Hill Street Blues

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Hill Street Blues

Main title card
Genre Police procedural
Creator(s) Steven Bochco
Michael Kozoll
Starring Daniel J. Travanti
Joe Spano
Michael Conrad
Veronica Hamel
Charles Haid
James B. Sikking
Barbara Bosson
Ed Marinaro
Michael Warren
Betty Thomas
Dennis Franz
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
No. of episodes 146
Production
Running time 60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel NBC
Original run January 15, 1981 – May 12, 1987
Links
IMDb profile

Hill Street Blues was a serial police drama that first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987.[1] It received high critical acclaim and its innovations proved highly influential on serious dramatic television series produced in North America. Its debut season was honored with eight Emmy awards, a debut season record surpassed only by The West Wing.

Contents

[edit] Overview

MTM Enterprises 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.

  • Each episode featured a number of intertwined storylines, some of which were resolved within the episode, with others developing over a number of episodes throughout a season.
  • Much play was made of the conflicts between the work and private lives of the individuals. In the workplace there was also a strong focus on the struggle between doing "what was right" and "what worked" in situations.
  • The camera was held close in, action cut rapidly between stories, and there was lots of use of overheard, or off-screen, dialogue, giving a "documentary" feel to the action.
  • Rather than studio (floor) cameras, hand-held Arriflexes were used to add to the "documentary" feel.
  • The show dealt with "real-life" issues, and used "real-life" language to a greater extent than had been seen before.
  • Similar to L.A. Law, many episodes were written to take place over the course of a single day.
Hill Street Blues Cast, circa 1986
Hill Street Blues Cast, circa 1986

Though filmed in Los Angeles (both on location and at the CBS Radford Studios in Studio City), the series was set in a generic location with a feel of a Northern urban center, with many background exterior shots being filmed in Chicago –- including the station house, which was the old Maxwell Street police station on Chicago's West Side (943 West Maxwell Street). The show's police cruisers were painted and marked almost exactly like Chicago police cars, the main difference being the red door lettering reading "METRO POLICE" rather than "CHICAGO POLICE" on the real thing.

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 FCC designation for stations east of the Mississippi) or "K" (signifying a station west of the Mississippi). However, Renko's claim in a season one episode that he had "never been west of Chicago" was one of many indications that the series took place in the Midwest or Northeast. Many of the street names used in the show, especially for identifying crime locations on police radio calls, were from Buffalo, New York. In the episode 'Rites of Spring Part I', Joyce Davenport announces that the Phillies baseball team are "in town," not "at home", indicating the city is not Philadelphia. A first-season episode featured a modified armored personnel carrier (described as an "urban tank") enthusiatically used by Lieutenant Hunter for his SWAT team, which ended up stolen and dumped in the "East River", suggesting the setting was New York City or, less likely, Minnesota.

The name of the show was based on Pittsburgh's Hill District. Chief writer Steven Bochco attended college at the nearby Carnegie Institute of Technology and used the downtrodden Hill District as inspiration for naming the show. The distinctive theme tune was written by Mike Post. It was a popular enough theme that it peaked in the top 10 on the Billboard charts for pop singles.

The program's focus on failure and those at the bottom of the social scale was pronounced, and very much in contrast to Bochco's later project L.A. Law. 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 Sgt. Esterhaus by Sgt. Stan Jablonski, played by Robert Prosky) and 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 is still seen in such series as NYPD Blue and ER. In fact the very concept of the modern 'ensemble' drama can probably be traced back to Hill Street Blues.

There was also a short-lived Dennis Franz spinoff called Beverly Hills Buntz, in which the title character moves from the Hill to Los Angeles to become a private eye.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia

  • The producers did not intend Officers Renko and Hill to be ongoing characters - they were not supposed to survive their shooting in the pilot episode. NBC was sufficiently impressed with the chemistry between Charles Haid and Michael Warren that they insisted their characters survive and become series regulars.
  • The two-hour pilot episode, "Hill Street Station," was awarded an Edgar for Best Teleplay from a Series.
  • Dennis Franz appeared as dirty cop Sal Benedetto in a memorable 3rd season story arc before taking on the role of Lt. Norman Buntz.
  • In 2003, the University of Illinois-Chicago Police Department moved into the Maxwell Street Station, used as the exterior shot of the Hill Street Station.
  • In 2004, the rapper Cam'ron sampled the theme of "Hill Street Blues" for the song "Harlem Streets" in his album entitled Purple Haze.
  • In 2006, rock legends 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".
  • Over its seven seasons, the show earned 98 Emmy Award nominations. That averages out to 14 nominations every year.
  • Hill and Renko's patrol car ID number was 2202; Bates and Coffey's patrol car ID number was 2204.
  • Other precincts of the Metropolitan Police in the unidentified city were Midtown, Jefferson Heights, South Ferry and Polk Avenue.
  • The series is mentioned in the song "TV party" by the punk-hardcore band Black Flag.

[edit] DVD Releases

20th Century Fox has released the first two seasons of Hill Street Blues on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. In Region 2, Season 1 & 2 have been released by Channel 4 DVD. It is unknown if the remaining 5 seasons will be released at some point.

Cover Art DVD Name Region 1 Region 2 Additional Information
Season 1 January 31, 2006 March 6, 2006 (R2 has different cover art)
  • "Next on..." Promos
  • Commentary tracks
  • Deleted scenes
  • "Roll Call" featurette
Season 2 May 16, 2006 June 12, 2006 (R2 has different cover art)
  • Gregory Hoblit: The Hill Street Blues Story
  • Profile: Bruce Weitz on Mick Belker
  • Featurette: Confessions of Captain Freedom
  • Commentary by Actors Charles Haid, Bruce Weitz and Dennis Dugan on "The World According to Freedom"
  • Executive Story Consultant/ Writer Robert Crais on "Freedom's Last Stand"
  • Profile: Charles Haid on Andy Renko
  • Gag Reel

[edit] Downloadable Video Release

The first 3 seasons of Hill Street Blues have been released for download from Amazon Unbox Downloads (see link below). There is no indication whether future seasons will be available, but Season 3 is DVD quality, and fully un-edited.

[edit] Computer game

Hill Street Blues was also the name of a computer game that was based on the TV show released in 1991 by Krisalis. The game placed the player in charge of Hill Street Station and its surrounding neighbourhood with the aim being to promptly dispatch officers to reported crimes, apprehending criminals and making them testify at court. If certain areas had less serious crimes unresolved, such as bag-snatching, they would soon escalate to more serious ones such as murder in broad daylight.

[edit] External links

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