Hill Street Blues (TV series)
"Hill Street Blues" is a pioneering television series that debuted in the 1980s, recognized for its blend of serious and comedic storylines, as well as its complex characters and ongoing narrative arcs. Set in a bustling urban police station, the show serves as a microcosm of society, exploring themes of love, justice, and the human condition against the backdrop of urban life. Unlike traditional police dramas that often simplified the conflict into a "cops versus robbers" narrative, "Hill Street Blues" portrayed its characters as multidimensional individuals grappling with personal and societal challenges, reflecting the struggles of the 1980s era.
The series is notable for its distinctive visual style, characterized by dynamic camera movements that provide an intimate view of the characters' lives, both in public and private. This approach highlights their vulnerabilities and imperfections, reinforcing the idea that being human is a virtue. Key characters, such as Captain Frank Furillo and public defender Joyce Davenport, exemplify the show’s exploration of moral complexity and interpersonal relationships within a flawed system. Although it faced initial challenges in viewership, the show went on to achieve critical acclaim, winning multiple Emmy Awards and leaving a lasting impact on television storytelling and production techniques. "Hill Street Blues" remains a significant influence, inspiring a wave of ensemble dramas and pushing the boundaries of narrative television.
Hill Street Blues (TV series)
Identification Television drama series
Creators Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll
Date Aired from January 15, 1981, to May 12, 1987
Hill Street Blues built its success on a large ensemble cast. Portraying an interconnected set of dramas involving the lives of its many regular characters—based in and around an urban police station—the show captured many of the complexities and contradictions of the 1980’s, which it represented as an age of economic recession and inequality; institutional corruption, indifference, and inadequacy; racism; and personal frustration.
Key Figures
Steven Bochco (1943- ), creator ofHill Street Blues Michael Kozoll (1940- ), co-creator
Hill Street Blues was a classic example of what has come to be known as “quality television,” featuring serious (although also frequently comic and even absurd) plotlines, multilayered characters, and unresolved story arcs. Expanding far beyond the conventions of the action-oriented and often conservative formula of “cops versus robbers” that characterized most police dramas, Hill Street Blues attempted to portray a thick slice of contemporary life. The police station at the heart of the show became a meeting place for all sectors of society and a microcosm of the human struggle for love, dignity, justice, and, at the very least, safety. At the heart of many of the show’s episodes was an experience that some consider to have been a defining mark of the 1980’s, that of being overwhelmed, whether by criminal assaults and robberies, by unruly social forces and prejudices, by bureaucratic foul-ups, by institutionalized indignities, or by uncontrollable personal impulses.
Given this thematic backdrop, the successes experienced by the show’s characters were often modest, especially compared to the happiness quotient portrayed on most television programs. However, each assertion of order over chaos, charity over hate and indifference, security over danger, or dignity over dehumanization, was hard-earned and precious. From beginning to end, Hill Street Blues stayed true to the stoic advice of Alcoholic’s Anonymous it often invoked, dramatizing the wisdom of living day by day. It also embodied the essence of the “blues” referred to by the show’s title, telling stories of tremendous hardship and pain. Each week, however, the progress from morning roll call to evening wrap-up celebrated the resiliency of the show’s characters and the bittersweet triumph of survival.
There were no unsullied heroes in Hill Street Blues, as even the most admirable of the show’s characters were flawed. This narrative and thematic truth was emphasized by the distinctive and original visual style of the series, which relentlessly presented characters in candid views. Throughout the series, the camera often moved through space to follow the main characters, making them seem more like atoms than icons and creating a disorienting sensation much different from the visual stability of typical television dramas. The characters were shown not only in public, with their best face on, but also in private, revealing their insecurities, personality quirks, faulty judgments, and all-too-human weaknesses. In the world of Hill Street Blues, though, being all-too-human is not a stigma but a virtue; recognizing this quality is a necessary step in finding the all-important balance that keeps one from being too hard on oneself, as well as being too hard on the people one is surrounded by, almost all of whom are victims as well as victimizers.
Individuals stood out in Hill Street Blues, each embodying issues and tensions frequently debated in 1980’s culture. Among the most memorable of these characters was Frank Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti), the precinct captain trying to be a figure of fairness and sensitivity as well as of law and order; Joyce Davenport (Veronica Hamel), a woman of stunning beauty, poise, and privilege, apparently out of her element in her professional role as a public defender; and Mick Belker (Bruce Weitz), a detective and growling loner who was constantly drawn into compassionate relationships with doomed characters. Hill Street Blues, though, was ensemble drama at its best, a format well suited to the show’s vision of the world as an ecological system of intimately related parts sharing not only vulnerability and pain but also strength, joy, and responsibility for one another. The show’s vision stood in stark contrast to the emphasis of Ronald Reagan’s White House on rugged self-reliance, justifiable inequality, and stern authority.
Impact
Hill Street Blues was not popular in its first season. However, at the end of that season, it won a record-setting eight Emmy Awards, ensuring both its renewal and an influx of new viewers. It remained a critical success throughout its run, although it was never a top-rated hit. Still, Hill Street Blues became extremely influential as a model for other shows. Its visual style, emphasis on a large ensemble, use of music, and narrative structure were all imitated by other shows during the rest of the decade and beyond. The decision of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to keep the show on the air for six seasons demonstrated the cultural potential of a medium more often than not dominated by stale conventions, censorship, consumerism, and an unambitious definition of what is entertaining and provocative.
Bibliography
Gitlin, Todd. “Hill Street Blues: Make It Look Messy.” In Inside Prime Time. Rev. ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
Schatz, Thomas. “Hill Street Blues: U.S. Police Procedural/Melodrama.” Museum of Broadcasting. www.museum.tv/archives/etv/H/htmlH/hill streetb/hillstreetb.htm.
Thompson, Robert J. Television’s Second Golden Age: From “Hill Street Blues” to “ER.” Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1997.