Future Cop (TV series)

Future Cop is an American crime drama science fiction television series that starred Ernest Borgnine and Michael J. Shannon. It was based on the TV movie of the same title and predated RoboCop by ten years. The series was aired on ABC in 1977 and was re-piloted as Cops and Robin on NBC in 1978.^[1] A veteran street cop gets an experimental android that has been programmed by the police lab for his new partner.

Future Cop
Genre	Science fiction
Created by	Anthony Wilson Allen S. Epstein
Starring	Ernest Borgnine Michael J. Shannon John Amos James Daughton
Composer	J. J. Johnson
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Anthony Wilson Gary Damsker
Running time	60 minutes
Production companies	The Culzean Corporation Tovern Productions Paramount Television
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	May 1, 1976 (1976-05-01) – March 28, 1978 (1978-03-28)

Cast

• Ernest Borgnine – Off. Joe Cleaver
• Michael J. Shannon – Off. John Haven
• John Amos – Off. Bill Bundy

Episodes

TV Movie (1976)

Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
"Future Cop"	Jud Taylor	Anthony Wilson	May 1, 1976 (1976-05-01)

Season 1

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"Fighting O'Haven"	Robert Douglas	Mann Rubin	March 5, 1977 (1977-03-05)
2	"The Mad Mad Bomber"	Ted Post	T : Harold Livingston S/T : Ken Kolb	March 25, 1977 (1977-03-25)
3	"The Girl on the Ledge"	Earl Bellamy	Mann Rubin	April 7, 1977 (1977-04-07)
4	"The Carlisle Girl"	Vincent McEveety	Harold Livingston	April 22, 1977 (1977-04-22)
5	"The Kansas City Kid"	Robert Douglas	Harold Livingston	April 30, 1977 (1977-04-30)

List of Cops and Robin episodes with airdates

1. "Cops and Robin" (March 28, 1978)

Plagiarism lawsuit

Writers Harlan Ellison and Ben Bova filed a lawsuit against Paramount Television, ex-Paramount exec Terry Keegan, and ABC-TV, alleging that Future Cop was plagiarized from their own pitch for a TV series, which was based on their 1970 short story "Brillo."^[2] The lawsuit was settled in 1980, awarding Ellison and Bova $182,500 in compensatory damages and $154,500 in punitive damages.^[3][4] The story's title was allegedly a pun by Bova, as a robot policeman could be referred to as "metal fuzz", like Brillo soap pads.^[5]

Home media

On March 1, 2016, Mill Creek Entertainment released the complete series on DVD in Region 1.^[6]

See also

To date, there have been five other short-lived American TV series with identical premises:

• Holmes & Yoyo (1976)
• Automan (1983)
• Mann & Machine (1992)
• Total Recall 2070 (1999)
• Almost Human (2013)