Between cyborg cops, singing cops, and cops of the butt-flashing variety, you'd think that the law-enforcement genre would be pretty exhausted. Think again. Now there's SPACE PRECINCT (syndicated, check local listings), a truly bizarre blend of every police-show cliche you've ever seen plus the Muppets. Set in the 21st century, Space Precinct follows the adventures of Lieut. Patrick Brogan (played by Ted Shackelford, of Dallas and Knots Landing fame), a New York cop who's been uprooted along with his family and NYPD partner and transplanted to Demeter City, the crime capital of Planet Altor. But instead of getting mired in Trekkie technobabble, Space Precinct offers a crazy quilt of alien races. Created by British animation pioneer Gerry Anderson (Thunderbirds), Precinct's goofy prosthetic inhabitants are as cheesy and artificial as Velveeta, and look a bit like Eric Stoltz in Mask, with foam heads the size of ripe watermelons. Of course, a lot of them are thugs, lowlifes, and mobsters up to no good. That's where Brogan comes in: ''He's 180 degrees from Gary (Ewing on Dallas),'' says Shackelford. ''He walks around with this big gun and blows away bad guys.'' But, he admits of the show, ''Nobody's seen it.'' That may be because in some cities Precinct airs in the wee hours opposite Sally Struthers infomercials. Then again, it may be because we never get to see his buns.
