Hill Street Blues (1981–1987) User Reviews (74)

A groundbreaking show of the early 80's

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 25 July 2015]

I was lucky enough to be able to follow this show from the beginning, and it was truly unlike any police show that had been on TV up to that point. When Hill Street premiered in January 1981, cable had just begun to become available to most homes, and so most cop shows up to that point had been network fare looking for mass appeal that were either overserious ala "Dragnet", comical ala "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Car 54", or just over the top ala "The Mod Squad".

Hill Street was completely different. It showed the hopeless poverty of those living in the run-down Hill Street precinct, the shaken rape victims immediately after the crime, the ups and downs of the various partnerships among the officers, and the personal lives of the members of the force. The only brave act Hill Street never performed was actually NAMING the city in which the drama was playing out. With all of the snow, the entrenched bureaucracy, and with neighborhoods with names such as "Midtown", I can only imagine this must have been New York City, but for some reason producer Bochco never actually named the location.

The series was one of the first to regularly employ hand-held cameras to give the show a fly-on-the-wall, documentary feel, but this technique was not overused. Also, the show pulled no punches on the personal lives of the characters. During the first season LaRue descends from a somewhat slimy charmer to a completely pickled bum, and Hill and Renko's doubts and fears after being gunned down help to humanize roles that up to that time had often been wrapped up in macho posturing.

One of the lighter sides of season one is forty-something Phil Esterhaus trying to decide between his eighteen year old girlfriend Cindy and the fortiesh and erotic Grace Gardner who is trying to make up for lost time at a pace that would probably even seem extreme to Hugh Hefner. Another funny moment is when Esterhaus ends roll call by saying that he has been ordered to inspect the officers for "unusual weapons." The cops bring out hunting knives, switchblades, and sawed-off shotguns, throwing them on a table. As Esterhaus continues his announcements, the officers return their brass knuckles and other contraband weapons to their pockets. Comedy sometimes turns to tragedy, though, such as when Belker keeps apprehending a fellow who thinks he is a comic book crimefighter and when asked for his name keeps giving his comic book name. Eventually, though, the caped crimefighter runs across a criminal who doesn't get the joke and he is killed.

The one aspect of Hill Street that never really made sense to me was the couple of Frank Furillo and Joyce Davenport. With Frank overseeing the police officers that tend to the mayhem that is the world of crime-ridden Hill Street, and Joyce as public defender doing her best to free every criminal no matter how guilty, I can't imagine why they would ever want to have anything to do with one another socially, assuming they truly believed in what they were doing on the job.

As a final point, if you haven't seen this show since it first aired 34 years ago, you're going to notice a lot of not-yet stars that were playing guest spots during this first season. These include David Caruso who later starred on Bochco's NYPD Blue, Tim Daly of "Wings", Michael Tucker of Bochco's "L.A. Law", and a young Danny Glover as a very scary gang member. I highly recommend Hill Street Blues whether you have seen it before or it is all new to you.

Just one more thing, if you are younger you may scratch your head when watching this and say - "I've seen this kind of stuff all before, nothing new here". That's because so many police procedurals patterned themselves after this show that this technique is no longer new, but in 1981 it was ground breaking, the granddaddy of what you watch today.

Cop Soap Opera

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 4 July 2008]

What Steven Bochco did in Hill Street Blues for the Eighties was later perfected in NYPD Blue for the Nineties. It was the concept of a police soap opera. The accent in Hill Street Blues was more on character development than on action, though there certainly was enough of that.

You had about 10 to 12 regulars on the show, some didn't make it through the seven year run of the series and were replaced by others. A few of the regulars were killed off, one Michael Conrad as Sergeant Esterhaus actually did die during the run and had to be written out. But that was like life itself.

We got to know the police and assorted folks at the Hill Street precinct, their problems and frustrations with their job and with every day life. Presiding over it all was Daniel J. Travanti as Captain Frank Furillo, a man with a broken marriage which he healed with Veronica Hamel and a drinking problem which he healed with Alcoholics Anonymous. He was a real human being, but a flawed one.

