Hill Street Blues

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hill Street Blues
Image:Hill Street Blues.jpg Main title card </small>
Genre	Drama
Running time	50 minutes
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	Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States
Original channel	NBC
Original run	January 15, 1981–May 12, 1987
No. of episodes	146
IMDb profile

Hill Street Blues was a serial police drama that first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 91 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.

1 Overview
2 Main characters
3 Trivia
4 DVD Release
5 Computer game
6 External links

[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.
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."
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.

Image:Hill Street Blues Cast.jpg

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 exactly like Chicago police cars.

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.

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 third season, which led to the replacement of the beloved Sgt. Esterhaus by Sgt. Stan Jablonksi, 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.

[edit] Main characters

Capt. Francis X. (Frank) Furillo — Daniel J. Travanti
Fay Furillo — Barbara Bosson
Sgt. Philip Freemason (Phil) Esterhaus — Michael Conrad
Officer Robert Eugene (Bobby) Hill — Michael Warren
Officer Andrew Jackson (Andy) Renko — Charles Haid
Joyce Davenport — Veronica Hamel
Det. Michael (Mick) Belker — Bruce Weitz
Lt. Ray Calletano — René Enríquez
Det. Johnny (J.D.) LaRue — Kiel Martin
Det. Neal Washington — Taurean Blacque
Lt. Howard Hunter — James Sikking
Sgt./Lt. Henry Goldblume — Joe Spano
Officer/Sgt. Lucille (Lucy) Bates — Betty Thomas
Officer Joe Coffey — Ed Marinaro
Officer Leo Schnitz — Robert Hirschfeld
Sgt. Stan Jablonski — Robert Prosky
Lt. Norman Buntz — Dennis Franz
Det. Patsy Mayo — Mimi Kuzyk
Det. Harry Garibaldi — Ken Olin
Officer Patrick Flaherty — Robert Clohessy
Officer Tina Russo — Megan Gallagher

[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.

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.

[edit] DVD Release

The first season of Hill Street Blues was released on DVD (U.S.) by 20th Century Fox on January 24, 2006. The release is a three disc set, featuring all episodes of the first season and a 50 minute retrospective discussion between some original cast members (Ed Marinaro, Barbara Bosson, Joe Spano, Veronica Hamel, Michael Warren, James B. Sikking, Bruce Weitz and Charles Haid). Two episodes, "Hill Street Station" and "I Never Promised You a Rose, Marvyn" feature an optional audio commentary by Steven Bochco, James B. Sikking and Joe Spano. (Comments based on Region 1 US/Canada release)

The second season was released on DVD on May 16, 2006.

Hill Street Blues is also being released on DVD in the UK (Region 2). Season one was released in March 6, 2006. The second season was released on June 12, 2006.

[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.