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Mandatory ride along with law enforcement not only helped On Call writers conduct essential research for the show – it also inspired essential scenes from Wolf Entertainment’s first streaming series.
The Prime Video series, which premiered on Thursday, January 9, uses body camera, dash cam and mobile phone footage that allowing spectators to follow cops in the field. On Call mainly focuses on veteran training officer Traci Harmon (Turn Bellisario) and her rookie partner Alex Diaz (Brandon Larracuente) as they respond to emergency calls on the streets of Long Beach, California.
The duo deal with everything from gang-related incidents to domestic disputes to rising cases of arson. Although some of the cases seem exaggerated in order to make good TV, cocreator Tim Walsh just say Us Weekly how his own experiences on rides informed the scripts of the show.
“I can honestly say that probably 90 to 95 percent of the calls you saw on the show all came from our experiences on the tour,” Walsh shared. “Or they were told by the officers on a trip. So we took a lot from being on the street.”
Erin Simkin/Prime Video The first season of On Call Us had us on the edge of our seats – but where does Wolf Entertainment’s police organization go from here? On Call, which premiered on Thursday, January 9, focused on veteran training officer Traci Harmon (Troian Bellisario) and her rookie partner Alex Diaz (Brandon Larracuente) as (…)
Walsh admitted it create an ambitious series such as On Call it came with its own set of challenges.
“The body camera is a lens that takes everything in. We immediately learned in editing that you would see the boom operator, the craft services and the porta pots. We had to be very careful,” he explained. “We learned, but we had to be very careful. At one point there were 12 cameras in episode 4 when they hit the motel.”
Walsh continued: “It’s a big action sequence and all of our characters – or police officers – wear a body camera. You can only imagine they’re going to get the crew, they’re going to get the people to sit to the side. So that was really challenging. We had to find it and we found it in the editing part of the process.”
Despite the complications, Walsh says he is delighted with the final product. The screenwriter highlighted specifically On Call‘s a mission not to choose sides while highlighting important conversations about first responders.
“That was the goal going into it — it’s not an anti-police or pro-police show. It’s pro-character, and the characters happen to be cops,” Walsh said. “We started doing a lot of research from the jump, including multiple rides with the Los Angeles Police Department, the Sheriff’s Department and the Long Beach police . You realize when you’re driving that there’s just another human being next to you.”
Generally On Call Mission was to “entertain” the audience. “People are at a point in their lives where they don’t want to be preached to anymore. So we were very aware of that,” continued Walsh. “It’s a complicated subject. We don’t ignore that part of it. But we also say that, outside of the complex subject, there is extremely important work that these people also have to do. We wanted to focus on that part.”
On Call is currently streaming on Prime Video. Keep scrolling for a breakdown of how off-screen rides played a part in the creation of the newest police procedural:
Were Ride Alongs Mandatory?
Walsh called the research immediate “incredibly important” to the show.
“Honestly, when I hired the writing staff, I asked them, ‘Do you have a problem with going on a ride? Because if you do, you’re (probably) not going to be writing on the show,'” Walsh said Usreferring to how necessary it was to have information from the field when creating the series. “If someone was going to write a show about a TV writer, they get to shadow a TV writer or a showrunner to find out what their day-to-day life is like. They can’t get it right.”
All of it On Call The team wanted to do right by the material, and Walsh added, “We couldn’t do that to these law enforcement officers either. We always wanted this to be very authentic because there’s so much drama out there for me. So the preparation was No. 1 and the actors had stepped up. They all rode, the directors rode, some of the producers rode and our Production Director did. So if you wanted to be on the show, you had to go and sit in a car with these people.”
How Much Ride Along Ended Up On Screen?
Recalling his own time in a squad car, Walsh the first big moment was cited between Harmon and Diaz.
“What stayed with me in one of my first rides while developing this show with a young 30-year-old who pulls over to the side of the road. He then turned to me after we had a very friendly chat back and forth. He looks at me and asks, ‘Where are we now?’ I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ It’s like, ‘I just got shot. You are my partner tonight. Where are we?’” Walsh told Us about a conversation that made it to the season premiere of On Call. “I look all over the place and it’s like, ‘I’m dead. I’m already dead.’”
Walsh continued: “He said, ‘The most important thing you can learn from day one is where you always are in life. That went straight to the pilot.”
Was anything off limits?
“When you’re with these officers, you go into these communities and into people’s homes. You’re in their living rooms, in their backyard and you learn so much,” Walsh shared, referring to how his first-hand experience was used on screen. “We’re not just watching the police, we’re watching the community and how they interact with the police as well. That is also very important.”
The heaviest subject on the show – including the open cold with a car accident that resulted in an injured dog — lifted from real events.
“That had to go in there. I’ve done a few shows where I’ve developed them and they haven’t gone ahead and it’s devastating. I felt it might be my last chance,” he admitted Us. “And if I was going to fall on anyone’s sword, it was going to be on my own sword. I was just like, ‘Nothing is off limits. Let’s just put it all out there and I think it will find its audience.’”
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How Dangerous Was The Ride Along?
According to Walsh, not every encounter turned out how he expected.
“We rolled up on a gentleman (once) who was smoking crystal meth on a bus stop bench and the officer picked up his loudspeaker and said, ‘Hey, do me a favor. Just move and go smoke be somewhere else. You can’t be in public.’ In the past, they probably would have gotten out of the car and confronted him, but he’s taking precautions,” Walsh recalled. “The guy said, ‘No, I’m not going to move.’ When he moved around, we saw that he had a tennis ball the size of a meth crystal. That’s a felony, so the officer got out of the car and I went out with him.”
The usual stop ended with “physical evidence” between the man and the police officer.
“I’ll never forget this young deputy rolling around on the ground with this guy. I turned around and everyone in the intersection was stopped with their cell phones and they were recording us. I was like, ‘Please, don’t let this end in a more violent way.’ And the suspect took off running,” Walsh continued. “Then the whole fleet went after him and about 30 minutes later, they caught him. But things like that, I was literally his only backup. So I was wondering, ‘Do I need to jump in here and help him?’ But that’s pretty much every trip – you have no idea what you’re going to encounter.”
What Was The Main Takeaway From The Experience?
“What I hope (viewers) take away is that mental health is really a huge part of the daily police interaction. I don’t think they get enough credit for that,” Walsh noted. “Obviously there is a lot of focus on the negative incidents, which, quite rightly, need to be called out. But they also help people with mental health and substance abuse problems.”
He concluded: “That’s not really in their job description, but it has fallen on them and the fire department. So the takeaway would probably be to bring more awareness that these are the people who help the people on the street with addiction problems – more so than you probably imagined.”