All of them were flawed in some way which was what I liked about the show. Rene Enriquez as Lieutenant Cayateno was a Latino who may or may not have been advanced due to an unofficial affirmative action policy by the department. He knew it and was trying extra hard to prove he was up to the job for real.

Kiel Martin was detective J.D. LaRue also with a drinking problem. It took him a couple of seasons to get into Alcoholics Anonymous and I still remember the episode at his first meeting when he saw Travanti there.

Veronica Hamel was cool, professional, and drop dead gorgeous. She was a Legal Aid attorney by day and later the second Mrs. Furillo. You can see why Travanti was so attracted to her. First wife Barbara Bosson was the neurotic's neurotic. Maybe it was the pressure of being a cop's wife, but I suspect quite a bit more drove Furillo from here. Bosson later became a victim's advocate and as one who worked in that field, I can tell you that you have a few neurotics working there just like Faye Furillo.

James Sikking was Lieutenant Howard Hunter who had a mask of confidence and unflappability to hide some insecurities. He was constantly sucking up and not above disparaging a few colleagues to push himself up in the department.

Ed Marinaro was Officer Joe Coffey, an all American type former football player as he was in real life. There was a great episode where he busts his former high school coach for patronizing some street kids. Made him reevaluate a few things.

We got to know all these guys inside and out, but my favorite on the show was Bruce Weitz as undercover Detective Mick Belker. That man looked like he lived in a sewer, but that's what made him so effective in dealing with lowlifes and making arrests. It was like Belker found his niche in life and I don't think he was interested in promotion or advancement. In many ways he was the most well adjusted character on the show.

Cops really became three dimensional on this show more than any other up to that time. Bochco had no ending episode for Hill Street Blues, the last episode was like any other day at the Hill Street precinct. With the deaths of Michael Conrad, Rene Enriquez, and Kiel Martin, I'm sure that mitigated against any revival episode. But this is one series I wouldn't mind seeing a twenty year anniversary with some of the surviving regulars.

I'll bet there are a lot of fans who'd like to know what the Hill Street precinct is like in the 21st century.

Streets ahead

[Lejink · 9/10 · 28 March 2010]

My favourite 80's drama is getting a from-the-start re-run on my local regional channel and I couldn't be happier. Back then my brother and I thought so much of it that we'd tape two episodes back to back and meet up every second Saturday watching them like a film - great memories.

And d'you know what, it still stands up showing that class lasts. With constantly over-running scenes, overlapping dialogue and carry-over sub-plots from one show to the next, it took very little time for me to get hooked again, now as then.

It goes without saying that the ensemble acting is great and though every one will have their own favourite character, I can't look past Daniel J Travanti as the calm at the centre of the storm, the imperturbable Frank Furillo.

The plots mix tragedy and comedy, drama and the mundane so that you feel that you are the fly on the wall yourself. It deserved everyone of its numerous awards and the only mystery to me is that none of the actors seem to have really broken into Hollywood movie-making unlike say Denzel Washington or David Morse from its sister show, hospital drama "St Elsewhere". Anyway I hope all the actors are still in work (see, I still care about them), either way this great show remains a testimony to a programme where everyone seemed on their game all the time.

Oh and it has a theme-tune title-sequence you'll not want to fast forward past!

Best show of its time - by a long way.

[Kane III · 8 March 1999]

In the days of E.R and NYPD Blue, it's hard to remember just how ground-breaking a show HSB was. Nothing like it had ever been seen before. The quality of the acting and writing, the documentary look and feel, the seedy broken down environment, the brutally frank situations and language (for the time), the fact that the "bad" guys got away with it as often as not, the huge ensemble cast, the long one-take scenes, the unhappy endings etc. etc.

Needless to say, the American people wanted nothing to do with such quality at first - until it won a record number of Emmys and they couldn't ignore it anymore. If nothing else, this series proved to the networks that quality can sell soap after all.

If you like your E.R. think a kind thought for Hill Street Blues - the series that made it all possible.

This is TV??

[epat · 10/10 · 14 June 2006]

Bear with me on a bit of background: For a full decade as a penniless hippie, I didn't have a TV. None of my friends did either. To our minds, TV was a puerile waste of time, pablum for the masses, a substitute for life. Besides, we couldn't afford one. When I settled down tho & my son started going to school, his friends talked constantly about TV programs he knew nothing about. So he wouldn't feel culturally deprived, we decided to get him a little black & white set for his room. Thereafter, whenever I came home from work, I knew where to find my wife & son — both in his room glued to the tube.

One evening I was leaning in the doorway waiting for a commercial so I could talk to them & I got caught up in what they were watching — some tough portly mustached detective had been captured by a lunatic with a shotgun & bound to a chair. Tense! When the commercial did come, I said, "Hey, this is a pretty good movie, what is it?" "That's not a movie", they told me, "it's Hill Street Blues, a TV series!" No way, I thought, they had to be pulling my leg. I couldn't believe TV had reached that level of sophistication. They'd taken your standard soap opera format, where no one character predominates & the interwoven stories carry over from episode to episode, & applied it to cops. Cops lead what has got to be hands-down the most bizarre lifestyle imaginable & the viewer's sense of involvement is certainly heightened by knowing that at any moment one of your favorite characters might be gunned down. The show was brilliant & I was hooked. From there on, I watched every episode of HSB I possibly could.

Years later, suffering thru a near-suicidal post-divorce funk, coming home to the aching loneliness of an empty apartment with not even a dog anymore to wag his tail in greeting, too depressed even to look up old friends let alone make new ones, I found myself watching the show again. They were showing HSB reruns 5 nights a week just then, so I got to spend an hour each evening with all these familiar faces I'd come to know so well & care about, my own grief momentarily forgotten amidst their trials & tribulations. It's the only thing I can recall with any pleasure from that period & it's not much of an exaggeration to say HSB pulled me thru.

So now that the series is finally being released on DVD, I'm pre-ordering it as fast as it comes out. Seeing it again now, I'm much more aware of its flaws — improbable scenes like the EATers shooting up that liquor shop in the very first episode & other contrived situations that strain to produce a few chuckles. Yet I like it all the more for that; it transcends such flaws so easily. Watching it now for maybe the 4th or 5th time, I'm still amazed at the depth & range of characterization, not to mention the added kick of spotting well-known actors like Danny Glover, Forest Whitaker & David Caruso who appeared on the show before they made it big. More sophisticated shows now like NYPD Blue, ER & Sopranos may make HSB seem dated by comparison, but they would never even have existed if HSB hadn't led the way. Not for nothing was it one of the longest-running dramas on TV.

I still don't think much of TV, but Hill Street Blues will always hold a special place in my heart.

Come on?

[artjames-02668 · 10/10 · 11 April 2021]

If you don't think that this is one of the best shows ever made, then I don't know what more I can tell you to convince you otherwise. What didn't this show have?

Beats most cop shows of today!

[Sylviastel · 10/10 · 2 September 2002]

Hill Street Blues is perhaps the best cop drama in television history. It was groundbreaking then and now! It is well-casted with a diverse ensemble. The writing is unbelievably brilliant enough to stand two decades. This is what classic shows are about. It is now seen frequently on Bravo with a fantastic theme song. The cast like Daniel J. Travanti, Veronica Hamel, Barbara Bosson, Betty Thomas, Dennis Franz, Ed Marinaro, and so many others perform brilliantly to make this show likable. The characters are real, candid, rather than just stereotypes. Watching most shows today, I miss the golden age of eighties television where the best shows like Hill Street Blues completed the NBC lineup. It was never a ratings winner but the network kept a quality show like this on to win countless awards including Emmys and Golden Globes. NBC in their Golden Age allowed Hill Street Blues and shows like St. Elsewhere and L.A. Law to flourish without worrying about ratings. Too bad, they still do not exist anymore. While the shows are now produced by networks who do a terrible show, a show like Hill Street Blues would never be approved or foreseen as a brilliant show.

One of the top 10 shows ever made.

