The Wambaugh Files : Famous Ex-Cop From L.A. Lends His Expertise to a New NBC Venture

Joseph Wambaugh, the former Los Angeles police officer turned best-selling author, has a sheepish grin on his face. “I have a feeling I have delivered the silliest performance since Kevin Costner did ‘Robin Hood,’ ” he says, laughing. “After this performance, they may not ask me back.”

Wambaugh, author of such acclaimed works as “The New Centurions,” “The Blue Knight,” “The Onion Field” and “Echoes in the Darkness,” is relaxing in an empty office at the Los Angeles sheriff’s station in Malibu, where he’s just completed shooting the introduction to “From the Files of Joseph Wambaugh: Jury of One,” airing Sunday on NBC. He jokes that he is “the Alfred Hitchcock” of the movie.

“L.A. Law’s” John Spencer stars in “Jury of One” as a cop who, seven years earlier, accidentally shot a fellow officer. Still guilt-ridden, he drinks heavily. His wife has walked out on him and his career is in jeopardy; Eddie Velez plays his partner.

If “Jury of One” scores big in the ratings, NBC plans to turn “From the Files of Joseph Wambaugh” into a movie series, a la “Perry Mason.” In fact, said co-executive producer Jack Grossbart, “We already have a second one written.”

Wambaugh’s participation in this movie isn’t just in front of the cameras. Just as he did with “Police Story,” the ‘70s Emmy-winning NBC series that Wambaugh created, he is also wearing the hat of story editor. “I introduce the writers to cops and make sure that all the research is available to them and the writer puts together a story based on whatever he learns,” Wambaugh said.

He didn’t have to alter much of David J. Kinghorn’s script. “All I could do was to add maybe notes of authenticity based on my experience, which is what I always tried to do with ‘Police Story,’ ” Wambaugh said. That included adding touches of black humor.

“Whoever is writing for us, I think that will be one of the most important qualities of police officers that I want them to get at, and that is gallows humor,” Wambaugh says. “The defensive humor of people who work under stress.”

John Spencer has been a big fan of Wambaugh’s for years. “I think he writes cops better than anybody,” Spencer says during a break in the filming. “I think what Joe Wambaugh does, which is amazing, is that he looks at cops with a great amount of love. However, he also looks at them very honestly, so he sees the faults and the foibles and the shortcomings.”

Spencer says he wanted this role “bad.”

“There are jobs you do because you need the money, but I read this and I wanted it,” he says. He also identified a lot with his character, Detective Mike Mulick.

“I certainly have had demons in my life that have plagued me and come back to haunt me,” Spencer says. “I am a recovering alcoholic and this character is very alcoholic. He uses booze to kind of drown out his memory. I used to drink for some of the same reasons.”

Wambaugh says he prefers working in television these days. “I kind of like TV because in TV you can still have a tragic ending. Even if your protagonists die at the end of the feature these days, they will die in grand style. There is no such thing as a true-life feature film any more. You can only do tragedy these days in television.”

Most of his recent books, Wambaugh said, would be a tough sale for features because they are too dark and tragic to interest Hollywood. “TV will probably do them,” he says. “Nowadays, while the audience is so young and so brain-dead for features, Hollywood is committed to a certain style of movie.”

He finds problems with most features about cops, such as the popular “Lethal Weapon” movies. “Feature films only do cop comic books,” he says. “They don’t do cop dramas.”

“Police work is about people talking to people,” he continues. “It is not about ‘Lethal Weapon.’ It is not about blowing things up and all of this silliness which features are about.”

One film that really makes Wambaugh angry is the 1990 hit comedy “Pretty Woman.”

“It is a shame what the business is doing to these kids who have dumbed-down so far that they actually swallow stories like ‘Pretty Woman,’ ” he says. “I used to work vice in the streets of Hollywood and you don’t find Richard Gere. You find a monstrous pimp who will put you in hell and keep you there. If you live two years, you’re lucky. I saw that film and I thought how many kids in Des Moines, these places they run away from, are going to watch that and say, ‘Hey, I can always get along.’ ”

Wambaugh firmly believes the violence depicted in films affects the audience. “Hollywood ... wants to present all of these violent comic books and pretend that it doesn’t affect behavior, when there is a whole generation of people who are being titillated by violence and who are using violence as an outlet. Hollywood wants to hide behind the First Amendment.”

“From the Files of Joseph Wambaugh: Jury of One” airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on NBC.

“L.A. Law” airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on NBC. Repeats of “L.A. Law” air weeknights at 8 and Saturdays at 2 p.m. on Lifetime.