John Langley

John Langley (born June 1, 1943) is an American television and film director, writer, and producer who is best known as the creator and executive producer of the long-running television show COPS, which premiered on FOX in March 1989.

Prior to that, he was among the reality television pioneers as a producer of various two-hour event specials in syndicated television markets during the 1980s. In fact, Langley is often credited as being the "Godfather of Reality Television" with the appearance of COPS in 1989.

Langley worked the intelligence unit of the United States Army from 1961 to 1963 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 1971 and later a Master's degree in literature and composition.

Langley briefly participated in the doctorate program for philosophy in University of California, Irvine.

On December 2, 1986 Langley made his entrance into the world of reality television when a show which he produced, American Vice: The Doping of a Nation, showed three live drug arrests on primetime television for the first time. In order to make the show Langley had convinced officials of the Broward County, Florida Sheriff's Department to allow cameras to accompany them on a previously-scheduled drug bust. The success of the show proved to be the grand inspiration for Langley's signature work.

Langley's most notable achievement perhaps is the innovation of the "video verite" signature style of the award-winning Cops television program, which notably influenced TV advertising and news reporting, not to mention other network and syndicated programming.

Langley recalls that the Cops concept was initially difficult to sell to television network executives, and that all were "very negative" to his fundamental idea. He was finally able to win a meeting with Barry Diller, then head of Fox Broadcasting Company to explain his concept, he recalled in a 2013 interview:

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