[exjackson · 10/10 · 1 April 2021]

That's no exaggeration. It won so many awards, they became meaningless. It was unbelievable acting, great writing and BAME in your face reality of being a cop, with all the good and the bad. It was an amazing experience. Can not miss this.

"Be careful out there!"

Fantastic after all these years

[info-820-381259 · 10/10 · 10 September 2010]

I recently began watching this show again in re-runs and find it every bit as compelling now as when it originally aired. The writing is gritty and realistic and the story lines often have a universality one doesn't find in other shows, then or now. It maintains a break-neck pace that is always involving. The acting is so consistently excellent that I find it hard to pinpoint a favorite character. It's also fascinating to see the number of actors here, some guesting, some series regulars, who have gone on to greater fame - Alfre Woodard, Dennis Franz, David Caruso, Lawrence Fishburne, Jennifer Tilley, Don Cheadle, Tim Robbins, Mykelti Williamson, Ken Olin, Jane Kaczmarek and many more.

For your consideration

[blackmamba99971 · 10/10 · 14 April 2017]

At one time it was thought of just as a simple cop show. Not so, in fact Hill Street Blues went on to win over sixty awards during its career, which also became the first television series to use adaptive camera action. For instance whenever the episodes started we always got the roll call scene for which Sergeant Esterbrook could give his daily routines to the troops while at the same time camera shots of various policemen or women would be included using a shaky cam movement. It was then that other television series started to use the same ingredient to heighten or flex the moods.

Basically it was just a story about a bunch of gritty cops who are used to the city streets for both crime, and resolves in catching the bad guys nearly every day of their entire length of tour. People like Renko, Furillo, Davenport, Belker, and other cops who make up the best ensemble in recent history. It also paved the way for some actors who went on to star in films later in their careers such as Stephen Bauer in Scarface. Mimi Rogers, and a host of other famous people who made their own corner stones in film.

Hill Street Blues became one of the most beloved television series of all time because it addressed issues of different natures. Corruption, internal affairs, criminal elements who used the system or loop holes to stay out of jail or more psychological aspects to the human condition if and when a cop gets shot while on duty or that they must overcome the nightmares that follow. It holds emotional turmoil while trying to circumnavigate outside interventions such as the DA or the city mayor while trying to keep a solid police station from falling apart at the seams.

Since its inception Hill Street Blues has remained as one of the best classics to come out of the eighties, which still turns heads for the home audiences who has never seen the series. It still amazes those new viewers who only watch reality television, and by comparison has no equal as far as I am concerned. This is a highly recommended series for all those who love to watch a good story, along with some realistic acting that you might find more appealing than just a pretty girl stacked to the nines on some stage with men who has less than ten percent body fat. It is a real down to earth kind of series that holds no punches. You will not be disappointed.

Great show, though really sad

[Taleann · 6/10 · 2 June 2021]

A great but sad show about the beginning of the end of America. Good to see though how cool it was when actors still thought acting was important, and it was not just about pretty faces and visual effects.

Chaotic, but realistic

[peppard · 9/10 · 21 December 2003]

Over here in Holland the show is currently rerunning on RTL5, 5 days a week. We've just had the great episode "Grace Under Pressure", so we've just lost Sgt. Phil Esterhaus (played by Michael Conrad, who died in real life as well). It was the best so far. I'm very sorry to found out about the deaths of Kiel Martin, René Enríquez and Trinidad Silva. Whenever I watch the show, I really get into it. My favorite character is Belker, but I also like Furillo and Goldblume. Also I was really impressed by the fact the Dominique Dunne's wounds we're real, while she played the role of the mother who abandoned her baby. I don't have anything more to tell, but I will always love this show for it's realistic content. And I just love the scenes in the station house. They're chaotic, with lots of people moving around. It couldn't have been more realistic.

Slightly Dated, But Still Entertaining, Groundbreaking, And With Moments of Real Emotional Power.

[ArmandoManuelPereira · 7/10 · 28 April 2021]

This review is based on Season 2.

