Hill Street Blues
Encyclopedia
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC
in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations influenced many subsequent dramatic television series produced in North America
. Its debut season was rewarded with eight Emmy awards, a debut season record surpassed only by The West Wing, and the show received a total of 98 Emmy Award
nominations during its run.
In 1997, the episode "Grace Under Pressure" was ranked number 49 on TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
In 2002, Hill Street Blues was ranked number 14 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time
.
developed the series on behalf of NBC, appointing Steven Bochco
and Michael Kozoll as series writers. The writers were allowed considerable creative freedom, and created a series which brought together, for the first time, a number of emerging ideas in TV drama.
Although filmed in Los Angeles
(both on location and at CBS Studio Center in Studio City
), the series is set in a generic unnamed inner-city location with a feel of a US urban center such as Detroit or Chicago
. The police cars shown in the series were painted in a manner very similar to Chicago police cars of the period, using the phrase "Metro Police" in the same style and size as "Chicago Police" on that city's cars. Also, many second-unit establishing shots used recognizable locations in Chicago, including freeway entrances with Interstate Highway shields with route numbers which enter the city. Other shots include aerials of bilevel commuter trains entering and leaving the Chicago and North Western Railway's Chicago passenger terminal. The C&NW's green-and-yellow colors (and in later seasons, the colors of Chicago's Metra
commuter rail system) are evident.
The program's focus on failure and those at the bottom of the social scale is pronounced, and very much in contrast to Bochco's later project, L.A. Law. Inspired by police procedural
detective novels such as Ed McBain's 1956 Cop Hater
, it has been described as Barney Miller
out of doors; the focus on the bitter realities of 1980s urban living was revolutionary for its time. Later seasons were accused of becoming formulaic (a shift that some believe to have begun after the death from cancer of Michael Conrad
midway through the fourth season, which led to the replacement of the beloved Sergeant Esterhaus by Sergeant Stan Jablonski, played by Robert Prosky
); thus, the series that broke the established rules of television ultimately failed to break its own rules. Nonetheless it is a landmark piece of television programming, the influence of which was seen in such series as NYPD Blue
and ER
. In 1982, St. Elsewhere
was hyped as Hill Street Blues in a hospital. The quality work done by MTM led to the appointment of Grant Tinker
as NBC
chairman in 1982.
In season seven, producers received scripts from acclaimed writers outside of television: Bob Woodward
and David Mamet
.
The series had cable runs on TV Land
, Bravo, and currently, AmericanLife TV. It is currently available free to internet in many countries from Channel 4 on YouTube.
There is also a short-lived Dennis Franz
spinoff
called Beverly Hills Buntz
, in which Franz's dismissed Lt. Buntz character moves from the Hill to Los Angeles to become a private eye
, taking along "Sid the Snitch" Thurston (Peter Jurasik
) as his sidekick.
commissioned a series from MTM Productions, who assigned Bochco and Kozoll to the project. The pilot was produced in 1980, but was held back as a mid-season replacement so as not to get lost amongst the other programs debuting in the fall of 1980. Barbara Bosson
, who was married to Bochco, had the idea to fashion the series into 4- or 5-episode story "arcs."
Robert Butler
directed the pilot, developing a look and style inspired by the 1977 documentary The Police Tapes
, in which filmmakers used handheld cameras to follow police officers in the South Bronx
. Butler went on to direct the first four episodes of the series, and Bosson had hoped he would stay on permanently. However, he felt he was not being amply recognized for his contributions to the show's look and style and left to pursue other projects. He would return to direct just one further episode, "The Second Oldest Profession" in season two.
Season 1: The pilot aired on Thursday, January 15, 1981, at 10 pm, which would be the show's time slot for nearly its entire run. Episode 2 aired two nights later; the next week followed a similar pattern (episode 3 on Thursday, 4 on Saturday). NBC had ordered 13 episodes, and the season was supposed to end on May 25 with a minor cliffhanger (the resolution of Sgt. Esterhaus's wedding). Instead, building critical acclaim prompted NBC to order an additional four episodes to air during May sweeps. Bochco and Kozoll fashioned this into a new story arc, which aired as two two-hour episodes to close the season. One new addition with these final four episodes was Ofc. Joe Coffey (played by Ed Marinaro
), who originally had died in the first season finale's broadcast.
In early episodes, the opening theme had several clearly audible edits; this was replaced by a longer, unedited version partway through the second season. The end credits for the pilot differed from the rest of the series in that the background still shot of the station house was completely different; it was also copyrighted in 1980 instead of 1981.
The show became the lowest-rated program ever renewed for a second season. However, it was only renewed for ten episodes. A full order was picked up part way through the season.
Season 2: A writer strike pushed the start of the season forward to October 29, meaning that only nineteen episodes were completed that year. Kozoll was now listed as a consultant, signifying his diminished role in the show. He later stated he was already feeling burnt out, and in fact was relying more on car chases and action to fill the scripts.
A less muted version of the closing theme was played over the end credits.
Season 3: Kozoll left the show at the end of season 2, replaced for the most part by Anthony Yerkovich
and David Milch
. Yerkovich later created Miami Vice
after leaving Hill Street Blues at the end of this season. This was the show's most popular in terms of viewership, as it finished #21. This was also the birth of Must See TV
, as the show was joined by Cheers
, Taxi
and Fame
. The network promoted Thursdays as "the best night of television on television." Michael Conrad
was increasingly absent from the show due to his ongoing battle with cancer.
Season 4: Following his death on November 22, 1983, Michael Conrad's final appearance was broadcast halfway through the season in February 1984 in a memorable send-off episode, "Grace Under Pressure".
The show won its fourth and final Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series this season.
Season 5: The show changed drastically this season, entering a somewhat "soap operatic" period according to Bochco. New characters included Sgt. Stanislaus Jablonski (played by Robert Prosky
), Det. Patsy Mayo (Mimi Kuzyk), and Det. Harry Garibaldi (Ken Olin
), while Mrs. Furillo (Bosson) became a full-time member of the squad room. Bochco was dismissed at season's end by then-MTM President Arthur Price. The firing was due to Bochco's cost overruns, coupled with the fact that the show had achieved the 100-episode milestone needed to successfully syndicate the program.
Betty Thomas won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress In a Drama Series this season. However, at the awards ceremony, recurring imposter Barry Bremen rushed the stage ahead of Thomas and claimed she was unable to attend. He then claimed the award and left the stage, confusing viewers and robbing Thomas of her moment in the sun, although she returned and spoke after the ad break. Presenter Peter Graves
suggested that Bremen was "on his way to the cooler."
