Back to the 1980s with Hill Street Blues
- Pat Dunlap Evans
- Feb 1
- 2 min read
Bill and I are so disturbed by the world of today, we're escaping to the early 1980s with Hill Street Blues, an ensemble cop TV series that ran on NBC from 1981 to 1987. It now streams (for a price) on Amazon Prime, Apple, and Fandango.
If you're not old enough to recall this series, it won a slew of awards back in its day. The writer/producer was Steven Bochco of later L.A. Law fame. Hill Street Blues was so acclaimed, even the show’s theme music became a hit.
This was before commercial VHS tapings were allowed, so I missed the entire first season because I didn’t learn about the show until the Emmies gave it eight awards the year it debuted, including best dramatic series. After that, I remember rushing home to watch it because it took my mind off the trauma of my world at that time, but not as disturbing as today’s awful news.
If you enjoy ensemble-cast series like MASH, ER, and The Pitt, you’ll also like Hill Street Blues. In fact, it has several characters who remind you of some characters in those shows. But instead of a MASH unit in Korea, or hospital emergency rooms, Hill Street Blues is set in a dumpy station in a crime-riddled precinct, but with character-driven and comedic asides into the main characters’ lives. Admittedly, there's quite a bit of sexism in this show, but you must consider the era. The good news is that sexism becomes a plot point with the character of Lucy, who's making her way as a cop in a sexist man's world.
Episode One is the pilot, but if you see only that, you’ll might think this show isn’t all that great. But by Episode Two, the characters have begun to develop. I’ve been raving about this show to Bill over our past 21 years together, but he hadn’t seen much of it because he lived in doctor world, with late hours and the demands of an Air Force Colonel.
After Episode One, I think Bill was a bit disappointed, but after Episode Two, I glanced over and said, "You see?" And he nodded. They’d hooked us.
In today’s world of disappointing streaming series, I’m enjoying the opportunity to see all episodes in sequence, since I missed so many, especially that crucial first year. I didn’t understand some of the later interactions, especially between Captain Frank Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) and his ex-wife, Faye, played by Barbara Bosson, who was Steven Bochco’s wife in real life.
If you need an escape, like I do, spending an hour with this bunch of crazed but charming cops, public defenders, and crooks might do for you what it did for me back in the 1980s. Take my mind off some stressful stuff. And it does that far better than Claire Danes's latest neurotic series on Netflix, which we stopped watching after Episode Two. Maybe we are simply too old for Claire Danes. Or maybe TV isn’t as good as it can be with writers at the helm instead of actors serving as executive producers and “showrunners.”
If you want to know more about Hill Street Blues, below are a few links.
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