‘Cops’ chases down 20th season on Fox

NEW YORK - When discussing his series, “Cops” mastermind John Langley can’t help mentioning a few of its 700-plus episodes. Like the one where an overweight woman lunged at an officer with a butcher knife.

“She falls down and the knife goes all the way in her gut! I mean, to the hilt! And she lived!” He’s clearly still amazed

“And then we had the naked burglar in Philadelphia. The cops answer the call, and the guy’s on PCP, which for some reason makes people take their clothes off. It takes about seven cops to subdue him.

“Then, a year or two later in Pittsburgh, the same thing: a naked burglar coming out of a school.” Langley chuckles. “Ver-r-ry bizarre.”

Not every episode of “Cops” is ver-r-ry bizarre. Even so, the prospect of seeing something unexpected, unhinged or simply true-to-life has kept viewers — more than 6 million on average last season — tuning to “Cops” each Saturday since March 1989. (Two half-hours air back-to-back on Fox at 8 p.m. EDT.)

But you don’t have to watch “Cops” to have felt its cultural impact. Countless scripted and reality series have borrowed its “video verite” storytelling style