John Bunnell
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| John Bunnell | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 25, 1944 Pendleton, Oregon |
John Edwin Bunnell (born 25 May 1944) is a former Sheriff of Multnomah County, Oregon. Bunnell is best known for presenting World's Wildest Police Videos between 1998 and 2002.
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[edit] Background
Bunnell was born in Pendleton, Oregon.He obtained a degree in social sciences before joining the Multnomah County Sheriff's Department in January 1969. Bunnell managed the drugs and vice unit in the 1980s. He was appointed Sheriff of Multnomah County when the previous Sheriff, Robert G. Skipper, retired in 1994 before the end of his term. Bunnell took the oath of office on November 30, 1994 and served until May 1995.[1]
In 1989 and 1990 Multnomah County's Sheriff’s Office was featured in 15 episodes of COPS and in 1991, 13 episodes of American Detective. John Bunnell, as a Lieutenant, appeared in early episodes of both COPS and American Detective, and hosted the first season of American Detective.
He is usually referred to as "Sheriff John Bunnell" despite no longer being active in law enforcement and having only been a sheriff 6 months, (unelected). (This is occasionally shown as "Sheriff John Bunnell [Ret]").
[edit] World's Wildest Police Videos
His appearances on several early episodes of COPS conducting drug stings led to his hosting World's Wildest Police Videos. Bunnell attained a cult following due to his over-the-top commentary style, marked by police-related jokes, "cheesy, exaggerated melodrama, double entandres, blatant overuse of illiteration [sic] and an extreme excess of cliché prison references".[2] Bunnell hosted the show, which ran from 1998 to 2002, describing situations featured on the program as they develop and offering personal opinions about the criminals and the police that pursue them. Bunnell's hosting of World's Wildest Police Videos led to him hosting a similar show, Train Wrecks. He also appeared on Americas Most Wanted for 6 years. Bunnell lends his voice to the Sony PlayStation game World's Scariest Police Chases, warning that "Due to the graphic nature of this game, player discretion is advised.", at the beginning of the game, similar to the warning at the beginning of the program. He has also had minor acting roles in Ghost World, and Bad Santa, both directed by Terry Zwigoff. In Bad Santa he uses one of his famous catch phrases when Billy Bob Thornton and his gang are surrounded by the police in the dept. store saying: "All three of you are in so much shit, it's almost unbelievable!" - reminiscent of his comments on his TV shows.[3]
[edit] Fugitive Takedown
John Bunnell is also featured in the online game "Sheriff John Bunnell's Fugitive Takedown", which begins with the trademark viewer discretion warning in the style of World's Scariest Police Chases. The loading screen features different ratings to display the percentage the game has loaded. These ratings are similar to the alliteration John would use in reference to criminals on World's Wildest Police Videos. (ie. dangerous doper, frenzied felon etc.) The game centers around Sheriff John Bunnell pursuing criminals in one of three unlockable cars, pummeling their cars or running them over should they chose to flee on foot. One can also play as the criminal fleeing an endless troop of police vehicles, the aim then being to run over pedestrians.
The game does not appear to be officially licensed, but rather is an exhibit of the public's awareness of John Bunnell.
[edit] TV ads
John Bunnell has most recently been seen in a series of ads for ID Watchdog, a Denver based ID Theft monitoring service.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "A History of Multnomah County Sheriffs" - Oregon State Sheriffs' Association. Retrieved 22 January 2007.
- ^ "Sheriff John Bunnell" - Cult Idols. Retrieved 16 September 2006.
- ^ John Bunnell in Bad Santa - YouTube
- ^ ID Watchdog
[edit] External links
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