"Vegas Strip" is, indeed, a reality -- or what its creators like to call "actuality" -- TV show that follows a number of Metro officers as they go about their business policing the Las Vegas Strip. Brought to us by the producers of "COPS," which, as an aside, finally found a home with Fox after eight years in the wilderness and is now, at 982 episodes and counting, that network's longest-running show, "Vegas Strip" is one of Langley Production's newer series, along with other such cultural contributions as "Las Vegas Jail House," filmed in the Clark County Detention Center.
While the latter project is summed up on Wikipedia as following the handling, detention, and booking process of various criminals arrested in Las Vegas, most of whom "are drunk drivers, the publicly intoxicated, and prostitutes," "Vegas Strip" is somewhat more diverse, thanks to the eclectic nature of its subjects, both visitors and locals, and to its setting in the midst of all the glittering overblown insanity that is the Las Vegas Strip on an average weekend night.
While we hadn't previously seen the episode to which you refer, we did catch another week's offering, in which one perpetrator who'd been released proceeded to stab the tires of the police officer's car, before throwing his knife into the Bellagio fountain, while we just saw a clip from yet another episode in which two homeless men chose to cool down by standing in the fountain outside Caesars while eating their cheeseburgers -- something evidently not appreciated by LV's finest.
To date, "Dino Dad," which we found on YouTube, is by far the most entertaining excerpt we've witnessed -- how the Metro cop managed to keep a straight face while he questioned the dude in the ambulance who'd called in with labour pains, we don't know, but he did manage to ascertain that the man in question had become pregnant with a T-Rex egg as a result of smoking too many cigarettes (now, there's a health warning, if ever there was one) and that he planned to call the baby Dr Barney. Naturally.
"Vegas Strip" premiered on the truTV cable network on July 17, 2011, and to date two series have aired. Langley Productions' website indicates that season three begins airing on October 22, but when we placed a call to their office in Santa Monica to confirm this, after having been placed on hold a couple of times (during which we got to listen to the "COPS" theme music by Inner Circle), we were informed that they "don't know" if or when another series will be broadcast. It was evident that the young guy we spoke with was wary of talking to us and that this was about as much information as we were likely to glean from that source.
So, we tried another tack, and called Metro's Office of Public Information, which historically has always been very helpful. True to form, we were connected with a Metro officer who was fully aware of the project and confirmed that Las Vegas Metro has an ongoing affiliation with Langley Productions, but that the project was currently "on hiatus." When we questioned whether any of the previous scenes had been staged, he responded that no, it was definitely all real and that no actors were involved.
Since the current writer has a background in television production, I questioned how come none of the perps had opted to have their face obscured, posing the question, "Is that 15 minutes of fame really worth it to them, even if their portrayal is really not in their best interests?", to which the cop laughed and responded, "Well, if you want to put it that way, yes, I guess so." As per normal documentary protocol, anyone featured on camera must sign a release form or waiver, so it's clear that some people truly have more ego than sense.
