John Oliver Episode Causes Buying Spree On Epically Terrible ‘Cop Rock’ DVD Set — It’s Out of Stock Until May

HBO host John Oliver has caused a critical shortage of DVD sets after he mocked the infamously terrible series Cop Rock on his show a few weeks ago.

During the Feb. 28 episode of Last Week Tonight, Oliver’s main story was about police raids. But before settling in to the deadly-serious subject matter, he took a few minutes to mock the short-lived 1990 rock-musical police drama that was created by Steven Bochco of Hill Street Blues fame. It was an infamous misfire that included, as Oliver pointed out, a rock-pop ditty sung by a self-described “baby merchant.”

It turns out that episode had a tremendous impact on sales of the “Cop Rock: The Complete Series” DVD set, according to an email from the company that produces the set, Shout! Factory. In an email obtained by Mediaite — and not necessarily sent to me because I tried to order the set twice, first on eBay and then direct from Shout! Factory — Oliver’s segment caused a surge in sales that depleted their supply:

Hi, everyone!

Thank you so much for your order.

We’re writing to let you know that Cop Rock: The Complete Series is currently out of stock. There was a system-wide outage caused by a surge in orders due to the segment featured on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

We anticipate having stock sometime in May; we will ship orders at that time.

Again, the email greeting was to “everyone,” and not a particular customer’s name.

The dramatic portions of the show were written and acted in a serious and effective manner, and even some of the musical numbers could be poignant, but the shifts between the two styles and the abrupt changes in tone proved more than audiences could take, and the show lasted only half a season.

Until May, fans will have to make do with the bits that Oliver played on his show.

Watch above via HBO.