This is a list of characters appearing on the television program Reno 911!.
Lieutenant James "Jim" Ronald Dangle (played by Thomas Lennon) is the flamboyant highest-ranking deputy in the department and is usually seen wearing his trademark short-shorts, which he claims that he wears for "mobility." In a season 6 episode where the officers watch a video of themselves in the late 1980s, Dangle is seen wearing full-length jeans. Unfortunately, his jeans caught fire, forcing Dangle to cut the bottom parts of his pants off, resulting in the hot-pants he currently wears.
Dangle is gay.[1] In an interview about Reno 911 and his character Dangle, Lennon says, "There's always this question, 'When's Dangle coming out?' and I'm like, 'Have you seen the show?' On the first episode, he makes out with another man for about two minutes.. I guess people think he's closeted because Trudy is in love with him, but that has more to do with the fact that she's severely brain-damaged."
He openly harbors an attraction to Jones and occasionally flirts with suspects. In one episode, Jones apparently had sex with him out of sympathy ("I'll try anything once"), after which Dangle was hospitalized because, as Jones said it, "he can't fucking walk." (The incident occurs off-camera, with the actual events undisclosed). Dangle was briefly married to a woman named Debbie (see below) and he briefly believed that he fathered a son (a result of sex with what he thought was a drag queen), but DNA results proved otherwise. Dangle also felt attracted to a female officer from the Department of Homeland Security who was in Reno to conduct counter-terrorism training but the experience left him uncomfortable and confused. It was revealed later that the female officer was actually a very well-disguised man (and was part of a team of con artists, along with the other Homeland Security "trainer"), which caused sexual confusion among the heterosexual deputies who had also felt attracted to "her".
Prior to Trudy's brain damage, Dangle apparently had an affair with her while married to Deb in 1988. Despite her brain damage, he still engages Trudy romantically on occasion, most notably in Reno 911!: Miami, where Trudy asks Dangle to have sex with her out of pity; to which he tries but fails.
Dangle leads the briefings in the mornings, but often ditches work along with a few other officers, as one time Dangle spent an afternoon trying to destroy an old microwave instead of helping investigate a murder. He apparently keeps tabs on officers after or during work, as he is found by Johnson in her favorite salon, using her name for an appointment.
Dangle is favorable to Jones, and compares Jones to "Glue" saying he and the department are "A little birdhouse that Jones is keeping together." Dangle, along with the entire department, is extremely under-qualified for his job, as he is sometimes either seduced or misled by suspects to let them go. Dangle engages in police brutality with his fellow officers, as he once beat a suspect to the point of tears after the suspect had insulted him. Dangle looks up to the FBI, as in an episode where a group of FBI agents come to investigate a murder, he makes his officers line up in a perfect order to greet them, and takes on an "Important" mission to get coffee for the agents happily, but resents them for taking his case.
Dangle once worked as a maitre d' and served in the United States Coast Guard Reserve (stationed in Hawaii) but was discharged for undisclosed reasons (perhaps pertaining to his sexuality). In Episode 102, his age is noted as 41.
Dangle was born and raised in Arkansas. Dangle's father abandoned his family when he was a child and his mother committed suicide, after which he was raised by his Uncle Frederick who was kicked out of the Jesuits. Meanwhile, Dangle's father moved to Chicago and started a new family.
Dangle's father had two more African-American children who appear in Episode 505 to visit Dangle after the death of their father to settle the will. The will turns out to be a bill for the funeral of more than $5,000, and a Banana Splits keychain that Dangle's half-sister gives to him.
Dangle is also the subject of a running gag in which his police bicycle is repeatedly stolen or vandalized. It is hinted that Deputy Junior is responsible for these incidents. Dangle carries a Desert Eagle Handgun while hunting for his bike.
Deputy Trudy Wiegel (played by Kerri Kenney-Silver) is a brain-damaged, emotionally unstable, heavily-medicated woman. She is a hypochondriac with multiple psychological disorders, occasional night terrors, and suicidal ideations. She is a generally neurotic person with low self-esteem and an intense love for cats. She claims to be of Irish and Native American descent.
Wiegel enjoys crafts and collecting baby clothes, and is infatuated with Lt. Dangle. Her favorite picnic location is her mother's grave. In Season 2 she began dating a man named Craig Pullin (Kyle Dunnigan), who was revealed to be the "Truckee River Killer". After his arrest and conviction, she continued their relationship via prison visits, both through a glass partition and conjugal visits; they married on the day of his execution. Wiegel's father, mentioned in Season 1 and appearing in Season 5, is a Native American. (Comedy Central censors removed a 30-second story about her father being lynched by a white mob reacting to news that a non-white man "raped" her mother).
The fourth season began with Wiegel returning after six months of personal leave while pregnant; actress Kerri Kenney-Silver's pregnancy was written into the show.
In Season 6 episode "VHS Transfer Memory Lane" it is revealed that Wiegel's behavior and mental defects are the result of a brain injury that occurred during an explosion at a drug raid in 1988. Wiegel was rendered unconscious by an explosion and was clinically dead for 14 minutes, causing severe brain damage. She was resuscitated by Dangle, who regrets saving her life. The doctor who treated her thereafter said he "should have let her go." Prior to the drug raid, she was a flirtatious sexpot.
There is some information that contradicts the timeline. In the episode "Stoner Jesus", Jones mentions that he has worked with Wiegel for 15 years, yet in a prior episode "VHS Transfer Memory Lane" aired during the same season, he was shown in the police video tape from 1988 working alongside Wiegel, which would have been 21 years prior to that episode.
Wiegel usually adheres to the department's uniform code, except for when she requests and is granted a new Kevlar vest for women (soon revealed to be ineffective). She wears a looser maternity version of the uniform when pregnant, and makes reference to having worn maternity pants to work. A running gag indicates that Wiegel is ill-equipped to dress properly when performing undercover work that requires seductive clothing, such as an undercover prostitution sting. In such cases, Wiegel wears old-fashioned and over-sized underclothing which fits poorly with her skimpy undercover outfit.
Deputy Sergeant Class II Sisyphus Cosman Jones (played by Cedric Yarbrough) is an emotionally detached African-American "smooth-talker" who frequently channels his need for attention into sexually promiscuous behavior. He is often called "Jonesy" by his co-workers.
Jones was raised in Mound, Minnesota (a suburb of the "Twin Cities" area of Minneapolis-St. Paul). He has been described by Dangle as "a big, hardworking, robust, sort of mocha-ish person." He is a horrible dancer, but a talented singer with a wide vocal range, singing in either a deep baritone or a high-pitched, R&B-style falsetto.
Jones was often partnered with Deputy Garcia and the two were close friends (until Garcia's death at the end of Season 5), even getting jobs together as shopping mall security guards when they lost their jobs as deputies and both getting promoted to mounted patrol, where they were still partners. Jones has some tense moments with him, once punching Garcia for making a racist joke, which caused him to be suspended. In season seven, after it is discovered that Garcia was born in Mexico and has been living as an illegal alien, he and Jones marry to keep him from being deported, after everyone else in the station refused to do so.
Despite Garcia's racism, he and Jones have an awkwardly healthy working relationship. As close as they are, however, they occasionally engage in childish physical altercations with each other. It is implied—typically, by Deputy Williams herself—that he is Raineesha's ex-boyfriend, although he seems to pursue every woman other than her.
Despite Williams' jealous attraction to him, he has an on-again/off-again, "booty call"-type relationship with Deputy Johnson. Jones is the only male deputy that does not have a moustache. Jones' first name was previously unknown, only revealed as starting with "S". In Reno 911!: Miami: The Lost Version, it is revealed that Jones' first name is Sven. However, in the season seven episode "Garcia Self Deports," Garcia refers to him as "Sisyphus Cosman Jones" during the vow exchange of their wedding ceremony.
In an episode in season 6, they watch a tape from the year 1988. In this time, he is revealed to be more confident than his current time, and has a sexual attraction to officer Raineesha Williams. Lt. Dangle then forwards the tape to November 10, 1988 involving a meth lab with armed dealers guarding it. After an assorted amount of mishaps, Jones starts to scream in an extremely high pitch voice, and runs out. Afterwards, he loses all sexual attraction to officer Raineesha Williams, and gained an attraction to officer Clementine Johnson.
Jones is the third in command below Lt. Dangle and Deputy Garcia, who holds the rank of Deputy Sergeant Class III, and is followed by Deputy Johnson, who holds the rank of Deputy Sergeant Class I.
Deputy Sergeant Class III James Oswaldo Garcia (Season 1–Season 5, Season 7–Season 8; played by Carlos Alazraqui) is an arrogant, racist, sexist, angry and depressed former Marine helicopter pilot. A running gag involves Garcia firing shots at people or objects without hitting them due to his comically terrible marksmanship, and giving suspects "a little of the old stick time", in which he beats them with his billy club. Garcia is the first character shown in the series, in which he responds to a police call at a house. It is revealed that it is a surprise party, but a startled Garcia accidentally shoots a fellow officer.
Garcia is known to be very rough when arresting suspects, perhaps as a result of his inferiority complex.[2] He has shot multiple people despite his poor marksmanship. His personal life is often the subject of ridicule by his contemporaries, who mock his frequent bowel movements (Dangle once said that in the men's room, Garcia sounded like the Battle of Normandy), his excessive masturbation and his habit of drinking alone while watching Hill Street Blues reruns. He has a daughter whom he did not see for several years, which once prompted the other deputies to hire a stripper to pretend to be his daughter in order to elate him. He also has a younger sister, whose life the other deputies manage to wreck, because of their mistaken belief that she was his girlfriend and was cheating on Garcia with another man (who turned out to be her actual fiancé). The film Reno 911! Miami revealed that he had flown an AH-1 HueyCobra for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Garcia is usually partnered with Deputy Jones, leading to situational humor involving Garcia's racism and general ignorance of African American culture; despite this, the two are friends. He has had brief relationships with Deps. Johnson and Williams, and on more than one occasion, it is implied that he harbored a homoerotic attraction to Kenny Rogers. In the Season 4 cliffhanger, he elopes with Dangle's husband-to-be Leslie during their civil commitment ceremony, revealed in the Season 5 premiere to be a bizarre practical joke, as Garcia arrests Dangle and his boyfriend on the grounds that gay marriage is illegal in Nevada.
Garcia is killed in the explosion at "Tacos! Tacos! Tacos! Tacos!" at the end of the Season 5. In the Season 6 episode The Midnight Swingers, his ashes are fired from a cannon, as per his will; however, the deputies' attempt misfires and a squad car is destroyed in the process, for which Garcia is subsequently and posthumously blamed.
Garcia is the second in command below Lt. Dangle, and is followed by Deputy Jones, who holds the rank of Deputy Sergeant Class II, and Deputy Johnson, who holds the rank of Deputy Sergeant Class I.
Alazraqui returned as Garcia on the November 13, 2014 episode of @midnight where it was revealed he transferred to Carson City, and his death was a prank to mess with Wiegel.
Deputy Sergeant Class I Clementine "Clemmy" Johnson (Season 1–Season 5, Season 7–Season 8; played by Wendi McLendon-Covey) is a promiscuous, trashy, drug-friendly blonde who always wears her uniform partially unbuttoned, exposing her ample cleavage. Johnson is absent in Season 6 as she was seemingly killed in the explosion at the end of the fifth-season finale - this was later revealed to be a prank and she is alive and well in season 7.
Before joining the Reno Sheriff's Department, Johnson was a magician's assistant in Branson, Missouri, an exotic dancer, a Wiccan and a Steely Dan groupie. Her comment at a wedding about performing the night before for the bachelor party clarified that she had an off-duty job. She has a tattoo on her back which once said "Steed" (a one-time boyfriend), later changed to "Steely Dan" after the relationship ended. Early in the first season, she had a relationship with Jones, but she also enjoyed a brief relationship with Garcia in Season 2, a relationship she compared to "getting a flu shot" ("You do it once, and you never have to do it again!"). Despite this claim, she was shown silently mourning the end of the relationship with Garcia. She had Garcia's face tattooed on her breast after a drunken incident when the sheriffs went to Miami, Florida. On one occasion, she married Steed and later discovered the marriage was unofficial because the couple had forgotten to obtain a marriage license. When she mistakenly believed herself to be pregnant, she approached first Jones and then Dangle about marrying her and acting as a father to her unborn child. She had a troubled relationship with her mother because they sometimes argued over men. In one episode her mother was shown to be working as a prostitute.
