Creator of 'Cops' John Langley passes away at 78

Hollywood director John Langley who created the longrunning TV show Cops which helped usher in the reality TV era on Saturday died of an apparent heart attack in Baja MexicoLangley was 78yearold and according to Variety was competing in the CoasttoCoast EnsenadaSan Felipe 250 offroad race Cops was canceled in 2020 after the George Floyd protests and had become controversial for showing primarily the point of view of the policeFor 32 seasons it was a reality TV juggernaut running for over 1000 episodes and introducing the cinema verite style of documentary to television The familiar theme song by Ian Lewis of Inner Circle became a part of pop culture It remains in production for overseas networksAfter being canceled by Fox in 2013 Cops moved to the Spike network now Paramount Network before being canceled again in 2020 A podcast had detailed how police were able to remove portions of the shows that showed them negatively and how some people were coerced into signing waiversInitially after trying for several years to find a network Langley and his production partner Malcolm Barbour were able to get the show on the air at the fledgling Fox in the aftermath of the 1988 Writers Guild strike since it had no union writersIn its early years Cops was nominated four times for Emmys in the outstanding informational series category Barbour retired in 1994Before moving into TV Langley wrote and codirected the 1983 documentary Cocaine Blues with Barbour Pop culture figures including Frank Zappa Hoyt Axton and Paul Krassner appeared in the documentary which also featured footage of a drug raid with undercover officersLangley started out in reality TV with his 1986 special American Vice The Doping of a Nation which showed live drug arrests on primetime televisionHe went on to produce series including Inside American Jail for TruTV and Las Vegas Jailhouse both with his son Morgan His other productions included Street Patrol Vegas Strip Road Warriors and Undercover StingsAs per Variety Langleys son Morgan who oversees Langley Productions and is an executive producer of Cops survives him as does his wife Maggie son Zak daughters Sarah Langley Dews and Jennifer Blair as well as seven grandchildrenThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever