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By D. W. O’Dell
People throw superlatives around today like confetti. How many times have you seen a film advertised as “The #1 new comedy in America” when the film in fact came in fifth at the box office and was the only new comedy released that week? Fox’s “The Sports List” creates a new top ten every day, despite the fact that they never explain exactly how they come by their rankings or why anyone should accept them as definitive.
So I can forgive anyone who is skeptical when I tell him or her that the Greatest Television Series Ever Made is finally available on DVD. No, I’m not talking about What’s Happening!!, Spongebob Squarepants, or even Knight Rider. Hill Street Blues is the best, most influential, most innovative, best written, best acted, best directed series ever to appear on a TV screen. In the twenty-five years since its debut there have only been imitators, never equals. NYPD Blue, an excellent show in its own right, is a pale imitation (early episodes of Hill Street Blues feature an almost unrecognizable David Caruso as a gang leader).
People remember the flamboyant characters - snarling Mick Belker; gorgeous Public Defender Joyce Davenport; and hulking but gentle Sgt. Esterhaus, with his trademark, “Let’s be careful out there.” But the tenth or eleventh tier characters were just as interesting - buttoned down hostage negotiator Henry Goldblume; sleaze ball screw-up J.D. LaRue; the ‘Mutt and Jeff’ team of street-wise Bobby Hill and cowboy Andy Renko; and Captain Frank Furillo’s ex-wife from Hell, Faye (she wasn’t excessively mean or vindictive, just really, really annoying). In charge of it all was Daniel J. Tavanti’s Furillo, an island of sanity and morality sweeping back the ocean every week.
Hill Street pretty much established the multiple storyline format for episodic dramas. It featured a multi-ethnic cast, had continuing plotlines, dealt frankly with racial issues, and the good guys didn’t always win (breaking even was a good day). A ratings train wreck in its first season, it none-the-less received 21 Emmy nominations and became the lowest rated show ever renewed for a second season. One can’t imagine today’s TV executives even giving such a show a green light, much less having the patience to wait for the audience catch up with it.
The show wasn’t perfect; James B. Sikking’s portrayal of right wing cop Howard Hunter was overly broad, the large cast prevented many of the more talented members from shining as much as they might, and there was a reason why Barbara Bosson, who played Fay Furillo, only worked in TV series created by her husband Steven Bochco (I suppose the show could also be blamed for two lame spin-off, Beverly Hills Buntz and Bay City Blues, as well as Steven Bochco‘s later series, Cop Rock).
But the quality of the show was undeniable from its first episode. It received a total of 98 Emmy nominations, third all-time behind only Cheers and M*A*S*H (ER is close behind at 93 and may pass it soon; ER is a pale imitation of St. Elsewhere and why isn’t that show on DVD?). For those too young to remember the show, check out the DVDs. It still holds up after 25 years (although the phones they use are hysterically large).
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