"All right, that's it. Let's roll. And hey, let's be careful out there." - Sergeant Phil Esterhaus (Michael Conrad) at Roll Call, 6:53 AM
Hill Street Blues: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
Television critics theorize that on network TV, desperation breeds imagination and risk taking. In other words, a network that has hit the bottom of the ratings is more willing to take chances. One recent example is ABC, whose ratings woes led to the offbeat hits Desperate Housewives and Lost. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, NBC was in the same position. Very few of its shows were anywhere near the top twenty, and duds like Supertrain (think The Love Boat but on a train) weren't helping. Network executives decided that it was time to take chances, so they approached producer/writers Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll at MTM Productions and asked if they would be interested in creating a gritty, intense police drama. They weren't, but the network's promise of no interference proved irresistible, so the duo agreed to give it a try. The result: Hill Street Blues, a cop show that would eventually change TV history.
With a sprawling cast of thirteen regulars and its emphasis on the foibles and problems of its characters, Hill Street Blues is more closely related to soap operas like Dallas than to traditional cop shows like Hawaii Five-O. Daniel J. Travanti leads the talented ensemble as Frank Furillo, the tough but soft spoken captain of Hill Street Precinct, a crime infested area in an unnamed metropolitan area. Frank feels guilty about his divorce from his high-strung ex-wife Fay (Barbara Bosson), especially since it means that he doesn't get to see Frank, Jr. as often as he'd like to. Frank is also having a torrid affair with Joyce Davenport (Veronica Hamel), an ambitious public defender who loves her job but hates the icy harridan she has become because of it.
The precinct staff is a varied bunch. Sergeant Phil Esterhaus (Michael Conrad), the fatherly leader of each morning's roll call, seems conservative and straight laced, but he divorced his wife so that he could date a much, much younger woman who is now a high school senior. Partners Bobby Hill (Michael Warren) and Andy Renko (Charles Haid) find themselves doubting their choice of profession after being shot. Detective Mick Belker (Bruce Weitz) has a habit of growling like a dog and once bit off a suspect's nose, but spends much time on the phone talking to his mother. Detective J.D. LaRue (Kiel Martin), an unrepentant playboy, finds his career in jeopardy when his drinking habit begins to impair his judgment. His partner, Neal Washington (Taurean Blacque), tries to help LaRue while trying to maintain his own reputation within the department. Howard Hunter (James B. Sikking) is the gung-ho leader of the department's SWAT-like Emergency Action Team. Henry Goldblume (Joe Spano) is the kind-hearted officer in charge of community liaisons. Lieutenant Ray Calletano (Rene Enriquez) is Frank's second in command. Officer Lucy Bates (Betty Thomas) is seemingly tough, but lacks confidence in herself. Ed Marinaro appears as Officer Joe Coffey - Lucy's partner - late in the season, but does not become a regular cast member until subsequent seasons.
In addition to its large ensemble cast, Hill Street Blues' plot structure also resembled that of soap operas. In traditional cop shows like Kojak, cases were general wrapped up by the end of the episode. Hill Street Blues takes familiar plotlines from other shows and examines them from a different angle. It may take weeks for a case to be solved, and even then it's often done with little fanfare. The investigation of a rapist terrorizing women in a local park stretches on for several episodes. The case is introduced in the series' pilot. In subsequent episodes, the officers collar the wrong guy, go undercover in drag as part of "Operation Duckling," and eventually catch the pervert.
Viewers rarely saw anything of Theo Kojak's personal life, but Hill Street Blues thoroughly examines its characters' home lives in order to show how their personal problems have an effect on their professional lives. LaRue's descent from rakish charmer to pickled bum is a harrowing portrayal of how alcoholism can cloud judgment and ruin lives. Hill and Renko's doubts and fears after being gunned down help to humanize a profession that on television often becomes too wrapped up in macho posturing.
The very look of the show sets it apart from its police drama brethren. The series was one of the first to regularly employ handheld cameras to give the show a fly-on-the-wall, documentary-esque feel. This technique has become common today, but it began here. Thankfully, Hill Street's directors do not overuse the handheld cameras. These shots are only used in selected scenes like a dash of spice in a well-cooked meal.
