Police Academy (franchise)
Series of comedy films / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Police Academy is a series of American comedy films, the first six of which were made in the 1980s and the seventh in 1994. The series opened with Police Academy (1984), which started with the premise that a new mayor had announced a policy requiring the police department to accept all willing recruits. The film followed a group of misfit recruits in their attempts to prove themselves capable of being police officers, and succeeding both in spite of and because of their eccentricities. The main character in the first four films, Carey Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg), is a repeat offender forced to join the police academy as punishment. The seventh and to date last installment, Mission to Moscow, was released in 1994. In September 2018, Guttenberg announced that a new Police Academy film was in development.[1]
Police Academy | |
---|---|
Original work | Police Academy |
Owner | Warner Bros. |
Years | 1984–present |
Films and television | |
Film(s) | |
Television series | Police Academy: The Series (1997–1998) |
Animated series | Police Academy (1988–1989) |
Miscellaneous | |
Theme park attraction(s) | Police Academy Stunt Show (1994) |
Character(s) | List of characters |
In general, the franchise depends on simple slap-stick humor, usually based on simple characterizations and physical comedy. As with many similar films, the theme is a group of underdogs struggling to prove themselves, while various authority figures try to suppress them. The sequels have not been well received by critics, although they were very successful commercially. The first film grossed $149.8 million worldwide and made a profit of $35 million.[2] The sequels grossed $387 million in total.[2] Parallels have been drawn between Police Academy and the British Carry On series,[3] for their common reliance on a largely constant ensemble cast throughout the various films, the two series' frequent use of low-brow humor, sexual innuendo, and physical comedy. George Gaynes, Michael Winslow, and David Graf were the only actors appearing in all seven films of the series.