Let's be careful out there......

 

The recipient of 26 Emmy awards, actually nominated 29 times and between 1981 and 1984 it had four consecutive wins of Best TV Series. It received all the critical acclaim, yet mostly had dismal ratings in its home country, AND RATINGS-WISE didn’t perform any better in non-domestic markets. It would remain niche for the totality of its run.

Yet, it remains one of the most influential TV series ever and invented small screen-COP SHOW grammar. Without it there would have been no Sopranos, The Wire, Homicide Life on the Streets. No The Shield, Law and Order, ER or NYPD Blue.

Every modern ensemble drama owes it a debt

When it first aired it was unlike any other TV cop drama - didn’t focus on the procedural elements like ALL THE OTHERS, but CONCENTRATED on the characters and their every day lives in a tough, dirty, insane city that was filled with crime and despair. What was remarkable was the Steven Bocho created a cop show that was about characters rather than police work, that focused on the human condition rather than procedural matters. It didn’t so much elevate the police drama genre but more invented a whole new genre.

When it was renewed for a second season it struck a record – as the lowest ever rated drama to secure a second season. It fact at the time it was the lowest rated TV drama in the history of the idiot box.

NBC knew it had low audience figures but they were forced to renew because of its huge critical acclaim, which appealed to high end advertisers. Those advertisers were willing to pay a high scale for a show that attracted a demographic of urban, affluent, and highly educated viewers.

Automotive Brands: Luxury car manufacturers frequently bought slots to reach the show's high-income professional audience.

• Corporate Branding: Large corporations used the show’s "intelligent" reputation to air prestige branding commercials rather than just simple product pitches.

• Consumer Goods: Despite the gritty content, the show was a pioneer in proving that "mature" drama could still sell everyday consumer products if the audience profile was right. 

When the show first aired on UK screens – Thursday 22 January 1981, at 9pm on ITV - I was around fifteen years of age, and I didn’t know what the fuck I had just watched. This wasn’t Starsky and Hutch, and it certainly wasn’t Columbo. It was unlike anything we had ever seen. It had no square jawed heroes to lead the cast, no central characters that dominated. It broke all of the rules of 1980’s television – True it was bewildering, but it was above all exhilarating . And remains so today.

Fluorescent lighting, cluttered desks, visual fatigue

It CONTINUES TO BE an important show and over 7 seasons, 143 episodes it changed the police procedural genre in ways that are still being felt today. The case of the week format was over, and instead we had gritty realistic drama with characters that felt real, that lived and breathed, and one or two of them may have even had lice.

Even now Hill Street Blues remains one of the finest police dramas to ever grace the small screen, and deserves a spot in any ranking of the best crime/cop dramas. It’s available on DVD the entire run on one big box set, or individual series box sets and is also available on many streaming services. At the time of writing UK viewers can stream on More4, but it often pops up in Hulu and Peacock and episodes can be bought in Prime Video.

Let’s be careful out there.