When the officers were fired following an investigation by District Attorney Mike Powers (Mather Zickel), Johnson returned to touring with Steely Dan (whom she called "The Dan") for a short time before returning to the Reno Sheriff's Department with the others. Johnson was later promoted in Episode 506 when she confronted the Captain of the sheriff's department regarding objectification through the use of the new "Kevlar for Her" vests. She returned claiming she had been promoted, in which case she would be classified as a Sergeant Class I if everyone else (except Dangle and his second-in-command, Garcia, and third-in-command, Jones) is a Deputy.
Johnson is an admitted drunk driver and a user of marijuana, and is usually lenient toward fellow users.
Johnson is the fourth in command below Lt. Dangle, and Deputy Garcia, who holds the rank of Deputy Sergeant Class III, and Deputy Jones, who holds the rank of Deputy Sergeant Class II.
Deputy Raineesha Williams (born Megan Linderman; played by Niecy Nash) is a boisterous woman who enjoys abusing the power over men that her police authority affords her.
Williams' proudest possession is her enormous posterior (a prosthetic that Nash wears under the uniform), which was featured in a pornographic magazine, called "Strong Sistas". She often exclaims "...Haahhh?!?" for effect, after making a blunt statement. She is a single mother, and in one episode claimed she couldn't name the fathers of any of her 3 children, although in another episode, she says that "one of my babies' daddies, he can "read real good." In the show's pilot episode, she claimed to have recently split up with Jones, but she's still willing to answer his booty calls. In Season 5, Jones told a reporter that Williams' real name is Megan Linderman.
Jones has described Williams as a terrible police officer ("they don't even put bullets in her gun") and that she can't even read. She often looks for ways to abuse her authority for her personal benefit; she once converted to the Nation of Islam in an attempt to take the month of September (Ramadan on the Islamic calendar) off from work, so she could vacation at the Atlantis resort. She frequently uses Mace merely out of anger. As other deputies have their trademark personalizations on their uniforms, Raineesha always wears a patrol hat.
At the beginning of Season 3, she worked as a real estate agent before returning to the Sheriff's Department.
Deputy Travis Junior (played by Robert Ben Garant) is a stereotypical redneck cop who loves beer, buffalo wings, NASCAR, guns, Ernest movies and—perhaps most of all—his moustache, which he confesses he feels makes him look gay when standing next to Lt. Dangle. His character provides much of the physical comedy for the show, performing most of the major stunts.
Junior trains the police dogs for the department and is rarely seen without his trademark aviator sunglasses. He started wearing his Kevlar vest after he was shot and nearly blinded in a 1988 drug sting. Junior always wears his vest over his uniform shirt; he claimed that he forgets to put the vest under his shirt because he is always a little hung over in the morning. He wears his hair in a military "high and tight" haircut and is cross-eyed, which is why he usually wears sunglasses. Despite this, he claims to be the best shot in the department. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he is the only heterosexual male deputy in the Reno Sheriff's Department that Deputy Johnson hasn't slept with.
Junior spends his time stealing Dangle's bicycle, and likes beating suspects. Junior is considered to be an idiot by most of his fellow officers, as one time, he ran after an invisible suspect in a robbery, upon directions by a bystander who happened to have a gun and several bundles of cash from the store, even after the bystander said he had robbed the store after being "Forced".
Junior has three brothers, who also wear sunglasses and have the same traits: Henry "Hank" Junior, Jr., from Panama City, Florida; Lance Corporal "Rooster" Junior, who serves in the U.S. Marine Corps, currently stationed in Tikrit, Iraq; and "Tater" Junior, from Sparks, Nevada. By season 7, he is married to a Korean woman, has a daughter, and his mother-in-law has moved into their house.
Junior has been reprimanded at least twice for his pornography addiction, and is somewhat in denial about his problem. He is revealed to be Deputy Kimball's cousin. In Episode 3x01 (in which the characters are shown in jail) a swastika tattoo is seen on his chest (similar to the tattoo worn by Edward Norton's character in American History X), but in the 2007 film, he is seen shirtless and the tattoo is absent. At the beginning of season 3, Junior worked at a carnival, something he claims is his "dream job".
There are several running gags concerning Junior. The first is the "traffic stop": Junior pulls over a driver and is rendered unconscious or otherwise by an opening door or something falling off from the vehicle. Another running gag with Junior involves him stealing, or tampering with Lt. Dangle's unattended bicycle, much to Dangle's annoyance. The other running gags usually involve him being mauled by dogs, being electrocuted, catching on fire or falling, jumping or being thrown through or off of something, or otherwise incapacitated.
