Looking back at Hill Street Blues

[DRW50]

Cast, crew, and some other fans in the industry talk about the show's creation and impact.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/arts/television/steven-bochco-and-others-on-creating-hill-street-blues.html?action=click&contentCollection=Television&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article

[All My Shadows]

I usually have a hard time getting past, "Oh, soaps had done all of this before we did, but we actually did it better, so give us the credit kthxbye."

[DRW50]

I agree, but wasn't that some guy who worked on that piece of [!@#$%^&*] 24, not anyone who was at HSB? Or did I misread?

[Khan]

Yep. Manny Coto and Evan Katz were speaking as fans of HSB, not as actual writers or producers on it.

I agree w/ the consensus that HSB wasn't the same after Steven Bochco's departure. It was still good television, it just wasn't as good.

I'd really like to know which soap or soaps people like Steven Bochco has seen to make such suggestions. Because it always seems as if their only point of reference is a really bad episode of "Love of Life" or something to that effect.

[EricMontreal22]

And to be fair they seemed to be talking specifically about Dallas (which he called good but pulpy or fun but pulpy or something...) Interesting piece. Sometimes I feel it's held up a bit too highly (Ed Zwick, who's interviewed, should know from his own work on Family 8+ years older that that show already was starting to have continuous storylines, and repercussions from episode to episode even if not to the extent Hill Street did--but it didn't come out of a vaccum.) Perhaps where Hill Street was groundbreaking was adding soap elements to a subgenre that had traditionally been a procedural before--and a work place one at that. Nearly all TV serials, including Daytime, Peyton Place, Dallas, shows that were starting to be somewhat serialized like Family, were based upon relationships and, well, family. (sure Dallas had a ton of workplace politics, but still...)