After working on scripts for NYPD Blue, TV writer Ann Biderman switched coasts and created the cop drama Southland, the working title of which was LAPD.
The series — which had Michael Cudlitz, Shawn Hatosy, Regina King, and Ben McKenzie playing Los Angeles cops — ran for one season on NBC and four on TNT and won over critics and viewers. Matt Zoller Seitz at Vulture called it “the most engrossing cop series since Season 1 of NBC’s Homicide, and maybe the most raggedy and real,” and a 2020 study found that it was one of the most underrated shows on TV.
Southland also won a Peabody Award in 2012. “As in every great police drama, daily work offers versions of what it means to be human and humane, violent and compassionate, cynical and committed,” Peabody voters said. “Cop shows are television staples because they provide a crucible in which to test such matters week after week. This series never turns down the heat.”
The talented guest cast kept Southland’s drama blazing, too. Here are 10 familiar faces featured on the show, which debuted 15 years ago now, on April 9, 2009.