Season 6: Major changes occurred as Joe Coffey, Patsy Mayo, Det. Harry Garibaldi, Lt. Ray Calletano (René Enríquez
), Fay Furillo (Barbara Bosson) and Officer Leo Schnitz (Robert Hirschfeld) all left the show. The sole addition was Lt. Norman Buntz, played by Dennis Franz
. In a 1991 interview on Later with Bob Costas, Ken Olin
explained that these characters were removed so that the new showrunners could add characters for which they would receive royalties.
The season premiere opened with a roll call filled with officers never before seen on the show, briefly fooling viewers into thinking the entire cast had been replaced. It was then revealed that this was, in fact, the night shift. The action then cut to the day shift pursuing their after-work activities. Another unique episode from this season explained through flashbacks how Furillo and Ms. Davenport met and fell in love.
This was the first season that Travanti and Hamel were not nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor/Actress in a Drama Series.
Season 7: Officer Patrick Flaherty (played by Robert Clohessy
) and Officer Tina Russo (Megan Gallagher
) joined this season in an attempt to rekindle the Bates-Coffey relationship of years past. Stanislaus Jablonski became a secondary character part way through this season, and when Travanti announced he would not return the next year, the producers decided to end the show in 1987. The program was also moved to Tuesday nights after six years to make way for L.A. Law
on Thursdays.
This was the only season that Weitz was not nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. This was also the only season for which the show was not nominated for Outstanding Drama Series.
designation for stations east of the Mississippi) or "K" (signifying a station west of the Mississippi). However, occasionally they would let something slip, such as the use of call letters WREQ, TV channel 6, in the season 3 episode "Domestic Beef". Another indication that the series took place in the Midwest or Northeast was Renko's statement to his partner in the season one episode "Politics As Usual": "Just drop that 'cowboy' stuff. I was born in New Jersey, [and] never been west of Chicago in my life."
Specific references in other episodes to New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, and Columbus, Ohio
would exclude those locales, while the clearest indication where the program was set lies in brief and occasional glances at Interstate Highway signs, including one sign designating the junction of I-55 and I-90, which is in Chicago
.
Show writer Steven Bochco attended college at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University
) in Pittsburgh. The run-down, shabby, drug-ridden impression of Pittsburgh's Hill District Bochco acquired was apparently part of the inspiration for the show. Street, neighborhood and police precinct names from Buffalo, New York
, the hometown of Anthony Yerkovich and David Milch, are prevalent after the second season.
The implication of a fictitious metropolis combining urban characteristics of both New York City and Chicago was effectively demonstrated in one episode early in Season 6, "In The Belly of the Bus", in which Belker is on undercover assignment at an intercity bus terminal on 145th Street, suggesting the scale of Manhattan's reach of numbered streets into the 260 range. Yet that same episode's title derives from the detectives being knocked unconscious and stowed in a duffle bag by the perpetrator who places it in the cargo section of a bus bound for Springfield, Illinois
, as visibly marked on a parcel thrown in at a subsequent stop: as the distance between Chicago and Springfield is 150 miles, that would appear to be about as conclusive as many of the show's establishing shot
s and credits footage.
Although the series was filmed in Los Angeles, and routinely used locations in downtown Los Angeles, the credits and some stock exterior shots were filmed in Chicago, including the station house, which is the old Maxwell Street police station
on Chicago's Near West Side (943 West Maxwell Street
). The show's police cruisers are painted and marked similarly to Chicago police cars. The series frequently used establishing shots, under the credits at the beginning of the first act, showing an Interstate 80
sign, commuter trains entering and leaving the old Chicago and North Western Railway
Chicago terminal (the C&NW yellow and green livery was clearly evident), and aerial views of South Side neighborhoods. Exterior views of the Cook County Criminal Courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue were used to establish court scenes. An exterior view of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
's City Hall represented the state capitol.
Throughout the 146 episodes there are various references to the other police precincts in the city. In a season one episode Commander Swanson states that he has "16 precincts" to take care of; but this conflicts with the season two episode "The Shooter", when Officer Wallins of the Property Department states that he has to look after all the city's property, "from 14 Precincts". The seventeen Precincts which are named during the course of the various episodes are: Hill Street, Polk Avenue, Midtown, Von Steuben Avenue, North-East, St James's Park, Michigan Avenue, Washington Heights, South Ferry, West Delavan, Filmore, South Park, Preston Heights, Castle Heights, Richmond Avenue, Farmingdale and Jefferson Heights. The Hill Street precinct house is marked "7th District" outside. In some scenes the Midtown precinct house is marked "5th District", though in others it is marked "14th Precinct". Officers in uniform (apart from the Emergency Action Team - EAT) wore shoulder flashes with the name of their precinct embroidered on them.
Interactions included multiple gang meetings held at the precinct to negotiate "turf" boundaries and truces in exchange for facilitating a presidential visit that did not come to pass or the return of a governor's pet dog. The gang/police meetings more often formed part of the comic rather than the dramatic elements of the series.
Gang interactions mostly centered around the Hispanic gang Los Diablos, and the fraught but productive and increasingly trusting relationship between its leader, Martinez, and Furillo, who even attends Martinez' wedding. Martinez, the only gang character given any extended development, moves through the series from early and relapsing belligerence, to negotiation, to finally renouncing his gang colors and qualifying as a para-legal.
Danny Glover
had an early career appearance in the first 4 episodes of season 2 as Jesse John Hudson, erstwhile leader of the Black Arrows, whose stated aim to "go straight" turned out to be hypocritical, when he attempted to take back control of the gang.
(featuring Larry Carlton
on guitar) and reached #10 on Billboard's Hot 100.
In 2006, The Who
wrote a song called "Mike Post Theme", and songwriter Pete Townshend
has confirmed that he took inspiration from the theme for Hill Street Blues.
The theme song has been used for the ending of the new Mario Kart
game.
released the first two seasons of Hill Street Blues on DVD in Region 1 in 2006. Both releases contain special features including gag reel, deleted scenes, commentary tracks & featurettes. Due to poor sales no other seasons have been released.
In Region 2, Channel 4 DVD released the first two seasons on DVD in the UK in 2006.
Seasons 1 and 2 can also be found on hulu.com. Season 3 can be viewed as streaming video on commercial sites.
(developed by Simeon Pashley and Rob Hill) released the computer game, Hill Street Blues, based on the TV show. The game runs on the Amiga
, Atari ST
, and DOS
platforms and places the player in charge of Hill Street Station and its surrounding neighborhood, with the aim of promptly dispatching officers to reported crimes, apprehending criminals, and making them testify at court. If certain areas have less serious crimes unresolved, such as bag-snatching
, they soon escalate to more serious ones, such as murder
in broad daylight. The game, which now falls into the category abandonware
, is still available for download at computer game sites and outlets, and has received mixed reviews.
parodied how the large cast swarmed the stage for the show's 1981 Best Drama Emmy. In the parody, a mob rushed the stage and trampled Herve Villechaize
, played by John Candy
. Another episode parodies the show, in a sketch entitled "Benny Hill
Street Blues", portraying life at the police station, but in the slapstick
styles of the British comedian.
A 1984 edition of The Lenny Henry Show
featured a single-sketch parody of the show, including a roll-call sequence and opening credits where the actors' billings (Lenworth J. Henry, Jane J. Bertish, Jr.) clearly referenced the show's star, Daniel J. Travanti
.
A 1990 episode of Bochco's Cop Rock
parodied the roll call with an original song, "Let's Be Careful Out There," based upon Sergeant Esterhaus' trademark instruction to his officers at the close of each roll call. James B. Sikking made a cameo appearance
at the end of the scene, dressed as Lieutenant Howard Hunter in LAPD SWAT
uniform, lighting his pipe on the way out of the roll call room as his character typically did on Hill Street Blues.
In episode 53 of The Sopranos
, titled "Two Tonys" (2004), Carmela Soprano
worries that a wild bear lurking in the neighborhood (symbolizing the untamed, menacing power of Tony Soprano
and the mafia
, which potentially endangers all who encounter it and those nearby) might kill Bruce and Jeannie Cusamano's chained-up dog, Esterhaus, next door. (Esterhaus represents the tamer, more restricted, and therefore less potent law and order system.)
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations influenced many subsequent dramatic television series produced in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. Its debut season was rewarded with eight Emmy awards, a debut season record surpassed only by The West Wing, and the show received a total of 98 Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nominations during its run.
In 1997, the episode "Grace Under Pressure" was ranked number 49 on TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
In 2002, Hill Street Blues was ranked number 14 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time
TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time
TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time is TV Guides list of the 50 most entertaining and influential television series in American pop culture...
.
Overview
MTM EnterprisesMTM Enterprises
MTM Enterprises was an American independent production company established in 1969 by Mary Tyler Moore and her then-husband Grant Tinker to produce The Mary Tyler Moore Show for CBS...
developed the series on behalf of NBC, appointing Steven Bochco
Steven Bochco
Steven Ronald Bochco is a US television producer and writer. He has developed a number of popular television hits including Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue, as well as some notable flops such as Cop Rock....
and Michael Kozoll as series writers. The writers were allowed considerable creative freedom, and created a series which brought together, for the first time, a number of emerging ideas in TV drama.
- Each episode features a number of intertwined storylines, some of which are resolved within the episode, with others developing over a number of episodes throughout a season.
- Much play is made of the conflicts between the work lives and private lives of the individual characters. In the workplace, there is also a strong focus on the struggle between doing "what is right" and "what works" in situations.
- The camera is held close in and action cut rapidly between stories, and there is much use of overheard or off-screen dialogue, giving a "documentaryDocumentary filmDocumentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
" feel to the action. - Rather than studio (floor) cameras, hand-held ArriArri-History:Arri was founded in Munich, Germany as Arnold & Richter Cine Technik in 1917, named after founders August Arnold and Robert Richter. They produce professional motion picture equipment, digital and film cameras and cinematic lighting equipment...
flexes are used to add to the "documentary" feel. - The show deals with real-life issues, and employs commonly used language and slangSlangSlang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
to a greater extent than had been seen before. - Almost every episode begins with a pre-creditPre-creditIn film production, the pre-credit is the section of the film which is shown before the opening credits are shown.Many films will by common convention have a short scene before the credits to introduce characters who may, or may not, become crucial to the film's plot...
sequence consisting of (mission) briefing and roll callRoll callRoll call is the calling of the names of people from a list to determine the presence or absence of the listed people . The term applies to the calling itself, to the time moment of this procedure, and to a military signal that announces it Roll call is the calling of the names of people from a...
at the beginning of the day shift. From season 3 it experimented with a "Previously on HSB" montage of clips of up to 6 previous episodes before the roll call. Many episodes are written to take place over the course of a single day, a concept later used in the NBC series, L.A. LawL.A. LawL.A. Law is a US television legal drama that ran on NBC from September 15, 1986 to May 19, 1994. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights,...
. - Most episodes concluded with Captain Frank Furillo and public defender Joyce Davenport in a domestic situation, often in bed, discussing how their respective days went.
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
(both on location and at CBS Studio Center in Studio City
Studio City, Los Angeles, California
Studio City is an affluent residential neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, California in the San Fernando Valley. Studio City expands over four ZIP code areas: 91604 and sections of 91602, 91607 and 90210....
), the series is set in a generic unnamed inner-city location with a feel of a US urban center such as Detroit or Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. The police cars shown in the series were painted in a manner very similar to Chicago police cars of the period, using the phrase "Metro Police" in the same style and size as "Chicago Police" on that city's cars. Also, many second-unit establishing shots used recognizable locations in Chicago, including freeway entrances with Interstate Highway shields with route numbers which enter the city. Other shots include aerials of bilevel commuter trains entering and leaving the Chicago and North Western Railway's Chicago passenger terminal. The C&NW's green-and-yellow colors (and in later seasons, the colors of Chicago's Metra
Metra
Metra is the commuter rail division of the Illinois Regional Transportation Authority. The system serves Chicago and its metropolitan area through 240 stations on 11 different rail lines. Throughout the 21st century, Metra has been the second busiest commuter rail system in the United States by...
commuter rail system) are evident.
The program's focus on failure and those at the bottom of the social scale is pronounced, and very much in contrast to Bochco's later project, L.A. Law. Inspired by police procedural
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...
detective novels such as Ed McBain's 1956 Cop Hater
Cop Hater
Cop Hater is the first 87th Precinct police procedural novel by Ed McBain. The murder of three detectives in quick succession in the 87th Precinct leads Detective Steve Carella on a search that takes him into the city's underworld and ultimately to a .45 automatic aimed straight at his...
, it has been described as Barney Miller
Barney Miller
Barney Miller is a situation comedy television series set in a New York City police station in Greenwich Village. The series originally was broadcast from January 23, 1975 to May 20, 1982 on ABC. It was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker...
out of doors; the focus on the bitter realities of 1980s urban living was revolutionary for its time. Later seasons were accused of becoming formulaic (a shift that some believe to have begun after the death from cancer of Michael Conrad
Michael Conrad
Michael Conrad was an American television actor.-Career:Conrad had a long acting career in television from the 1950s to the 1980s...
midway through the fourth season, which led to the replacement of the beloved Sergeant Esterhaus by Sergeant Stan Jablonski, played by Robert Prosky
Robert Prosky
Robert Prosky was an American stage, film, and television actor.-Life and career:Prosky, a Polish American, was born Robert Joseph Porzuczek in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Helen and Joseph Porzuczek. His father was a grocer and butcher...
); thus, the series that broke the established rules of television ultimately failed to break its own rules. Nonetheless it is a landmark piece of television programming, the influence of which was seen in such series as NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
and ER
ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
. In 1982, St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
was hyped as Hill Street Blues in a hospital. The quality work done by MTM led to the appointment of Grant Tinker
Grant Tinker
Grant Almerin Tinker is the former chairman and CEO of NBC from 1981 to 1986, co-founder of MTM Enterprises, and television producer. Tinker is the former husband of television actress Mary Tyler Moore...
as NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
chairman in 1982.
In season seven, producers received scripts from acclaimed writers outside of television: Bob Woodward
Bob Woodward
Robert Upshur Woodward is an American investigative journalist and non-fiction author. He has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 as a reporter, and is currently an associate editor of the Post....
and David Mamet
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
.
The series had cable runs on TV Land
TV Land
TV Land is an American cable television network launched on April 29, 1996. It is owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures, and networks such as MTV and Nickelodeon...
, Bravo, and currently, AmericanLife TV. It is currently available free to internet in many countries from Channel 4 on YouTube.
There is also a short-lived Dennis Franz
Dennis Franz
Dennis Franz is an American actor best known for his role as Andy Sipowicz, a hard-boiled police detective in the television series NYPD Blue. He previously appeared as Lt...
spinoff
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
called Beverly Hills Buntz
Beverly Hills Buntz
Beverly Hills Buntz was a short-lived spinoff from Hill Street Blues. It aired on NBC during the 1987-88 season.-Overview:The show was a 30-minute 'dramedy', that was a hybrid between light private eye fare and a sit-com. The main character, Norman Buntz, was previously seen as a morally and...
, in which Franz's dismissed Lt. Buntz character moves from the Hill to Los Angeles to become a private eye
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
, taking along "Sid the Snitch" Thurston (Peter Jurasik
Peter Jurasik
Peter Jurasik is an American actor known for his television roles as Londo Mollari in the 1990s science fiction series Babylon 5 and Sid the Snitch on the 1980s series Hill Street Blues and its short-lived spinoff Beverly Hills Buntz.-Career:Among Jurasik's guest appearances are an entomologist in...
) as his sidekick.
Production
Pilot: Brandon TartikoffBrandon Tartikoff
Brandon Tartikoff was a television executive who was credited with turning around NBC's low prime time reputation with such hit series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, ALF, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Cheers, Seinfeld, Miami Vice, The Golden Girls, Knight Rider, The A-Team, St...
commissioned a series from MTM Productions, who assigned Bochco and Kozoll to the project. The pilot was produced in 1980, but was held back as a mid-season replacement so as not to get lost amongst the other programs debuting in the fall of 1980. Barbara Bosson
Barbara Bosson
Barbara Bosson is an American actress who has starred on television and in film.-Biography:Bosson was born in Charleroi, Pennsylvania to a tennis coach father. During her childhood, she lived in an American Craftsman Style house on Price Avenue in the borough of North Belle Vernon...
, who was married to Bochco, had the idea to fashion the series into 4- or 5-episode story "arcs."
Story arc
A story arc is an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, boardgames, video games, and in some cases, films. On a television program, for example, the story would unfold over many episodes. In television, the use of the story...
Robert Butler
Robert Butler (director)
Robert Butler is an American film director. He helped launch actor Kurt Russell's career through four Walt Disney movies , but his strongest and most fondly remembered contributions have been to the small screen.-Biography:Butler began his career as a stage manager and an assistant,...
directed the pilot, developing a look and style inspired by the 1977 documentary The Police Tapes
The Police Tapes
The Police Tapes is a 1977 documentary about a police precinct in the South Bronx. The original ran ninety minutes and was produced for public television; a one-hour version later aired on ABC...
, in which filmmakers used handheld cameras to follow police officers in the South Bronx
South Bronx
The South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of The Bronx. The neighborhoods of Tremont, University Heights, Highbridge, Morrisania, Soundview, Hunts Point, and Castle Hill are sometimes considered part of the South Bronx....
. Butler went on to direct the first four episodes of the series, and Bosson had hoped he would stay on permanently. However, he felt he was not being amply recognized for his contributions to the show's look and style and left to pursue other projects. He would return to direct just one further episode, "The Second Oldest Profession" in season two.
Season 1: The pilot aired on Thursday, January 15, 1981, at 10 pm, which would be the show's time slot for nearly its entire run. Episode 2 aired two nights later; the next week followed a similar pattern (episode 3 on Thursday, 4 on Saturday). NBC had ordered 13 episodes, and the season was supposed to end on May 25 with a minor cliffhanger (the resolution of Sgt. Esterhaus's wedding). Instead, building critical acclaim prompted NBC to order an additional four episodes to air during May sweeps. Bochco and Kozoll fashioned this into a new story arc, which aired as two two-hour episodes to close the season. One new addition with these final four episodes was Ofc. Joe Coffey (played by Ed Marinaro
Ed Marinaro
Ed Marinaro is an American former football player turned actor.-Football career:Marinaro played high school football in New Milford, New Jersey, for the New Milford High School Knights....
), who originally had died in the first season finale's broadcast.
In early episodes, the opening theme had several clearly audible edits; this was replaced by a longer, unedited version partway through the second season. The end credits for the pilot differed from the rest of the series in that the background still shot of the station house was completely different; it was also copyrighted in 1980 instead of 1981.
The show became the lowest-rated program ever renewed for a second season. However, it was only renewed for ten episodes. A full order was picked up part way through the season.
Season 2: A writer strike pushed the start of the season forward to October 29, meaning that only nineteen episodes were completed that year. Kozoll was now listed as a consultant, signifying his diminished role in the show. He later stated he was already feeling burnt out, and in fact was relying more on car chases and action to fill the scripts.
A less muted version of the closing theme was played over the end credits.
Season 3: Kozoll left the show at the end of season 2, replaced for the most part by Anthony Yerkovich
Anthony Yerkovich
Anthony Yerkovich is an American television producer and writer.He is best known for creating the 1980s cop show Miami Vice. He served as the show's executive producer along with Michael Mann before handing over full executive responsibilities to Mann after only six episodes...
and David Milch
David Milch
David S. Milch is an American writer and producer of television series. He has created several television shows, including NYPD Blue and Deadwood.-Biography:...
