This awesome show was an American crime show in the 80s (ran from April 1987 to April 1991 for 5 seasons) and was a crime show with a difference.

It was about a group of young cops whose youthful appearances enabled them to work undercover in both high schools and colleges to catch criminal youths. The show’s plots covered social issues that were current int he 80s, typically including alcoholism, hate crimes, drug abuse, gay rights, AIDS, child abuse, and sexual promiscuity. They were quite diverse on the topics covered each episode, and looking back on it now, I think some of the episodes (if new today) could have problems being aired in certain areas of the world.

The plot or storyline of each episode was often solved by the end of the hour long show, which would wrap up the ‘theme’ of that particualr episode and the message it was trying to convey (ie Drugs are bad, the results of teenage alocholism etc). Additionally, or rather intentionally, when the show originally aired in the 80s, some episodes were followed immediately by public service announcements featuring cast members.

Some other famous (or to be famous) people that appeared in the series included Dom DeLuise, Bridget Fonda, Brad Pitt, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Shannon Tweed.

Jump Street is probably more known these days for Johhny Depp’s role in the series, but he was a little known actor in those days. Depp played officer Tom Hansen for the first 4 series. Some trivia about his character – Jeff Yagher was originally cast as Tom Hanson in the pilot, but was replaced after the original pilot episode was filmed. If you recall, Depp was in the pilot when it aired on TV, and that is because Yagher’s scenes were reshot with Johnny Depp in them.

The main characters (and who played them were as follows:

Johnny Depp as Officer Tom Hanson
Holly Robinson as Officer Judith “Judy” Hoffs
Peter DeLuise as Officer Douglas “Doug” Penhall
Dustin Nguyen as Officer Harry Truman Ioki
Steven Williams as Captain Adam Fuller
Frederic Forrest as Captain Richard Jenko