‘Reno 911!’ offers comical perspective

Deputies from the Reno Sheriff’s Department might invade your home tonight, and they won’t have a search warrant.

Instead, they plan on slithering through your television cable or satellite dish as “Reno 911!” returns for a second season on Comedy Central.

The show, which spoofs “Cops,” premiered last year and did well enough to merit a 13-episode renewal and the release of a first-season DVD (which will hit stores June 22).

New episodes are scheduled for Wednesday nights at 10:30.

“We’ve been really overwhelmed,” says Thomas Lennon, who created the show with co-stars Kerri Kenney and Robert Ben Garant (all formerly of the MTV sketch comedy show “The State”).

“The most overwhelming thing, I think, is the response from law enforcement,” he says. “Cops just seem to absolutely love the show. And we’ve actually heard from a couple cops who felt like it was the most accurate cop show on television.”

The half-hour program focuses on members of the fictional Reno (Nev.) Sheriff’s Department and their unorthodox behavior, which includes blatantly racist remarks, sexual promiscuity and a flair for having police property stolen.

All of the action is improvised.

“We kind of figure out what’s going to happen and then we just go to the set and basically shoot the rehearsal,” says Garant, who plays Deputy Travis Junior.

In the first season, viewers got spoofs on real-life police situations, like traffic stops, and increasingly detailed information on the slightly unhinged central characters. These include Deputy Clementine Johnson, a former showgirl; the overzealous Deputy James Garcia; and the manic-depressive Deputy Trudy Wiegel.

“We’re really trying to turn it into our little ‘Peyton Place,’ ” Garant says. “We’re really trying to keep it growing and keep it strange.” self end