Yes, it is slightly dated, and yes some of the acting is not all that great. But their are reasons why the show is still not only important, but entertaining.

Firstly their are a handful of performances (Travanti, Spano, Hamel, Wyner) that are as good as any that would come to television in later years. Travanti especially, provides remarkable leadership, and is the true Helm. As true a helm as Stewart's Capt Jean Luc Picard. His on screen romance with Hamel is text book chemistry.

Secondly, though the show sometimes possesses weaknesses in terms of its writing, at other times it packs (and still packs) a strong emotional wallop. I am talking a feeling in the gut, tears in the eyes wallop.

Thirdly, It laid the ground work for realism in television, which yes, of course has been done to greater effect since. But let's give the show the credit it deserves. It did things differently then what had gone before it terns of police dramas.

All I can tell you is that any show that is 40 years old that can still entertain and hold your interest, is a pretty special show.

I say that Hill Street Blues is that type of show.

Entertaining, well acted as well as slightly annoying at times

[nbrice18 · 5/10 · 7 January 2019]

My husband and I have just started watching this show from the beginning. I remember that it was one of my favorite shows when it first aired, back when I was young and single. My overall impression is that the characters that irritate me and the characters that I like are exactly the same 38 years later!

Furillo is sometimes way too tense and that can be frustrating. He's too indulgent of his wacky ex-wife as well. Speaking of Faye, I find all of the female characters on the show, with the exception of Lucy, completely nuts! Grace is over-the-top and very unrealistic. Joyce is a total and complete witch. She's nasty, arrogant and needlessly rude.

I do love Lucy as well as her partner Joe. As it was in 1981 my other favorites are LaRue, Washington, Hill and Renko. I love Esterhaus as well, but wasn't he dating an underage girl prior to the over-sexed Grace? That was odd. Belker is sometimes okay, but often annoying, and seems to have a bias against dogs! Howard is over-the-top but oddly enjoyable at times. Goldblume and Calletano are fine and rarely annoying.

One last thing; when I watched the show in the early 1980s I always assumed that it was New York City. Now that there's the internet and I've read about the show I've learned that the location was ambiguous. I've read that Bochco wanted it to seem like Chicago or Pittsburgh. There are way too many New York accents for that to be believable. I am 100% convinced that it's New York or Newark!

Realistic, ground-breaking police drama

[Megabuck · 26 August 1999]

When Hill Street Blues was being made, here in the UK it didn't get networked. Instead, my local commercial station (Central) picked it up and showed it on a Friday night at 11pm. My opinion of the show can be judged from the fact that I used to get home early from the pub to watch it.

It might be a cliche, but this really was a ground-breaking series. Compare it to its forbears, series like Kojak and Starsky & Hutch. Instead of there being three or four central characters, and a single plotline per episode, HSB had a couple of dozen characters and five or six plotlines, each interwoven and often continuing from week to week.

It brought an extra level of realism, too. In previous series, if cops got into a fist fight then they'd remain standing, although maybe with a bloody mouth. If someone got shot, odds on it was the bad guy, with the cops not receiving a scratch.

HSB changed all that. Fights looked real; policemen got shot; the bad guys often got away. And it went beyond that, including police corruption; politics interfering with the job; the way the police reached compromise deals with people like Jesus Martinez, even though he was a gang leader and notionally a 'bad guy'.

You cared about the characters, too. When Joe Coffey got shot, when Esterhaus died, any of a dozen others, they felt like they meant something. This wasn't a show that you watched, then forgot about.

Stephen Bochco went on to series like LA Law, NYPD Blue, Murder One and ER, all of which owe a lot to the style of HSB. It really did break the mould of TV drama; its influence is still clear, even today.

10s dont come easy

[billjoor · 10/10 · 19 April 2021]

This is well deserving of an 11. A defining series on television, this show dealt with everything - in a real life way. The acting was amazing, and the show was written fantastic. Must watch.

