#nathan pickering

PREMISE: The long arm of the law just got a whole lot longer. When a group of taller-than-average cops gets sick of being called “beanpole” and “stretch” by their fellow officers, they band together and form a special squad made up exclusively of generously-proportioned detectives. Working together, the Tall Cops no longer get left out of stakeouts because they can’t hide as well as their shorter colleagues, can commiserate about having cold feet from sleeping in too-short beds, and they get a bulk discount when they buy their uniforms from the Big and Tall store. The Tall Cops are on the case, and they’re gonna reach up and grab a big box of justice off the top shelf for you.

CHARACTERS: Nathan Pickering, 6’ 8”, always felt like an outsider because he was the tallest cop in his precinct. All that changed when he was partnered with Percy Hamilton, a 6’ 11” former Marine. In their first case working together, the two went undercover as members of a basketball team in order to bust a notorious steroid dealer. When they were about to put the cuffs on him, the crook ran and tried to hide in a tree, but that proved to be his undoing (S01.E01 – “Foul Shots”). Pickering and Hamilton were so delighted that they could high five each other without having to stoop down that they decided to find and recruit more tall cops to help them bust crime.

NOTABLE EPISODE: The Tall Cops face their toughest challenge yet when a murder brings them to the U.S.-Mexico border, where an assassin is hiding in one of the cramped, low-ceilinged tunnels used by the cartels to smuggle drugs. The killer is brought to justice, but the team’s hand-to-hand combat expert, Parker Weiland, bangs his head so bad on a beam he winds up in a coma (S04.E20 – “Policiàs Grandes”).

CATCHPHRASE: “The weather up here is cloudy with a chance of justice.”

TRIVIA/MISCELLANY: The actor who played Marky Romero, the team demolitions expert, was actually 5’ 6” and had to stand closer to the camera in all his scenes so that he looked taller.