CBS orders Rush Hour series pilot from Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Despite not bringing BEVERLY HILLS COP to the small screen, CBS instead will move forward with a RUSH HOUR series from SCRUBS creator Bill Lawrence and film director Brett Ratner. We first heard about the RUSH HOUR series back in September, but now CBS has committed to a pilot for the show. Where BEVERLY HILLS COP served as a sequel series to the Eddie Murphy movies, RUSH HOUR will act as a reboot and follow the first RUSH HOUR movie with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.

Staying close to the premise of the original movie, the show centers on a stoic, by-the-book Hong Kong police officer (played in the features by Chan) assigned to a case in Los Angeles, where he’s forced to work with a cocky black LAPD officer (originally played by Tucker) who has no interest in a partner.

CBS is home to a large number of procedural type series like ELEMENTARY, NCIS, CSI, and HAWAII FIVE-O, so RUSH HOUR will have to rely on a strong comic element to keep itself apart from the pack. It would probably be asking too much to have Tucker or Chan appear on the series, but you can always use them for stunt-casting should the show make it to the airwaves.

RUSH HOUR was fun the first couple of times but then began to feel repetitive. I have a sneaking suspicion that the RUSH HOUR series could go the same way. It will really depend on the chemistry between the leads. If Lawrence and Ratner aim for the same dynamic of fast-talking American cop and martial arts-savvy Chinese cop, this may just feel like a retread of the same old thing.