Another hallmark of the series is its wacky humor. In the pilot episode, Esterhaus ends roll call by saying that he has been ordered to inspect the officers for "unusual weapons." Groaning, the cops whip out hunting knives, switchblades, sawed-off shotguns, and other unapproved items, throwing them onto a table. Esterhaus nods and goes on with his announcements as the officers return their brass knuckles and other contraband weapons to their pockets. The precinct is so rundown and under funded that Howard has to Tae Kwan Do his way out of a toilet stall and is forced to brush his teeth in water the color of café au lait, yet he puts in an order for a flame-throwing crowd control tank. Sad sack Fay is a constant source of amusement. In each episode, she suffers another indignity which sets off a flow of tears: she receives dirty phone calls, is arrested at a pot party, slips and falls in the station, and has her thumb broken when she is mugged. Even the throwaway jokes are funny, like the Orthodox Jewish gang that carries numchucks.
The humor can turn on a dime, though. When Fay arrives at the station with a toy gun she's sure that Frank gave their son, the officers go on red alert, crouching behind desks (and each other), pulling their own guns, and covering Fay. It's a funny moment because it seems ridiculous that these people who have known Fay for years would think that she has actually come to the precinct to shoot them. But it is sad at the same time since Fay's character is so finely drawn that it is totally plausible that they would believe that her somewhat nutty behavior in the past might lead to this. A subplot involving an assault suspect who thinks he is Dracula at first seems like a lark until the episode's tragic closing scenes.
Ratings for Hill Street's first season were dismal. NBC's inconsistent scheduling of the series didn't help. The show sometimes ran twice a week, sometimes twice a night, and sometimes not at all. Critics liked it, though, and to desperate NBC, that was enough. While the show didn't attract a large audience, it was watched by 18 - 34 year old men, a demographic that was increasingly important to advertisers. This, along with the fact that the series won eight Emmy Awards its first season, was enough to get the show renewed for another season. Besides, rumor has it that NBC didn't have anything to replace it with. Ratings improved, and the series went on to run for seven seasons.
Hill Street Blues widened the scope of what a police drama could be, injecting police procedurals with emotion, humor, and humanity. It also proved to network execs that patience could lead to hits. Its influence on subsequent series is virtually incalculable. Shows as diverse as Once & Again, Moonlighting, and St. Elsewhere owe part of their success to this cop show that almost didn't make it past its first season. For more information on Hill Street's influence, be sure to read Television's Second Golden Age: From Hill Street Blues to ER by Robert Thompson and Glued to the Set by Steven D. Stark.
Admittedly, some modern viewers may find Hill Street Blues a little slow. The emphasis is often on talk rather than action. Traditional police procedurals like C.S.I. and Law & Order dominate the current primetime schedule, and audiences accustomed to those fast-paced shows might lack the patience required to see Hill Street's plotlines through to their conclusions. Plus the series was so influential in its mix of comedy and drama that many of its techniques will seem a bit familiar to fans of shows like L.A. Law and Boston Legal. Still, this rich, highly textured series is where it all started.
Familiar faces in season one include Gary Grubbs (Will & Grace), Barbara Babcock (Dallas), David Caruso (NYPD Blue), Dan Hedaya (Cheers), Charles Fleischer (The Richard Pryor Show), Lynn Whitfield (Equal Justice), Andrea Marcovicci (Berrenger's), Luis Avalos (The Electric Company), Dolph Sweet (Gimme a Break), Timothy Daly (Wings), Dwight Schultz (The A-Team), Michael Tucker (L.A. Law), Mimi Rogers (The Geena Davis Show), James Remar (North Shore), Jon Cypher (Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella), and Charles Hallahan (Hunter).
The seventeen episodes that make up the first season are divided onto three double-sided discs. The discs are housed in two slim, black keepcases, one of which holds a pair of discs. The front of each case features the same iconic photo of a police car pulling out of the Hill Street garage from the series' opening credits. The back of each case features a listing of episode titles, airdates, and brief synopses. The cases slide into a cardboard outer sleeve which features the same police car photo.
The full motion DVD menus are both elegant and dynamic. On the main menu, clips from the series and its opening credits sequence scroll across the screen, and viewers can access the "Episode Selection" menu, the "Language Selection" menu, and the "Play All" feature. Choosing the "Episode Selection" menu leads to a list of the episodes found on the disc. Viewers can choose an individual episode or again choose to play all of the episodes. From the individual episode menus, viewers can preview the episode they are about to watch, play the entire episode, view the scene selection menu, and preview the following episode. The biggest flaw here is that there is no way to jump from one individual episode menu to another.