The show that looked at cops like human beings (with a problem system)

[pereirol · 9/10 · 24 July 2020]

I love Hill Street Blues. The moment I saw Hill Street Blues, I knew that it was different from all the cop shows before and after because Hill Street Blues created the perfect mix of silly comedy, dark comedy, drama, Romance, cop stuff and gang stuff. Often cop shows are too silly Or too dramatic. Hill Street gets it right.

For people reading this in 2020 after the Protests and Riots and the negativity around cop shows, you should know that this show looks at cops critically. They are still the centre of attention but with flaws and personal lives that are impacted by their jobs. Nearly every episode deals with the fact that police duties are made worse by the decisions of politicians and police department people. This show makes you feel sorry for the cops you should feel sorry for and angry towards the ones who have done something wrong. Just like with all cop shows, there is this feeling that these people are heroes, but they show enough flawed cops and flawed politicians that you forget about the saint-like image.

The gang members are also portrayed critically too with consequences and personal lives. There are still stereotypes, but all shows have them. Hill Street also has amazing performances from its main cast and its guest cast. My favourite is Captain Furillo because he is kind and tough, which makes him a great captain. The younger men, including Belker, Andy, LaRue, Washington and Joe, add the humour to the show. I always found the Sergeants entertaining. Great female characters as well. Better than a lot of the female characters on TV now. Raw and human. The writing and directing are fantastic on this show. This show deserves more airtime these days like other classics. It gets forgotten compared to Seinfeld, Friends, Breaking Bad and MASH. Which are all great shows.

Even better than I remember it.

[DaveFilmlover · 10/10 · 10 October 2019]

Having watched the original series avidly and now being retired, I have the pleasure opportunity to binge watch the lot 5 or 6 at a time. God it is even more brilliant and stunning than I remembered. It has not aged at all, the performances are outstanding and the stories top notch. It still has the capacity to make me weep with laughter and then in turn bring a lump to the throat. Cannot believe the 3 comments under the one star entries. They were obviously "Dixon of Dock Green" fans. Certainly this is way above 10 stars, then, now and I would suggest any time in the future

".....Remember, Let's be careful out there!", and "....Okay, Let's do it to them before they do it to us!"-----'Immortal Wisdom from Desk Sergeants Estherhaus and Jablonski..

[redryan64 · 10/10 · 10 September 2007]

The earliest days of television saw the beginnings of Network Programing in its various forms and Genres. In those days prior to the introduction of Video Tape, circa 1958, the programs fell into one of three categories: Live programing, kinescope films and the standard filmed TV Series.So we had News, Variety, Drama,Sports and "Local Chit-Chat(a mixture of mostly Local "Soft" News and Personal Appearances by Celebs , who just happen to be in the area.

Later in the mid-1950's, we saw that the Juvenile Western Shows like THE GENE AUTRY SHOW, ROY ROGERS & DALE EVANS and THE LONE RANGER gave rise to a new, revolutionary idea(for TV). Some one out there in TV land came up with the idea of doing "The Adult Western"! Now to this of course, doesn't mean X Ratings or the old "Adults Only!" designation. The Adult Western meant a mature, more realistic, and meatier in characters and storyline.

Other actors on the series are: Kiel Martin, Taurean Blacque, Joe Spano, Bruce Weitz, Betty Thomas, Rene Enriquez, Ed Marinairo, Robert Hirshfeld and so many more who came and left the cast during a 7 year run!

Once the 'Adult Western' cat was out of the bag, with GUNSMOKE(?), a great population explosion of Western Primetime Series occurred. Soon the Adult Western was the leading genre of filmed series on the air.

Well by the mid-1970's, the tide had turned radically. At one point the only series that was even set on the American Frontier was LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. The new "Western" was The Cop Shw. Now, we do mean Police and not the Private 'I' series, which is similar and definitely related. With the coming of HILL STREET BLUES in 1981, a new pinnacle was reached. Until then, most series either were so involved in the activities of the bad time and the Cops (usually Detectives) working the cases.

Conversation between partners often times sounded a lot like it could be used in a training manual or training film. This seemed to be a particularly hard problem with any series involving the backbone of our Polioce Departments, the Uniformed Beat Cops.

