When it comes to outstanding dramas no one will ever come close to one of the greatest cop dramas of the 1980's perhaps the best police drama in television history. "Hill Street Blues" was indeed groundbreaking and realistic in its portrayal of the men and women who put there lives on the line everyday in order to protect and serve the citizens of the city. When "Hill Street Blues" burst onto the scene as a mid-season replacement in January of 1981, no one had never seen a show like this before and it reinvented the cop show genre like no other. Hand-held cameras,stories that lasted multiple episodes and large ensemble casts were pretty new to audiences but it didn't click at first. Ratings for the first season of the series were so low that cancellation seemed imminent. But through critical acclaim,the show grew to become one of the defining shows of the decade,one that set the standard for police dramas to follow. Despite incredibly low ratings during its first season, it surprised audiences and critics alike when "Hill Street Blues" won eight Prime Time Emmy Awards in 1981,breaking the record for the most Emmy wins for a show's first season. That record stood until 2000 when another critically acclaim NBC drama "The West Wing" surpassed it.
"Hill Street Blues" premiered in prime time on January 15,1981 as the mid-season replacement for two canceled NBC shows("A Man Called Sloane" and "Good Time Harry")and from the first episode became one of the biggest hits in the history of NBC that was nominated for an impressive 98 Prime Time Emmys and was victorious in winning 8 Prime Time Emmys for Outstanding Drama Series,Outstanding Writing and Direction,Outstanding Actor, Outstanding Actress,Outstanding Supporting Actor,Outstanding Supporting Actress and was nominated for 4 Golden Globes winning 3 Golden Globes in 1982,1983 and 1984 for Best Outstanding Drama Series. For the seven seasons and 146 episodes it produced the show became part of NBC's "Must See Thursday Line-Up" of prime time shows that included "Cheers","Family Ties","Night Court" and "The Cosby Show" for all of Seasons 1 thru 6. The seventh and final season saw the series moved from Thursday nights to Tuesday nights in mid-season until May 12,1987. The show was produced by MTM Productions(Mary Tyler Moore's production company and her ex-husband Grant Tinker) the company that not only produced "The Mary Tyler Moore Show",but also produced "The White Shadow", "St. Elsewhere", "Newhart","Remington Steele", "WKRP In Cincinnati",and also "Rhoda" just to name a few.
"Hill Street Blues" was the brainchild of creators Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoil and was set somewhere in the fictional police headquarters of a large metro city(taking place on the mean streets of Chicago)and it dealt with the men and women of the police department taking on the baddies,but it was way more than that and took it's characters to even more dealt than any show like it. The characters are real,candid and rather than just stereotypes that had real problems and realistic situations. The writers who were behind this series consisted of Anthony Yerkovich, David Mamet,Steven Bochco, Micheal Kozoli, Dick Wolf, Walon Green, Jeffrey Lewis, David Milch and top notch directors from Gregory Hoblit, Christian Nyby, Rick Wallace, Thomas Carter, Gabrielle Beaumont, John Patterson, Stan Lathan, George Stanford-Brown, Corey Allen, Don Weis, Oz Scott, Bill Duke, Randa Haines, Arnold Laven and Alexander Singer.
Big time guest stars ranged from David Caruso, Talia Balsam, Meg Tilly, Anne-Marie Johnson, Howard Rollins, Frances McDormand, Lindsay Crouse, Alfre Woodard, Morgan Woodward, Jennifer Tilly, Linda Hamliton, Danny Glover, Michael Lerner, Chris Noth, Dolph Sweet, James Remar, Ally Sheedy, Cuba Gooding Jr., Michael Biehn, CCH Pounder, Ron O'Neal, Lynn Whitfeld, James Avery, Meshach Taylor, Alan Autry, Steven Bauer, Hector Elizondo, Yaphet Kotto, Joanna Kerns, Don Cheadle, Clarence Williams III, Laurence Fishburne, Ralph Manza, Lauren Holly, to Renny Roker, Lynne Moody, Lee Weaver, Jane Kaczmarek, and Mykelti Williamson just to name a few of the great actors who were guest stars on this series. When NBC abruptly canceled "Hill Street Blues" after seven seasons and 146 episodes,it didn't them executives in charge of prime-time programming long to find its replacement that was also under Steven Bochco that was also critically acclaim...."L.A. Law" that premiered in the fall of 1987.
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