John Russell Langley (June 1, 1943 – June 26, 2021) was an American television and film director, writer, and producer who was best known as the creator and executive producer of the television show Cops, which premiered on Fox in March 1989. Prior to that, he was among the reality television pioneers as a producer of various two-hour event specials in syndicated television markets during the 1980s. In fact, Langley was often credited as being the "Godfather of Reality Television" with the appearance of Cops in 1989. Biography Personal Langley was born in Oklahoma City, but moved to Los Angeles as a small child. He was the son of Lurleen (Fox), a homemaker, and John Russell Langley, an oil wildcatter. Langley was a Morse code intercept operator in the Army Security Agency, an intelligence unit of the United States Army from 1961 to 1963, in Panama. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 1971, and later a Master's degree in literature and composition. Langley briefly participated in the doctorate of philosophy program in University of California, Irvine. On December 2, 1986, Langley made his entrance into the world of reality television when a show which he produced, American Vice: The Doping of a Nation, showed three live drug arrests on primetime television for the first time. In order to make the show Langley had convinced officials of the Broward County, Florida Sheriff's Department to allow cameras to accompany them on a previously-scheduled drug bust. The success of the show proved to be the grand inspiration for Langley's signature work. Cops In 1988, Langley with Malcolm Barbour serving as his production partner, formed Barbour/Langley Productions. He first produced Who Murdered JFK in collaboration with Saban Productions in 1988. Langley's most notable achievement perhaps is the innovation of the cinéma vérité signature style of the award-winning Cops television program, which notably influenced TV advertising and news reporting, not to mention other network and syndicated programming. Langley recalled that the Cops concept was initially difficult to sell to television network executives, and that all were "very negative" to his fundamental idea. He was finally able to win a meeting with Barry Diller, then head of Fox to explain his concept, he recalled in a 2013 interview: 'You've gotta have a narrator,' Diller said. And I said no. 'Whattayamean no?' Diller said. And I said