. Yerkovich later created Miami Vice
Miami Vice
Miami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
after leaving Hill Street Blues at the end of this season. This was the show's most popular in terms of viewership, as it finished #21. This was also the birth of Must See TV
Must See TV
"Must See TV" is an advertising slogan used by the NBC television network to brand its prime time blocks of sitcoms during the 1990s, and most often applied to the network's Thursday night lineup, which featured such popular sitcoms as The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court, A Different...
, as the show was joined by Cheers
Cheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
, Taxi
Taxi (TV series)
Taxi was an American sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982 on ABC and from 1982 to 1983 on NBC. The series, which won 18 Emmy Awards, including three for "Outstanding Comedy Series", focuses on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher...
and Fame
Fame (1982 TV series)
Fame is an American television series originally produced between 1982 and 1987. The show was based on the 1980 motion picture of the same name. Using a mixture of drama and music, it followed the lives of the students and faculty at the New York City High School for the Performing Arts. Although...
. The network promoted Thursdays as "the best night of television on television." Michael Conrad
Michael Conrad
Michael Conrad was an American television actor.-Career:Conrad had a long acting career in television from the 1950s to the 1980s...
was increasingly absent from the show due to his ongoing battle with cancer.
Season 4: Following his death on November 22, 1983, Michael Conrad's final appearance was broadcast halfway through the season in February 1984 in a memorable send-off episode, "Grace Under Pressure".
The show won its fourth and final Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series this season.
Season 5: The show changed drastically this season, entering a somewhat "soap operatic" period according to Bochco. New characters included Sgt. Stanislaus Jablonski (played by Robert Prosky
Robert Prosky
Robert Prosky was an American stage, film, and television actor.-Life and career:Prosky, a Polish American, was born Robert Joseph Porzuczek in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Helen and Joseph Porzuczek. His father was a grocer and butcher...
), Det. Patsy Mayo (Mimi Kuzyk), and Det. Harry Garibaldi (Ken Olin
Ken Olin
Kenneth Edward "Ken" Olin is an American actor, director and producer. He is known for his starring role on the television series Thirtysomething, and most recently as Executive Producer, director, and recurring guest star of the television series Brothers & Sisters .-Career:As an actor, Olin...
), while Mrs. Furillo (Bosson) became a full-time member of the squad room. Bochco was dismissed at season's end by then-MTM President Arthur Price. The firing was due to Bochco's cost overruns, coupled with the fact that the show had achieved the 100-episode milestone needed to successfully syndicate the program.
Betty Thomas won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress In a Drama Series this season. However, at the awards ceremony, recurring imposter Barry Bremen rushed the stage ahead of Thomas and claimed she was unable to attend. He then claimed the award and left the stage, confusing viewers and robbing Thomas of her moment in the sun, although she returned and spoke after the ad break. Presenter Peter Graves
Peter Graves
Peter Graves may refer to:* Peter Graves , American actor* Peter Graves, 8th Baron Graves , English actor and peer* Peter Graves , English cricketer...
suggested that Bremen was "on his way to the cooler."
Season 6: Major changes occurred as Joe Coffey, Patsy Mayo, Det. Harry Garibaldi, Lt. Ray Calletano (René Enríquez
René Enríquez
This article is on the television actor. For the Mexican Mafia dropout, see Rene Enriquez René Enríquez was an American television actor of the 1970s and 1980s. He may be best-remembered for his role as Lt...
), Fay Furillo (Barbara Bosson) and Officer Leo Schnitz (Robert Hirschfeld) all left the show. The sole addition was Lt. Norman Buntz, played by Dennis Franz
Dennis Franz
Dennis Franz is an American actor best known for his role as Andy Sipowicz, a hard-boiled police detective in the television series NYPD Blue. He previously appeared as Lt...
. In a 1991 interview on Later with Bob Costas, Ken Olin
Ken Olin
Kenneth Edward "Ken" Olin is an American actor, director and producer. He is known for his starring role on the television series Thirtysomething, and most recently as Executive Producer, director, and recurring guest star of the television series Brothers & Sisters .-Career:As an actor, Olin...
explained that these characters were removed so that the new showrunners could add characters for which they would receive royalties.
The season premiere opened with a roll call filled with officers never before seen on the show, briefly fooling viewers into thinking the entire cast had been replaced. It was then revealed that this was, in fact, the night shift. The action then cut to the day shift pursuing their after-work activities. Another unique episode from this season explained through flashbacks how Furillo and Ms. Davenport met and fell in love.
This was the first season that Travanti and Hamel were not nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor/Actress in a Drama Series.
Season 7: Officer Patrick Flaherty (played by Robert Clohessy
Robert Clohessy
Robert Clohessy is an American actor, known for playing Correctional Officer Sean Murphy on the HBO drama Oz. He was also a cast member in the final season of Hill Street Blues....
) and Officer Tina Russo (Megan Gallagher
Megan Gallagher
Megan Gallagher is an American actress.Gallagher was born in Reading, Pennsylvania and grew up in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Aileen Gallagher, was a model.Gallagher has largely worked in television and theatre...
) joined this season in an attempt to rekindle the Bates-Coffey relationship of years past. Stanislaus Jablonski became a secondary character part way through this season, and when Travanti announced he would not return the next year, the producers decided to end the show in 1987. The program was also moved to Tuesday nights after six years to make way for L.A. Law
L.A. Law
L.A. Law is a US television legal drama that ran on NBC from September 15, 1986 to May 19, 1994. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights,...
on Thursdays.
This was the only season that Weitz was not nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. This was also the only season for which the show was not nominated for Outstanding Drama Series.
Schedule
| Season | Timeslot |
|---|---|
| 1 | Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m./Saturdays at 10:00 p.m. |
| 2 | Thursdays at 10:00 p.m. |
| 3 | |
| 4 | |
| 5 | |
| 6 | |
| 7 | Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m./10:00 p.m./Thursdays at 10:00 p.m. |
Setting
The producers went to great lengths to avoid specifying where the series took place, even going so far as to obscure whether the call letters of local TV stations began with "W" (the Federal Communications CommissionFederal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
designation for stations east of the Mississippi) or "K" (signifying a station west of the Mississippi). However, occasionally they would let something slip, such as the use of call letters WREQ, TV channel 6, in the season 3 episode "Domestic Beef". Another indication that the series took place in the Midwest or Northeast was Renko's statement to his partner in the season one episode "Politics As Usual": "Just drop that 'cowboy' stuff. I was born in New Jersey, [and] never been west of Chicago in my life."
Specific references in other episodes to New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, and Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
would exclude those locales, while the clearest indication where the program was set lies in brief and occasional glances at Interstate Highway signs, including one sign designating the junction of I-55 and I-90, which is in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
Show writer Steven Bochco attended college at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
) in Pittsburgh. The run-down, shabby, drug-ridden impression of Pittsburgh's Hill District Bochco acquired was apparently part of the inspiration for the show. Street, neighborhood and police precinct names from Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, the hometown of Anthony Yerkovich and David Milch, are prevalent after the second season.
