JULY 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 7

ter’s degrees in English literature
from California State University,
Dominguez Hills, and studied for
a Ph.D. in the philosophy of aesthetics
at the University of California,
Irvine, but did not complete
his degree.
He worked in marketing for
Northwest Airlines, wrote short
stories and a screenplay, and had
a job with a company — where
he met Mr. Barbour — that produced
press kits and posters for
movies. Forming their own company,
the two men directed “Cocaine
Blues” (1983), a documentary
about the perils of cocaine
abuse, which led them to make
an antidrug music video, “Stop
the Madness,” for Ronald Reagan’s
White House in 1985. (Mr. Barbour
retired from producing in 1994.)
Mr. Langley produced several
other documentaries, some with
Mr. Rivera, while trying to pitch
“COPS” to NBC, CBS, and ABC, all
of which rejected the idea. But
Fox ordered a pilot.
“Barry Diller watched it and
said: ‘God, that’s powerful, too
powerful,’” Mr. Langley said in the
Academy interview, referring to a
meeting with the Fox chairman at
the time. Another executive worried
that Fox’s stations would not
accept such a raw program. (Mr.
Langley had left in a lot of blood
and guts, he said, knowing he
could cut it.) But Rupert Murdoch,
whose company controls Fox,
said, “Order four episodes.”
“COPS” spawned several other
unscripted crime series by Mr.
Langley, including “Las Vegas
Jailhouse,” “Jail,” “Street Patrol,”
“Undercover Stings” and “Vegas
Strip,” which he produced with
his son Morgan, the executive
vice president of development at
Langley Productions.
In addition to his son, Mr. Langley
is survived by his wife, Maggie
(Foster) Langley; their daughter,
Sarah Langley Dews; another
son, Zak, who is the senior vice
president of music at Langley
Productions; a daughter, Jennifer
Blair, from a previous marriage to
Judith Knudson, which ended in
divorce, and seven grandchildren.
Mr. Langley understood the
power of a police department’s
cooperation when, while shooting
“American Vice,” he asked the
Broward police if he could shoot
a drug raid live.
“I said, ‘If you’re going to do this
bust anyway, can you do it on this
date, and maybe do it in this twohour
window?’” he told the Television
Academy. “They said, ‘Yeah,
sure,’ and that’s how we did it.”
Richard Sandomir is an obituaries
writer. He previously wrote
about sports media and sports
business. He is also the author
of several books, including “The
Pride of the Yankees: Lou Gehrig,
Gary Cooper and the Making of a
Classic.” @RichSandomir
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