36 years ago today, Cops premiered on Fox! The show was created by John Langley and Malcolm Barbour. They were working on a documentary in 1983 called Cocaine Blues. As part of his research, Langley went on a raid with drug enforcement officers and got the idea to create a show focusing on real-life law enforcement. They tried for years to sell the show, but were repeatedly told that a show without a narrator, music, or plot couldn’t succeed. Then the Writers Guild of America Strike happened in 1988, and suddenly a show requiring no writers sounded pretty good. The young Fox Television network picked up the show, with the first season airing in 1989. Since then, Cops has become one of the longest-running reality series in TV history and was the longest running live action series on Fox. Learn more in the audio below.