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the third and current capital of the US state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 117,400 , making it the sixth most populated city in the state and the second most populated Illinois city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area...
, as visibly marked on a parcel thrown in at a subsequent stop: as the distance between Chicago and Springfield is 150 miles, that would appear to be about as conclusive as many of the show's establishing shot
Establishing shot
An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects...
s and credits footage.
Although the series was filmed in Los Angeles, and routinely used locations in downtown Los Angeles, the credits and some stock exterior shots were filmed in Chicago, including the station house, which is the old Maxwell Street police station
7th District Police Station
The 7th District Police Station, or Maxwell Street Station in Chicago, Illinois was built in 1888 in response to the need for increased police presence in "Bloody Maxwell", known colloquially as "the Wickedest Police District in the World." The neighborhood, a changing melting pot of Irish,...
on Chicago's Near West Side (943 West Maxwell Street
Maxwell Street
Maxwell Street is an east-west street in Chicago, Illinois that intersects with Halsted Street just south of Roosevelt Road. It runs at 1330 South in the numbering system running from 500 West to 1126 West. The Maxwell Street neighborhood is considered part of the Near West Side and is one of the...
). The show's police cruisers are painted and marked similarly to Chicago police cars. The series frequently used establishing shots, under the credits at the beginning of the first act, showing an Interstate 80
Interstate 80
Interstate 80 is the second-longest Interstate Highway in the United States, following Interstate 90. It is a transcontinental artery running from downtown San Francisco, California to Teaneck, New Jersey in the New York City Metropolitan Area...
sign, commuter trains entering and leaving the old Chicago and North Western Railway
Chicago and North Western Railway
The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company was a Class I railroad in the Midwest United States. It was also known as the North Western. The railroad operated more than of track as of the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s...
Chicago terminal (the C&NW yellow and green livery was clearly evident), and aerial views of South Side neighborhoods. Exterior views of the Cook County Criminal Courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue were used to establish court scenes. An exterior view of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
's City Hall represented the state capitol.
Throughout the 146 episodes there are various references to the other police precincts in the city. In a season one episode Commander Swanson states that he has "16 precincts" to take care of; but this conflicts with the season two episode "The Shooter", when Officer Wallins of the Property Department states that he has to look after all the city's property, "from 14 Precincts". The seventeen Precincts which are named during the course of the various episodes are: Hill Street, Polk Avenue, Midtown, Von Steuben Avenue, North-East, St James's Park, Michigan Avenue, Washington Heights, South Ferry, West Delavan, Filmore, South Park, Preston Heights, Castle Heights, Richmond Avenue, Farmingdale and Jefferson Heights. The Hill Street precinct house is marked "7th District" outside. In some scenes the Midtown precinct house is marked "5th District", though in others it is marked "14th Precinct". Officers in uniform (apart from the Emergency Action Team - EAT) wore shoulder flashes with the name of their precinct embroidered on them.
Cast
Officers are listed by the rank they held at first appearance on the program; some officers later held higher ranks.Main characters
- Captain Frank Furillo (Daniel J. TravantiDaniel J. TravantiDanielo Giovanni "Daniel J." Travanti is an American actor best known for his starring role as Captain Frank Furillo in the 1980s television drama Hill Street Blues.-Biography:...
[original cast], 1981–87) - Joyce Davenport (Veronica HamelVeronica HamelVeronica Hamel is an American actress.- Biography :After Hamel graduated from Temple University, she worked as a secretary for a company that manufactured ironing board covers. She began a fashion modeling career after being discovered by Eileen Ford...
[original cast], 1981–87) - Sgt. Phil Esterhaus (Michael ConradMichael ConradMichael Conrad was an American television actor.-Career:Conrad had a long acting career in television from the 1950s to the 1980s...
[original cast], 1981–84) - Detective Mick Belker (Bruce WeitzBruce WeitzBruce Peter Weitz is an American actor. He is perhaps best-known for his role as Sgt. Michael "Mick" Belker in the 1980s TV series Hill Street Blues for which he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 1984.-Early life:Weitz was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, the son...
[original cast], 1981–87) - Sgt. Henry Goldblume (Joe SpanoJoe SpanoJoseph Peter "Joe" Spano is an American actor who came to prominence through his role as Lt. Henry Goldblume on Hill Street Blues and is now well known for his work in NCIS as FBI Special Agent Tobias Fornell....
[original cast], 1981–87) - Officer Andy Renko (Charles HaidCharles HaidCharles Maurice Haid III is an American actor and director, with notable work in both movies and television. He is known for his portrayal of Officer Andy Renko in Hill Street Blues....
[original cast], 1981–87) - Officer Bobby Hill (Michael WarrenMichael Warren (actor)Michael Warren is an American TV actor and former college basketball player, best known for playing Officer Bobby Hill on the NBC television series Hill Street Blues.-College basketball career:...
[original cast], 1981–87) - Lt. Howard Hunter (James B. Sikking [original cast], 1981–87)
- Sgt. Lucille Bates (Betty ThomasBetty ThomasBetty Thomas is an American actress and director in television and motion pictures.-Life and career:Born Betty Thomas Nienhauser in St. Louis, Missouri, Thomas graduated from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree...
[original cast], 1981–87) - Detective J.D. LaRue (Kiel MartinKiel MartinKiel Urban Mueller , professionally known as Kiel Martin, was an American actor best known for his role as lovable rogue Detective John "J.D." La Rue on the 1980s television drama Hill Street Blues.Martin was married twice, first to Claudia Martin , who was actor/crooner Dean...
[original cast], 1981–87) - Detective Neal Washington (Taurean BlacqueTaurean BlacqueTaurean Blacque is an American television and stage actor, best known for his role as Detective Neal Washington on the series Hill Street Blues...
[original cast], 1981–87) - Lt. Ray Calletano (Rene EnriquezRené EnríquezThis article is on the television actor. For the Mexican Mafia dropout, see Rene Enriquez René Enríquez was an American television actor of the 1970s and 1980s. He may be best-remembered for his role as Lt...
[original cast], 1981–86) - Officer Joe Coffey (Ed MarinaroEd MarinaroEd Marinaro is an American former football player turned actor.-Football career:Marinaro played high school football in New Milford, New Jersey, for the New Milford High School Knights....
, 1981–86) - Fay Furillo (Barbara BossonBarbara BossonBarbara Bosson is an American actress who has starred on television and in film.-Biography:Bosson was born in Charleroi, Pennsylvania to a tennis coach father. During her childhood, she lived in an American Craftsman Style house on Price Avenue in the borough of North Belle Vernon...
