'' was a serial produced in
North America . Its debut season was honored 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.
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 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 and private lives of the individuals. In the workplace there is also a strong focus on the struggle between doing "what was right" and "what worked" in situations.
- The camera is held close in, action cut rapidly between stories, and there is much use of overheard, or off-screen, dialogue, giving a "documentary" feel to the action.
- Rather than studio (floor) cameras, hand-held Arri flexes are used to add to the "documentary" feel.
- The show deals with "real-life" issues, and uses "real-life" language to a greater extent than had been seen before.
- Almost every episode began with a pre-credits sequence consisting of "roll call" at the beginning of the day shift. Many episodes are written to take place over the course of a single day, a concept later used in the NBC series '' L.A. Law ''.
Though filmed in
Los Angeles (both on location and at CBS Studio Center in
Studio City ), the series is set in a generic location with a feel of a Northern urban center.
The distinctive theme tune was written by
Mike Post and was popular enough to reach the top 10 on
Billboard 's Hot 100.
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''. It has been described as ''
Barney Miller '' out of doors — the focus on the bitter realities of 1980s urban living is revolutionary for its time. Later seasons are 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 is also a short-lived
Dennis Franz Spinoff called ''
Beverly Hills Buntz '', in which Franz' Det. Buntz character moves from the Hill to Los Angeles to become a private eye.
Brandon Tartikoff 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. It was ''
Barbara Bosson ''
's 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 .
1 Butler went on to direct the first 4 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).
The pilot aired on Thursday, January 15, 1981 at 10pm, 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' wedding). Instead, building critical acclaim prompted NBC to order an additional 4 episodes to air during May sweeps. Bocho and Kozoll fashioned this into a new story arc, which aired as two two-hour episodes to close the season. One new addition to the cast was Joe Coffey (played by
Ed Marinaro ).
In early season 1 episodes, the opening theme has several clearly audible edits; this was quickly replaced by a longer, unedited version. 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 10 episodes. A full order was picked up part way through the season.
A writer strike pushed the start of the season forward to October 29, meaning that only 19 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.
Michael Kozoll left the show at the end of season 2, replaced for the most part by Anthony Yerkovich and David Milch. 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 ''.
Michael Conrad was increasingly absent from the show due to his ongoing battle with cancer.
Michael Conrad's final appearance was halfway through the season, as he had died in real life. His character was kept alive until February, 1984, when he was sent off in a memorable episode, "Grace Under Pressure."
The show won its fourth and final Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series this season.
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 would be 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 would win an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress In a Drama Series this season. However, at the awards ceremony, an impostor 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.
Major changes occur as Joe Coffey, Patsy Mayo, Det. Harry Garibaldi, Lt. Ray Calletano (
Rene Enriquez ), Fay Furillo (Barbara Bosson) and Officer Leo Schnitz (Robert Hirschfeld) all leave the show. The sole addition is Lt. Norman Buntz, played by
Dennis Franz . 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 in the series aired in season 6, explaining through flashbacks how Furillo and Ms. Davenport met and fell in love.
This would be the first season that Travanti and Hamel were NOT nominated for the Emmy for Outstansing Lead Actor/Actress in a Drama Series.
Stanislaus Jablonski became a secondary character part way through this season, while Ofc. Patrick Flaherty (played by
Robert Clohessy ) and Ofc. Tina Russo (
Megan Gallagher ) joined. Travanti announced he would not return for an eighth season, and the producers decided to end the show in 1987. The program was also moved to Tuesday nights to make way for ''
L.A. Law '' after 6 years on Thursdays.
This would be the only season that Weitz was NOT nominated for the Emmy for Outstansing Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. This was also the only season for which the show was not nominated for Outstanding Drama Series.
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 background exterior shots were filmed in
Chicago — including the station house, which is the old
Maxwell Street police station on Chicago's West Side (943 West Maxwell Street). The show's police cruisers are 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. In addition, the opening credits clearly show a squad car with an Illinois "M" plate, which are used for municipal police cars. The series frequently used establishing shots, under the credits at the beginning of the first act, showing commuter trains entering and leaving the old
Chicago And North Western Railway Chicago terminal. The C&NW yellow and green livery was clearly evident.
Many of the street names used in the show, especially for identifying crime locations on police radio calls, are 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 , which is coincidentally Veronica Hamel's hometown. A first-season episode features 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 is
New York City or, less likely,
Minnesota (at the time of the series, there was no inter-league play between the Minnesota Twins and the Phillies). There was a reference to the Lower East Side in the "Fecund Hand Rose" episode (Phil's attempted wedding to Cindy) in the first season about where Det. LaRue lived.
In another episode, a carjacked couple mention that they were on their way home to Buffalo after visiting relatives in Arizona. If so, they wouldn't have taken the much longer route through New York or Philadelphia, which pretty much rules out any east-coast cities. Additionally, in another episode, mention is made of a hired killer coming in from Detroit; Belker also gets knocked out in one episode and is thrown on to a bus headed for Springfield, (presumably Illinois?)
The name of the show is based on
Pittsburgh 's
Hill District station. Chief writer
Steven Bochco attended college at the nearby
Carnegie Institute Of Technology (now
Carnegie Mellon University ) and used the always active Hill District
Pittsburgh Police precinct #3 as inspiration for naming the show.
See also:
List Of Hill Street Blues Cast Members
- The one-hour Pilot episode, "Hill Street Station," was awarded an Edgar for Best Teleplay from a Series.
- Over its seven seasons, the show earned 98 Emmy Award nominations. That averages out to 14 nominations every year.
- The series shares the Emmy Award record for most acting nominations by regular cast members (excluding the guest performer category) for a single series in one year. (Both '' L.A. Law '' and '' The West Wing '' 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 first and only time in Emmy Award history all five nominees in an acting category (in this case, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series) were all from a single series.
- 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.
- Dennis Franz appears 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 At 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''.
- Other precincts of the Metropolitan Police in the unidentified city were Midtown, Jefferson Heights, Decker Avenue, South Ferry and Polk Avenue.
- The series is mentioned in the song "TV Party" by the punk-hardcore band Black Flag .
- In 2004-2005 Charles Haid played CT Finney, a New York Police Captain on the sixth season of the NBC show '' Third Watch ''. Veronica Hamel also guest-starred in 2003 as the mother of New York firefighter Alex Taylor.
- Daniel J. Travanti and Charles Haid appeared on a 1974 episode of '' Gunsmoke '' together, playing a pair of criminals looking to rob a bank.
20th Century Fox has released the first two seasons of ''Hill Street Blues'' on DVD in Region 1. In Region 2, Season 1 & 2 have been released by . It is unknown if the remaining 5 seasons will be released at some point.
NB: R2 DVD releases extras: R2 series 1 contains two commentaries (pilot and episode 11) and 51 minute "roll call" featurette with cast members only.
There are no extras on the R2 series 2 release.
The first three 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.
The first three seasons are also available on iTunes.
''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.
