SpikeTV: Behind the Badge

[Cotuit]

Spike TV gets real with city's finest

By Suzanne Smalley, Globe Staff | January 27, 2005

Coming soon to living rooms across America: a cable television series exploring the lives of Boston police officers, from the gripping to the mundane.

Producers from Spike TV have been in Boston for two months filming the daily routines of officers for a documentary of at least six one-hour episodes, scheduled to air this fall. The network, a subsidiary of MTV that is available in 87 million homes nationwide, bills itself as the first network for men and offers programs such as ultimate fighting, pro wrestling, and episodes of ''Blind Date."

Police officials confirmed yesterday that they are participating in the series and said they have agreed to give Spike TV access to a wide variety of officers on and off the job, on condition that police officials get to see the final product before it airs. Two high-ranking police sources said Spike TV promised the Police Department the right to preview unedited footage so that anything compromising a case or embarrassing an officer can be cut.

''Spike TV and their producers have promised us an objective and unsensationalized portrayal of the lives of Boston police officers," said Sergeant Thomas Sexton, a department spokesman. ''We hope and believe the resulting program will give viewers an accurate portrayal of Boston police officers as the professional dedicated men and women they are."

The new series, titled ''Behind the Badge," echoes ''Boston 24/7," a six-hour reality series about the lives of city workers that ABC broadcast 2

[urban addict 20324]

This would be interesting to me.

[jarvismj]

Any new info on when this is supposed to air? I used to want to be a Boston Police officer, but the residency restrictions and the tobacco use policy went against me.