Deputy Cherisha Kimball (Season 3–Season 5, Season 7–Season 8; played by Mary Birdsong) is a pious, tough, no-nonsense police officer, the polar opposite of Deputy Johnson. Kimball is absent in Season 6, as she was seemingly killed in the explosion at the end of the fifth-season finale - this was later revealed to be a prank and she is alive and well in season 7.
Kimball is originally from Shreveport, Louisiana. She joins Reno Sheriff's Department early in Season 3, winning a competition among top police academy graduates; however, she was only chosen after the two front-runners withdrew for various reasons. She is perpetually accused of being a lesbian, despite her denials when asked, and when asked for dates by lesbians. She spends her off-duty time with her church group (composed of male, Christian virgins), singing karaoke versions of old gospel songs. In one instance, after Kimball states she would be making some major changes in her life after receiving a jet ski, Dangle asked, "You're finally coming out as a lesbian?" He was convinced even after she rejected the statement.
Kimball said that she joined law enforcement because her "past is filled with sin and small time crimes and misdemeanors. Enforcing the law is my way of righting all my wrongs, cleaning up my karma. Also, they give good benefits."[3] When she is the first to arrive at the scene of Junior's "officer down" radio call, and thinking that his gunshot wound was near-fatal, she eventually admits to having had erotic fantasies of women. Deputy Junior then reveals he was not mortally wounded, and had organized the scenario in an attempt to deceive her into having sex with him. In the course of what she thinks is a conversation with a person about to die, the two exchange information on their family backgrounds; Kimball and Junior gradually realize that they share a common uncle in Louisiana. Despite realizing they share a family member, Kimball and Junior are seen being romantically involved. In the episode Kevlar for Her, Kimball and Junior are seen at a bar together seemingly on a date. At the end of the same episode, Junior is seen secretly admiring a wedding ring, seemingly about to propose to Kimball before shooting her ineffective kevlar vest.
Sergeant Jack Declan (Season 6–Season 8; played by Ian Roberts) joined the show in Season 6. He is the new second in command after Lt. Dangle, to whom Declan is often seen sucking up; with the exception being in Season 6 when Department office assistant and barely fluent Cindy mistakenly promotes everyone on the squad to Captain, and Declan tells Dangle to "suck my dick." He is sometimes called "Cap'n Jack" by Dangle and other deputies. He appears confident of himself, when compared to most of the other deputies, but exhibits massive insecurities at other times, such as sobbing uncontrollably and talking to himself through a bathroom stall door, or exhibiting problems with anger management. On one occasion when confronting Cindy about some misplaced clothing he asked her to wash for him, it is alluded to that he may in fact cross-dress, as Junior received the clothing by accident and found extra extra large female undergarments with Jack's initials on them, mixed in with the other clothing. Despite his rage issues, he is still shown to be a very good cop. Declan also carries a bigger and more powerful weapon than the rest of his colleagues. While the other officers carry Beretta 92s, he carries a .44 Magnum revolver.
Deputy Frank Salvatore Rizzo (Season 6–Season 8; played by Joe Lo Truglio) joined the show in Season 6. He is from Ozone Park, Queens (where Lo Truglio himself was born), where he has been banned from for undisclosed "reasons that [he takes] full responsibility for". He has a long history in law enforcement, working in many cities across the country and is infatuated with Deputy Wiegel (on one occasion, they engaged in sexual activities in a trailer being pulled by an unsuspecting perpetrator and were left across the Mexican border). Deputy Junior has said that despite his history in law enforcement, Rizzo did not have a single recommendation, which Lt. Dangle considers "breaks even". Rizzo is also able to speak Japanese. Rizzo has two children: Frank "Frankie" Salvatore Rizzo, Jr. and Isabella "Izzy" Salvatore Rizzo, and it is implied that he and his wife have divorced.
Like the other deputies, Rizzo behaves unprofessionally on numerous occasions, also insinuating he has a cocaine habit. On one occasion, he solicited prostitutes to perform oral sex on him and Jones during a narcotics sting, half-jokingly suggesting the two split the drug money impounded in the bust.
Reno 911! features many other notable comedians, some of whom appear on the show multiple times. In addition, the principal cast members frequently play recurring roles of criminals or otherwise dysfunctional characters (with pixelated or blurred faces).