[original cast], 1981–86) - Sgt. Stan Jablonski (Robert ProskyRobert ProskyRobert Prosky was an American stage, film, and television actor.-Life and career:Prosky, a Polish American, was born Robert Joseph Porzuczek in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Helen and Joseph Porzuczek. His father was a grocer and butcher...
, 1984–87) - Detective Harry Garibaldi (Ken OlinKen OlinKenneth Edward "Ken" Olin is an American actor, director and producer. He is known for his starring role on the television series Thirtysomething, and most recently as Executive Producer, director, and recurring guest star of the television series Brothers & Sisters .-Career:As an actor, Olin...
, 1984–85) - Detective Patricia "Patsy" Mayo (Mimi Kuzyk, 1984–85)
- Lt. Norman Buntz (Dennis FranzDennis FranzDennis Franz is an American actor best known for his role as Andy Sipowicz, a hard-boiled police detective in the television series NYPD Blue. He previously appeared as Lt...
, 1985–87) - Officer Patrick Flaherty (Robert ClohessyRobert ClohessyRobert Clohessy is an American actor, known for playing Correctional Officer Sean Murphy on the HBO drama Oz. He was also a cast member in the final season of Hill Street Blues....
, 1986–87) - Officer Tina Russo (Megan GallagherMegan GallagherMegan Gallagher is an American actress.Gallagher was born in Reading, Pennsylvania and grew up in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Aileen Gallagher, was a model.Gallagher has largely worked in television and theatre...
, 1986–87)
Other characters
- Chief Fletcher Daniels (Jon CypherJon Cypher-Biography:Born in New York City, Cypher graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in 1949 and Brooklyn College in 1953. He made his television debut as the Prince in the original 1957 production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella opposite Julie Andrews in the title role...
, 1981–87) - Officer Leo Schnitz (Robert Hirschfield, 1981–85)
- Grace Gardner (Barbara BabcockBarbara BabcockBarbara Babcock is an American character actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Grace Gardner on Hill Street Blues for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress—Drama Series in 1981 and her role as Dorothy Jennings on Dr...
, 1981–85) - Jesus Martinez (Trinidad SilvaTrinidad SilvaTrinidad Silva, Jr. was an American actor who played small supporting roles in a number of films of the 1980s. His television work includes the role of Jesus Martinez on the television series Hill Street Blues....
, 1981–87) - Captain Jerry Fuchs (Vincent Lucchesi, 1981–84)
- Judge Alan Wachtel (Jeffrey TamborJeffrey TamborJeffrey Michael Tambor is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles as George Bluth Sr. and Oscar Bluth on Arrested Development and Hank Kingsley on The Larry Sanders Show.-Early life:...
, 1982–87) - Captain Freedom (Dennis DuganDennis DuganDennis Dugan is an American director, comedian, and actor. He is most famous for his partnership with comedic actor Adam Sandler, with whom he directed the films Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, Grown Ups, Just Go With It, and Jack and...
, 1982) - Assistant D.A. Irwin Bernstein (George WynerGeorge WynerGeorge Wyner is an American film and television actor. He is probably best known for his role as ADA Bernstein on the series Hill Street Blues. Wyner graduated from Syracuse University in 1968 as a drama major, and was an in-demand character actor by the early 1970s. To date, Wyner has made guest...
, 1982–87) - Officer Robin Tattaglia Belker (Lisa Sutton, 1982–87)
- Officer Sal Benedetto (Dennis Franz, 1983)
- Gina Srignoli (Jennifer TillyJennifer TillyJennifer Tilly is an American actress and poker player. She is an Academy Award nominee, and a World Series of Poker Ladies' Event bracelet winner. She is the older sister of actress Meg Tilly.-Early life:...
, 1984–85) - Detective Manny Rodriguez (Del Zamora, 1985)
- Celeste Patterson (Judith Hansen, 1985–86)
- Sid "The Snitch" Thurston (Peter JurasikPeter JurasikPeter Jurasik is an American actor known for his television roles as Londo Mollari in the 1990s science fiction series Babylon 5 and Sid the Snitch on the 1980s series Hill Street Blues and its short-lived spinoff Beverly Hills Buntz.-Career:Among Jurasik's guest appearances are an entomologist in...
, 1985–87)
Gangs in Hill Street Blues
Gang culture was a feature in all seven seasons beginning with the first episode. Several storylines related to gang life, and the different approaches to negotiation, in particular by officers such as Furillo, Goldblume, Hunter, and to a lesser extent those of the uniform or plain clothes detective ranks.Interactions included multiple gang meetings held at the precinct to negotiate "turf" boundaries and truces in exchange for facilitating a presidential visit that did not come to pass or the return of a governor's pet dog. The gang/police meetings more often formed part of the comic rather than the dramatic elements of the series.
Gang interactions mostly centered around the Hispanic gang Los Diablos, and the fraught but productive and increasingly trusting relationship between its leader, Martinez, and Furillo, who even attends Martinez' wedding. Martinez, the only gang character given any extended development, moves through the series from early and relapsing belligerence, to negotiation, to finally renouncing his gang colors and qualifying as a para-legal.
Danny Glover
Danny Glover
Danny Lebern Glover is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.-Early life:...
had an early career appearance in the first 4 episodes of season 2 as Jesse John Hudson, erstwhile leader of the Black Arrows, whose stated aim to "go straight" turned out to be hypocritical, when he attempted to take back control of the gang.
Awards
- The pilotTelevision pilotA "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
episode, "Hill Street Station," was awarded an Edgar for Best Teleplay from a Series. - Over its seven seasons, the show earned 98 Emmy AwardEmmy AwardAn Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nominations. That averages out to 14 nominations every year. - The series shares the Emmy AwardEmmy AwardAn Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
record for most acting nominations by regular cast members (excluding the guest performer category) for a single series in one year. (Both L.A. LawL.A. LawL.A. Law is a US television legal drama that ran on NBC from September 15, 1986 to May 19, 1994. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights,...
and The West WingThe West Wing (TV series)The West Wing is an American television serial drama created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999 to May 14, 2006...
also hold that record). For the 1981-1982 season nine cast members were nominated for Emmys. Daniel J. Travanti and Michael Conrad were the only ones to win (for Lead Actor and Supporting Actor respectively). The others nominated were Veronica Hamel (for Lead Actress), Taurean Blacque, Michael Warren, Bruce Weitz, and Charles Haid (for Supporting Actor), and Barbara Bosson and Betty Thomas (for Supporting Actress). Also that year, for the only time in Emmy Award history all five nominees in an acting category (in this case, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series) were from a single series. - In 2007, Channel 4Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
(UK) ranked Hill Street Blues #19 on their list of the "50 Greatest TV Dramas."
