CS Weekly Archive > DVD of the Day > 02/03/06

A New Paradigm

by jason davis

The pilot tested lower than any in NBC's history. The first season was ranked 89 out of 99 shows. Despite inauspicious beginnings, Hill Street Blues completely altered the landscape of dramatic television with its focus on regulars, ensemble cast, and ongoing storylines, creating a template that is evident today in hits like The Shield, Grey's Anatomy, and Deadwood.

Hill Street Blues: Season One

Michael Kozoll, Steven Bochco, Anthony Yerkovich, Lee David Zlotoff, E. Jack Kaplan, Gregory Hoblit, and Alan Rachins
Created by Michael Kozoll & Steven Bochco

Set in an unspecified inner-city precinct, Hill Street Blues chronicled the professional and private lives of the cops at Hill Street Station. From the bureaucratic entanglements of Captain Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti), through the militaristic shenanigans of Lieutenant Hunter (James B. Sikking) and the undercover stake-outs of Detectives LaRue (Kiel Martin) and Washington (Taurean Blacque), down to the beat patrolled by Officers Hill (Michael Warren) and Renko (Charles Haid), the series presented a cross section of police work in a city under siege by poverty, drugs, and gang violence.

Unlike previous cop shows that relieved the pressure on lead actors by spending time with the crooks, Hill Street Blues creators Michael Kozoll and Steven Bochco focused their series on the 13 regular characters populating the station house. An economically sensible move, given that the actors were being paid regardless of their presence on camera, the decision helped humanize the characters for the audience. With more screen time, the cops were allowed to play the lead in their own personal stories that would develop alongside their professional investigations and impact their careers, for better or worse.

As Steven Bochco reveals in his commentary, the 13 regular cast members that became the heart of the series were not all intended to continue from the pilot to the series. The show's expansive ensemble cast resulted from quality actors bringing something unexpected to supporting roles and the creators' willingness to develop those sparks of interest across the series. A large cast confined in the claustrophobic constraints of the station house also provided fodder for dramatic tension playing the wide variety of personalities against their opposites. For the sensitive Sergeant Goldblume (Joe Spano), who disarms situations with reason rather than weapons, there's the gung-ho Hunter, who believes napalm is the solution for everything from purse snatching to illegal immigration. Similarly, characters provide their own counterpoint with Sergeant Belker (Bruce Weitz) playing the dutiful son to his henpecking mother while snarling at his current perpetrator. According to the actors featured in the Roll Call supplement, the writers would offer a starting point, which would be developed on stage by the actors and then adopted by the writers for future scripts.

In a sense, the final, and most impactful, of Hill Street's innovations stems from the two proceeding practices. Because the series focused on its regulars and gave them detailed lives, the continuity of those lives could not be easily curtailed at the end of a one-hour episode. As a result, each episode of the series built upon the previous installment, elaborating the story lines across a multitude of episodes. Not as serialized as a soap opera, nor as self-contained as a tradition drama, the series created a hybrid style of storytelling that offered satisfying dramatic units that were enriched by habitual viewing. By adhering to Aristotle's unity of time and confining each episode to one day, the show offered viewers a sense of conclusion to the day while creating an ongoing continuity that could be glimpsed in everyday life.

The series pilot, "Hill Street Station," flaunts the traditions of the pilot film by offering up a substantial helping of uncertainty. The teaser, featuring the roll call briefing that would form the basis for all subsequent teasers for the series, gives no clue as to which characters are members of the regular cast. Absent the opening titles, the viewer is allowed to bond with whatever characters catch their interest without knowing which ones will remain with the series. The ultimate expression of the pilot's uncertainty is explosively revealed at the end of act three in a move that warns the audience "nothing is certain."

Nothing is taken for granted in the series proper as the high moral fiber of police shows past is quickly ripped to shreds with internal affairs casting their watchful gaze over one of Furillo's detectives. Speaking of the captain, viewers were likely disturbed by the incongruity of a man who can diffuse a dangerous situation while having difficulty talking with his ex-wife (Bochco's then-wife, Barbara Bosson). With IA investigations, post-marital difficulty, and standard police genre trappings, one might consider the series full-up on story material, but Kozol and Bochco seemed to disregard the theory layering in upwards of five or six subplots in every episode creating the fast- paced template still evident in ER.

- Commentary by writer/co-creator Steven Bochco and actors Joe Spano and James B. Sikking
- Roll Call: Looking Back at Hill Street Blues
- Trailers

Two commentaries offer co-creator Steven Bochco and series regulars Joe Spano and James B. Sikking the opportunity to reminisce and comment on the unique position of the series in TV history. Though the subject of the commentaries isn't focused on the show's development, a lot of worthwhile material on the origins of the series is offered. The actors' role in defining the characters is illustrated in the nearly hour- long documentary Roll Call, which collects several regulars to discuss how Hill Street Blues changed television and Kozoll and Bochco's role in allowing the characters and actors to grow together.

Though it's been off the air for nearly 20 years, the innovations of Hill Street Blues continue to echo throughout primetime with dramatic series building on the storytelling model established by Kozoll and Bochco. As actor James B. Sikking remarks in the pilot's commentary, one can trace a straight line from Hill Street Blues to Deadwood, the hit HBO series created by David Milch, who first worked on the third year of the series and brought many of its stylistic flourishes to bear on his award- winning Western.

Hill Street Blues: Season One
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Not rated; 850 min.
$39.98

Buy it now for only $27.99 (save 30%)

At the age of 21, Jason Davis was hit in the face with a car. He has since devoted his life to writing. His words have appeared on TBS, MSN.com, and CS Weekly, where he serves as DVD Coordinator. He lives in Burbank.

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