Producer/Creator Steven Bochco's inhabitants of HILL STREET were a great improvement and an advancement for all series dramas. Bochco gave the characters 3 Dimensional Personalities, rather than being like comic strip/comic book cartoon characters, talking in formal Police Jargon about Police situations.

HILL STREET introduced the full person to the TV screen. So, if a guy's a Cop, could he be an Oprea Buff or sing with a Barber Shop Quartet society group? Could he have a side business or be a Brick Layer? Whatta bout any Pilots or Scuba Divers?*** And even more importantly, we get a view of personal lives of the men and women of the Precinct. We see divorces, alcoholism, on-the job affairs and all manner of problems that are with us in real life. Early on, they dealt with a Detective McAffey and his being married to 2 women at once. The original Desk Sgt. Phil Esterhaus discovers that an old friend of his is a homosexual and has been paying a lot of attention to him. Sgt. Stan 'Stash" Jablonski(Robert Prosky) comes transferred to the station on bad paper concerning him and a certain Female Lieutennant.

THe whole zoo is presided over by one Captain Frank Furillo(Daniel J. Travante) who is not without his foibles. Favourite characters include:Sgt./Lt. Howard Hunter(James B. Sikking) G.I. type head of the Precinct's Emergency Action Teamor "EATERS", PO's Bobby Hill & Andy Renko (Michael Warren & Charles Haid) a salt-n-pepper pair of Street Smart kids, now grown up, Two special mentions for women characters go to: Fay Furillo(Barbara Bosson) Capt. Frank's ex, and A.D.A.Joyce Davenportand (hey,ain't a Davenport a name for sofa-hide-a-bed?) .

The Cop show that taught the rest

[ericb-09505 · 10/10 · 12 August 2019]

Until Hill Street Blues came along mist cop shows were the same. The story of two cops, their stories, and may be a touch of their family life.

Hill Street Blues is set in an unknown American city. There has been much speculation over the years but no one can prove what city with any certainty.

This show grabs you in the first few episodes. You go thru the attempted murder of what you think are the main characters in the show only to realize that every member in the cast tells their own stories every week.

The thing that really made this show different was it's huge cast. It wasn't a group of a few cops but about 15 characters. All with their own stances on politics, sex, police work, and anything else a person would stand for or against. This show had star after star in it as guests. You see very you g stars of today, playing gang leaders, crime victims, other cops, it's really amazing. I would recommend this show to anyone on the job, they will be able to relate to it. Even after 30+ years the stories, strong acting, and excellence still shines thru. I am now a retired cop and never had the pleasure for working for a Captain who would stand up to the Chief, Mayor, or Press as it is depicted in this show.

Brings back some fantastic memories.

[noely71 · 10/10 · 29 May 2021]

I was Ten when this gem of a cop show was aired in 1981.

Chicago in the eighties.

This is probably the best series ever made about a police precinct. Very realistic and you bonded with every character, although I loved Mick especially, great actor and character.

They dont make them like this anymore.

Thank you to everyone involved in the making of Hill Street Blues, I'm slowly walking down memory lane and it feels good.

Loved the show...and then...what??

[annamontana-83929 · 7/10 · 29 November 2022]

Seasons 1-4 had a definite storyline going, great character development, etc. And then season 5 came along and I didn't even recognize the show anymore. It's like they switched writers and directors for people who had never seen the show before and the actors suddenly forgot their characters. Season 5 started out awful. I'm 4 episodes in and it's just not good at all. I am afraid of watching seasons 6 & 7.

No mention of the gangs, no constant struggle with police work and politics, and is as if Esterhauser never existed. Bates was doing fine establishing herself in a new role and then gets replaced by a nutty old badger who rants about the stupidest crap. And Goldblume attends a Catholic vigil for a nun? Highly unlikely. That would have been Ray or Furillo.

I miss the charm the first 4 seasons had. The jostling camera, the flaws and faults of each character, the camaraderie...even Renko's mouth...it all beats the forced one liners, flashes of temper, and harsh antagonist attitudes of all the characters.

