The first season of "Hill Street Blues" is out on DVD. I had to grab the collection, given all the great memories of this very enjoyable cop drama. Twenty-one Emmy nominations in the first season alone, this show set a real mark on the wall of what it takes to create and continue a quality show - something today's producers really haven't quite grasped yet. From the moment the music started, I was hooked. From the Museum of Broadcast Communications:
Hill Street Blues, one of the most innovative and critically acclaimed series in recent television history, aired on NBC from 1981 to 1987. Although never highly rated, NBC continued to renew Hill Street for its "prestige value" as well as the demographic profile of its fiercely loyal audience. Indeed, Hill Street is perhaps the consummate example of the complex equation in U.S. network television between "quality programming" and "quality demographics." Hill Street Blues revolutionized the TV "cop show," combining with it elements from the sitcom, soap opera, and cinema verite-style documentary. In the process, it established the paradigm for the hour-long ensemble drama: intense, fast-paced, and hyper-realistic, set in a densely populated urban workplace, and distinctly "Dickensian" in terms of character and plot development.
Now there even is a tie-in for today's St. Patrick's Day here - in the second episode of the first season, Captain Furillo has to deal with the president's tour through his burrough. He ends up calling a meeting of the gangs to let them know they need to toe the line - looks like a collection of the extras out of "The Warriors" - and the leader of the "Shamrock Gang" - David Caruso, a.k.a. "Tommy Mann." YES. Too damn funny. He was in eight "Hill Street" episodes, according to IMDB. I guess even the big stars had to do something to earn a buck before they were famous.
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