21 Jump Street Drama Television Series

21 Jump Street is an American police procedural crime drama television series that aired on the Fox Network from April 12, 1987, to April 27, 1991, with a total of 103 episodes. The series focused on a squad of youthful-looking undercover police officers investigating crimes in high schools, colleges, and other teenage venues.


The series focused on a group of police officers headquartered at the titular address. These officers were all young in age and had especially youthful appearances which allowed them to pass for teenagers. Their assignments generally consisted of undercover work in high schools or, less commonly, colleges, where they generally investigated drug trafficking and abuse. The show's plots covered typical issues of its time, including alcoholism, hate crimes, drug abuse, homophobia, AIDS, child abuse, and sexual promiscuity. Similarly, each problem was often solved by the end of the hour long show, giving an implicit moral about the impact of a particular activity. When the show originally aired, some episodes were followed immediately by public service announcements featuring cast members.

The show starred prominent actors and actresses at the time, including:

• Johnny Depp as Officer Tom Hanson (1987–1990)
• Holly Robinson as Sergeant Judith "Judy" Hoffs (1987–1991)
• Peter DeLuise as Officer Douglas "Doug" Penhall (1987–1990)
• Dustin Nguyen as Sergeant Harry Truman Ioki/Vinh Van Tran (H.T. Ioki) (1987–1990)
• Steven Williams as Captain Adam Fuller (1987–1991)
• Sal Jenco as Sal "Blowfish" Banducci (1987-1990)
• Frederic Forrest as Captain Richard Jenko (1987)
• Richard Grieco as Detective Dennis Booker (1988-91)
• Michael DeLuise as Officer Joseph "Joey" Penhall (1990–1991)
• Michael Bendetti as Officer Anthony "Mac" McCann (1990–1991)

Jeff Yagher was originally cast as Officer Tom Hanson in the pilot. He was replaced after the original pilot episode was filmed, and his scenes were reshot with Johnny Depp. Midway through the first season, Frederic Forrest was replaced by Steven Williams. On the show, Forrest's character Richard Jenko is killed by a drunk driver.

Jump Street was set in the "Evergreen State", the nickname of Washington State. However, Washington state was never officially identified as the setting location on the show. But the show's filming location Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is given away in the series' opening. A shot of a city bus with destination "Hastings" is shown briefly, as well as a SkyTrain with a British Columbia Transit (BC Transit) logo barely visible on the side and every car driven in the series including the ones driven by the characters have British Columbia plates. This was featured in the new opening of Season 3. New Westminster Secondary School was one of the main locations of the series. The license plates on the cars are clearly Canadian as well.