Grrrrrrrrrrrr!! This was Chicago by the way!!

[dataconflossmoor · 10/10 · 19 July 2007]

Tough cops are everywhere!! This series did not officially designate a city in which it took place, but, all indications point to "Hill Street Blues" being set in the city of Chicago!! The Old Style beer sign outside one of the bars that the television audience saw during the introduction of the show sort of gave it away!! I loved this show, the cast was a big reason!! Daniel Travanti was extremely likable just by virtue of the fact that he was very faulted!! Veronica Hamel, was the hard working feminist D. A. who attempted to dissect reality, it then became a moot question as to whether or not she would be able to stomach it!! Ed Marinaro was terrific as a Chicago cop, this is absolutely remarkable considering the fact that he was a professional football player from New York!! Betty Thomas was the ideal prototype for a lady cop!! Kiel Martin was perfect as the sleaze ball working on the right side of the law!! Last but not least, Bruce Wietz, "Grrrrrrrr!!" he added an astutely hilarious perspective to the series through his portrayal as the undercover guy!! One time, Kathy Bates played his sister, she also made the noise "Grrrrrrrr!!" and used the term "dog breath". "Hill Street Blues" was enormously popular throughout the entire eighties decade because, it depicted tragedy in a manner which portrayed it as something that does not simply disappear!! Part of NBC's powerful Thursday night line-up, it always highlighted the bothersome travesties which afflicted a precinct in a poverty ridden section of the city!! So many ideas seemed complicated, until the figureheads of the law came to grips with the fact that there was no solution to most crimes, just aspects of mollification to them!! The prevailing circumstances of adversity on this program are what gave all of the characters in the show "Hill Street Blues" a tailor made invitation to seek amelioration for their actions!! Many situations that are very sad remain that way for both sides!! Victims of their environment turned criminals by default, as well as the detectives and policemen, all seem to be making deals with the devil!! Before "Law and Order", before "L A Law", there was "Hill Street Blues"... Reality is nauseating, reality is humorous, reality is perverse, reality has a definite monotony, and, in this case, reality for effective television programming was "Hill Street Blues". I thought this television show was one of the best ever!! I wish there could be more shows like "Hill Street Blues" on prime time television today!! "Hill Street Blues" was a definite winner!!

Not a good show...

[flukmetubular · 2/10 · 11 February 2015]

After reading the hype-ist reviews here at IMDb, I gave Season 1 a try. First, the entire show plays out like a high school play, written by a young teen with his/her perceptions of how a police squad room and police station is run. The dialog is over-the-top 60's style goop with gang members depicted as "clubs", politicians depicted as Dean Wormer(s), ex-wives acting like unreasonable shrews, and police officers acting like whore mongers. This show's acting is horrendous. Everyone is at a setting of 11 all of the time. Nobody arrests anyone in this show for a any good reason. Cops are jumped by Latinos, guns stolen... no investigation. In fact, in this particular scene, the captain tells the offers whose guns were taken not to worry about a few missing guns! It just goes on and on with unrealistic melodrama. Overall, more of a comedy than a drama.

Very Real and Authentic

[Me Grimlock · 12 July 2002]

Hill Street Blues was an unconventional cop show for the '80s, and even today. Why? Because it was real. Well as real as you can get with a TV show, without taking some liberties ofcourse. Unlike Miami Vice, T.J. Hooker or Hunter, HSB had a lot of detail and accuracy.

Sure Miami Vice was an entertaining show, but only for being stylish and hip for it's time. HSB didn't try to be cool, it tried to be accurate. Miami Vice and all the other cop shows and cop movies of the '80s, '90s and today are extremely fake in the way they present themselves, going more for a target demographic then bothering to portray how things operate in our world. In the real world, cops in America aren't wearing Armani suits and constantly trying to bust Columbian drug dealers and their shipment of cocaine while spitting out mile a minute obscure metaphors and similies that take us a few seconds to figure out. If you want to see the way REAL COPS in America speak, act and carry themselves through real crime cases, then watch HSB. You won't be dissapointed.