CBS’ ‘Top Cops’ Patrol TV’s Toughest Turf : Television: The sole summer series to make it onto the fall schedule now has the unenviable task of taking on ‘Cosby’ and ‘The Simpsons.’

Like astronauts, Western-movie heroes and pro football players, real cops on the TV news tend to talk in a heroic patois that downplays bravery. They “apprehend the perpetrators” when, in fact, they have just survived a shoot-out. But in CBS’ “Top Cops,” police officers tell what it’s like to be shot, to sweat out defusing a bomb, to rescue a woman from a rapist.

It is gritty, graphic stuff, and the combination of the officers’ narrative with re-creations by actors has hit a nerve with viewers. Like Fox’s “Cops” and CBS’ “Rescue 911,” “Top Cops” is part of a new wave of TV cop shows that make real police officers the true-blue stars of the show.

“We show cops as the real heroes that they are,” said Sonny Grosso, the show’s executive producer and a former New York City detective made famous for his work on the “French Connection” heroin case. “There are plenty of movies that show cops that may be doing something wrong. I’m interested in showing all the men and women out there who are putting their lives on the line every day for not a lot of money.”

Alone among nearly a dozen series that the networks tried out during the summer, “Top Cops” proved so popular that it was kept on the schedule for the fall, where one Wednesday night this month it beat out both NBC’s “Hunter” and ABC’s “Cop Rock” at 10.

Based on that surprising success, CBS has shortened “Top Cops” to 30 minutes and moved it to TV’s toughest neighborhood: Thursday nights at 8 opposite NBC’s “The Cosby Show” and Fox’s “The Simpsons.” The move was designed so that CBS could push “The Flash” back to an 8:30 p.m. start in the hope of attracting some of the young viewers locked into “Cosby” or “The Simpsons.”

“I feel like I’ve survived Guadalcanal. Do I now have to go to Iwo Jima?” Grosso said, only half-jokingly, about the time change.

Last week, in its first Thursday outing, “Top Cops” plummeted to No. 75 in the ratings, attracting only 11% of the audience.

“The network says they’re satisfied with the number we got, and we’ve been delivering a younger audience with the show,” Grosso said. “They’re saying, ‘Hang in there.’ My hope is that maybe they’ll move the show to another time slot.”

CBS, Grosso said, has not given him many specific guidelines for changing the show from one designed for an audience at 10 p.m. to one at 8 p.m. But, he said, “We did have to tone down the content. We did a program about a mass murderer in the 10 o’clock time slot that we probably wouldn’t do at 8. In terms of violence, you have to walk that chalk line. We probably won’t show as much of the aftermath of a cop getting shot--but, at the same time, I want to be true to what happens to policemen.

“I didn’t think our original show was violent,” Grosso said. “I don’t mind violence on television as long as you show the results of that violence. I think it’s worse to show a lot of violence that seems to have no repercussions.”

For the new time slot, Grosso said, the show will focus more on rescues by police officers and other stories aimed at younger audiences. (The officers’ stories are drawn from police files across the country.)

The detective-turned-producer has even enlisted a famous former actor for a cameo during the November sweeps: Former President Ronald Reagan recently taped an appearance for “Top Cops,” talking about the Secret Service agent whose quick action is credited with helping save Reagan’s life in the 1981 assassination attempt.

Grosso believes that his show can help in the fight against crime.

“Every piece of dope, every vial of crack that’s sold in a community, somebody knows about it. If people can see cops in a more positive light, maybe we can help take back the streets from the animals.”