The show almost never happened. Originally, Reno 911! was pitched to Fox in 2001, but after Fox passed, Comedy Central picked it up in 2003. The humor was of its time. The aughts were the era of Spike TV, VH1, and crude humor. Its placement in Comedy Central allowed it to have more… colorful humor than would have been permitted at Fox, and the show’s brash stupidity was central to its success. However, some of its humor – a lot of its humor – hasn’t aged well. While much of the show is still hilarious upon rewatch nowadays, it’s also clear that much of the writing was done 20 years ago. Though still enjoyable, it’s a show that is definitely a product of its time.
But despite the more crass elements of the show, it is still accurate social commentary in that Reno 911! doesn’t pretend that its officers are model citizens. They have their biases and faults, which are reflective of real police. Most wouldn’t call the show progressive by today’s standards, but, in its own way, it gave a more honest look at law enforcement than many other cop shows of its time. While there are some bad cops portrayed on television, many are depicted as intelligent and passionate. Usually, they fill the role of good guys. But with a greater awareness of social justice, it’s clear that many people who are supposed to represent the law have deep flaws that affect their participation in the service. Reno 911! was aware of this before it became mainstream knowledge. The officers of the series misuse their position like many real-life cops. Authority is a helluva drug and the police in Reno 911! — and in reality — can abuse it.
It’s no surprise that Reno 911! was a success in the young men demographic. But what’s astounding about the series is that Dangle, in a time when being gay wasn’t accepted by large portions of society, managed to be a favorite character to young, straight, bro-ey guys–Dangle makes out with a man in the first episode! While it may be a stretch to say that Dangle paved the way for gay acceptance, he did manage to become a favorite among people who’d typically eschew anything queer-related. Dangle’s police uniform–short shorts and all–was even a popular Halloween costume for many men. Not many series at the time would have straight guys saying that a gay person was their favorite character.
What makes the show unique is that it utilized the same mockumentary formula that many other series have, but it’s drastically different from, say, Modern Family or The Office. Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) may have spilled his chili–the thing he does best–all over the office floor, but Garcia and Jones bet a kid that he can’t ride his bike across rooftops, and they were right. Chaos is the god of Reno 911!, and the officers and ne’re-do-wells of Reno are its adherents. In a single episode, a police car can be stolen, something can explode, and the cops' attempts at policing can easily be foiled.
The storylines always lend themselves to the wackier, the better. One of the many zany examples comes from Season 1 when agents from the Department of Homeland Security come to teach the officers about how to be prepared for terrorism – though 9/11 happened two years earlier, people were still rattled by it. After subjecting the officers to a series of ridiculous exercises, they all pass a test that’s required of them to keep serving. However, later they learn that the Homeland Security agents weren’t actually agents, and instead were con artists who took the crew for the ultimate ride, and made off with $300,000 worth of evidence – just another day in Reno.
Reno serves as the perfect location for the show. Nowadays, Reno has been gaining a reputation as a good area to live, but 20 years ago it was known as the lesser Las Vegas, set in a state mostly known for gambling, Area 51, and being a testing site for nuclear weapons. Nevada, a state with such a unique identity, served the series perfectly for the sheer bizarreness and havoc that viewers were treated to through Reno 911!
Reno 911! Even has three film adaptations: Reno 911!: Miami, Reno 911!: The Hunt for QAnon, and Reno 911!: It’s a Wonderful Heist. In 2022, the officers reassembled for Reno 911! Defunded. While the humor still has the same bonkers spirit as the original series, it’s evident that show updated version is more in step with the times. While there was a colorful array of malefactors in the original series, Defunded has made it a point to highlight how some of the greatest threats to a peaceful society are of the far-right persuasion. But Defunded stays true to itself in that some of the officers are still portrayed as right-wingers whose values may not be that different from the extremists they’re supposed to apprehend. The show still manages to call out the complexities, hypocrisies, and peculiarities of U.S. culture.
What has made Reno 911! the comedic legend that it was is that it knew what it was from the beginning. Many shows, particularly comedies, can feel identical to each other. If there’s a successful series, it’s as if the Hollywood machines try to reproduce templates of it via different-but-not-that-different series. So many shows are trying to copy the success and formula of others, but Reno 911! is unapologetically its idiotic self.
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