Critical reception
Hill Street Blues received rave reviews from critics initially in general alongside dismal Nielsen ratings. Early schedule switching did not help; the show was broadcast once weekly on 4 different nights during its first season alone but gradually settled into a Thursday night slot. The NBC Broadcast Standards Unit deemed it too violent, too sexy, too grim. The producers described the show as an hour drama with 13 continuing characters living through a Gordian knot of personal and professional relationships. John J. O'Connor in a May 1981 review charted its growing popularity and called it "a comfortable balance between comedy and drama". The groundbreaking choice to include African-Americans as mainstays in the core ensemble cast and to feature several inter-racial and inter-ethnic cop partnerships drew notice and praise, as did the overlapping plots and examinations of moral conundrums such as police corruption, racism, alcoholism, and both interpersonal and institutional forgiveness.Theme and music
The theme tune was written by Mike PostMike Post
Mike Post is an American multi-Grammy and Emmy Award winning composer best known for scoring some of the most popular TV theme songs in the United States, for primetime series such as Law & Order, NYPD Blue, The Rockford Files, LA Law, Quantum Leap, Magnum, P.I., Hill Street Blues, among numerous...
(featuring Larry Carlton
Larry Carlton
Larry Carlton is an American jazz, smooth jazz, jazz fusion, pop, and rock guitarist and singer. He has divided his recording time between solo recordings and session appearances with various well-known bands...
on guitar) and reached #10 on Billboard's Hot 100.
In 2006, The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
wrote a song called "Mike Post Theme", and songwriter Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
has confirmed that he took inspiration from the theme for Hill Street Blues.
The theme song has been used for the ending of the new Mario Kart
Mario Kart
is a series of go-kart-style racing video games developed by Nintendo as a series of spin-offs from its trademark Mario series of platformer adventure-style video games...
game.
DVD releases
20th Century Fox20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of the 20th Century Fox film studio. It was established in 1976 as Magnetic Video Corporation, and later as 20th Century Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video and FoxVideo, Inc....
released the first two seasons of Hill Street Blues on DVD in Region 1 in 2006. Both releases contain special features including gag reel, deleted scenes, commentary tracks & featurettes. Due to poor sales no other seasons have been released.
In Region 2, Channel 4 DVD released the first two seasons on DVD in the UK in 2006.
Seasons 1 and 2 can also be found on hulu.com. Season 3 can be viewed as streaming video on commercial sites.
In popular culture
Hill Street Blues has inspired parodies, storylines, characters, and cultural references in numerous media vehicles.Computer game
In 1991, Krisalis SoftwareKrisalis Software
Krisalis Software Ltd. was a video game developer and publisher founded by Tony Kavanagh, Peter Harrap, and Shaun Hollingworth in 1987 under the name Teque Software...
(developed by Simeon Pashley and Rob Hill) released the computer game, Hill Street Blues, based on the TV show. The game runs on the Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
, Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
, and DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
platforms and places the player in charge of Hill Street Station and its surrounding neighborhood, with the aim of promptly dispatching officers to reported crimes, apprehending criminals, and making them testify at court. If certain areas have less serious crimes unresolved, such as bag-snatching
Snatch theft
In Malaysia and Southeast Asia in general, snatch theft is a criminal act of forcefully stealing from a pedestrian's person while employing rob-and-run tactics. It is typical for two thieves to work together and ride a moped to make theft and escape easier. A person steers the vehicle while another...
, they soon escalate to more serious ones, such as murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
in broad daylight. The game, which now falls into the category abandonware
Abandonware
Abandonware are discontinued products for which no product support is available, or whose copyright ownership may be unclear for various reasons...
, is still available for download at computer game sites and outlets, and has received mixed reviews.
Television
A 1982 episode of SCTVSecond City Television
Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...
parodied how the large cast swarmed the stage for the show's 1981 Best Drama Emmy. In the parody, a mob rushed the stage and trampled Herve Villechaize
Hervé Villechaize
Hervé Jean-Pierre Villechaize was a French actor who achieved worldwide recognition for his role as Mr. Roarke's assistant, Tattoo, in the television series Fantasy Island...
, played by John Candy
John Candy
John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle...
. Another episode parodies the show, in a sketch entitled "Benny Hill
Benny Hill
Benny Hill was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.-Early life:...
Street Blues", portraying life at the police station, but in the slapstick
Slapstick
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
styles of the British comedian.
A 1984 edition of The Lenny Henry Show
The Lenny Henry Show
The Lenny Henry Show is a comedy sketch show featuring Lenny Henry. In its first incarnation it ran for two seasons on BBC 1, in 1984 and 1985. Each season had six episodes. A 40-minute special was aired in December 1987...
featured a single-sketch parody of the show, including a roll-call sequence and opening credits where the actors' billings (Lenworth J. Henry, Jane J. Bertish, Jr.) clearly referenced the show's star, Daniel J. Travanti
Daniel J. Travanti
Danielo Giovanni "Daniel J." Travanti is an American actor best known for his starring role as Captain Frank Furillo in the 1980s television drama Hill Street Blues.-Biography:...
.
A 1990 episode of Bochco's Cop Rock
Cop Rock
Cop Rock is an American musical police drama series that aired on ABC in 1990. The show, a police drama presented as a musical, was co-created by Steven Bochco, who also served as executive producer...
parodied the roll call with an original song, "Let's Be Careful Out There," based upon Sergeant Esterhaus' trademark instruction to his officers at the close of each roll call. James B. Sikking made a cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
at the end of the scene, dressed as Lieutenant Howard Hunter in LAPD SWAT
SWAT
A SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...
uniform, lighting his pipe on the way out of the roll call room as his character typically did on Hill Street Blues.
In episode 53 of The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
, titled "Two Tonys" (2004), Carmela Soprano
Carmela Soprano
Carmela Soprano née DeAngelis, played by Edie Falco, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. She is the wife of Mafia boss Tony Soprano and the program's most prominent female character.-Character biography:...
worries that a wild bear lurking in the neighborhood (symbolizing the untamed, menacing power of Tony Soprano
Tony Soprano
Anthony John "Tony" Soprano, Sr. is an Italian-American fictional character and the protagonist on the HBO television drama series The Sopranos, on which he is portrayed by James Gandolfini. The character was conceived by The Sopranos creator and show runner David Chase, who was also largely...
and the mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
, which potentially endangers all who encounter it and those nearby) might kill Bruce and Jeannie Cusamano's chained-up dog, Esterhaus, next door. (Esterhaus represents the tamer, more restricted, and therefore less potent law and order system.)