Let's be careful out there.
April 2, 2018 4:18 AM   Subscribe

Steven Bochco, the 10-time Emmy Award-winning co-creator, producer and showrunner of such groundbreaking TV police dramas as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, NYPD Blue, and (non-cop) Doogie Howser, M.D., died on Sunday of complications of leukemia at the age of 74.

Mefi has had surprisingly few threads on Bochco-related series, given how prominent they were in the 1980s and 1990s, but his notorious 1990 flop Cop Rock featured here in 2015 and 2008.
posted by rory (43 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
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posted by Thorzdad at 4:23 AM on April 2, 2018


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posted by octothorpe at 4:26 AM on April 2, 2018 [5 favorites]


Because of its timing coinciding with my impressionable teens, Hill Street Blues probably shaped my idea of what a police drama could be more than any other show. It was a big hit in Australia, as were the other series mentioned here (though I'm not sure we ever saw Cop Rock.)
posted by rory at 4:26 AM on April 2, 2018 [2 favorites]


Always had a soft spot for L.A. Law, as with the other shows that I watched in my college dorm with the maximum amount of snark.

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posted by Melismata at 4:42 AM on April 2, 2018


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posted by filtergik at 4:44 AM on April 2, 2018


Hill Street Blues was so different from anything else at the time. It looked like no other show on network TV which were usually over-lit and stagey looking; HSB was all shadows and shallow depth of field with a lot of hand-held camera work. As an east-coaster, it was great to see a show that really felt like it was in an old rainy rust-belt city instead of bright shiny LA. The lack of concise plots for each episode seems normal now but was so different then; the emphasis was on the day-to-day life of the police and not on the "crime of the week" or anything that dramatic.
posted by octothorpe at 4:58 AM on April 2, 2018 [16 favorites]


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posted by Gelatin at 5:13 AM on April 2, 2018


L.A. Law deceived a generation of viewers into thinking that a glamorous life awaited them after the chariot of law school admission swung low for them....
posted by thelonius at 5:40 AM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


LA Law and NYPD Blue were two of the first "grown up" TV shows that I watched seriously. I still find myself thinking about characters he created.

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posted by Gin and Broadband at 5:48 AM on April 2, 2018


Rest in peace, fellow Tartan.
posted by grumpybear69 at 5:55 AM on April 2, 2018 [2 favorites]


Without this man's efforts, I would never have seen Dennis Franz's ass. So, for that alone, may flights of angels sing him to his rest.
posted by delfin at 6:09 AM on April 2, 2018 [7 favorites]


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He also wrote some classic Columbo episodes, including the superb Murder By the Book, starring Jack Cassidy, and directed by little kid Stephen Spielberg, who was 25 at the time.
posted by ceejaytee at 6:24 AM on April 2, 2018 [10 favorites]


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I think Sgt Belker was on the of the best characters I ever saw on TV. Thanks for pushing the ball forward on how scripted TV could entertain us, Mr. Bochco
posted by DigDoug at 6:24 AM on April 2, 2018 [4 favorites]


Hill St. Blues is in syndication on a side channel of a local station, and I occasionally catch it. It's still incredibly different than other cop shows, and I am still impressed with the acting, writing and directing. So much talent, thanks.

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posted by theora55 at 6:27 AM on April 2, 2018 [3 favorites]


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posted by bz at 6:27 AM on April 2, 2018


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posted by allthinky at 6:40 AM on April 2, 2018


Impressive to think that Hill Street Blues debuted when Bochco was 37 (to me, with 37 well in the rearview mirror). He was in his late 20s when he was working on those Columbo episodes. And IMDB reveals that he also co-wrote the classic 1972 SF movie Silent Running, again in his late 20s.
posted by rory at 6:41 AM on April 2, 2018 [7 favorites]


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posted by Smart Dalek at 6:57 AM on April 2, 2018


He changed TV for the better in so many ways. We'd have none of the best of what we have now if it hadn't been for him.

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posted by tzikeh at 7:00 AM on April 2, 2018


L.A. Law deceived a generation of viewers into thinking that a glamorous life awaited them after the chariot of law school admission swung low for them....

Thousands of young people expecting to be Michael, or Ann, or Jonathan were shocked to discover that they were actually going to be Roxanne or Benny. (Reader, I might've been that person.)

This Deadline piece notes that Bochco met Spielberg when Bochco wrote and Spielberg directed "Murder By The Book," the first episode of Columbo in 1971. It also notes that The Bold Ones: The New Doctors was the first series Bochco had a hand in creating. The Bold Ones was a series made up of four sub-series and I've never seen any of them, but anyone who's ever read Harlan Ellison's TV essays will recall that he regarded many—but not all—of the episodes with his trademark loathing:
"The Bold Ones: The third section of Universal's acromegalic rotating-series (doctors, lawyers, and police) was aired last Sunday, with Leslie Nielsen as a Deputy Police Chief and Hari Rhodes as the DA. [Nielsen was the conservative and Rhodes was the liberal—ed] Jesus, did it stink! The script had three names on it, and in case you need a rule of thumb, gentle readers, for knowing when a script is going to stink on ice, use that. More than two names (and usually only one) means it was hashed and re-hashed by every sticky-finger on the lot, and what you'll be getting is watered-down nothing. Instant vacuum."
— 41: 3 October 1969. The Glass Teat.
I can't judge the accuracy of that assessment and auteurism has never struck me as a perfect pop-cultural rule of thumb, but looking at The Bold Ones now, the degree to which it anticipates both the arc of Bochco's later career as well as late 20th century dramatic tv in general, is striking.
posted by octobersurprise at 7:10 AM on April 2, 2018 [4 favorites]


When Hill Street Blues was here on syndication a few years ago, it was still miles ahead of any other modern cop show. It was that good, sure, but those modern shows were for the most part poorly written and poorly acted (well hello CSI Miami) and relied on a lot of flash and bang to keep the viewer distracted from that.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:24 AM on April 2, 2018


grumpybear69: "Rest in peace, fellow Tartan."

Along with Barbara Bosson, Charles Haid, Bruce Weitz, Blair Underwood and Michael Tucker. Bochco liked hiring CMU alumni.
posted by octothorpe at 7:25 AM on April 2, 2018


LA Law taught me to never recklessly walk into an elevator. I don't really remember much of that show (I was pretty young when I watched it) but I do remember that moment.

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posted by Constance Mirabella at 7:27 AM on April 2, 2018


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posted by lalochezia at 8:11 AM on April 2, 2018


Not having cable anymore, but having OTA, I've rewatched NYPD Blue (through Bobby's death) over the past couple of years. While it's respectably written even by modern standards, and it's clearly trying to be more left-wing than virtually every cop show on today, it nonetheless carries within it some deeply harmful assumptions about cops (and about white men). E.g.: cops' instincts are virtually always right, even when the cop is acknowledged to be a racist. I can't help but wonder how much damage it did, serving up these ideas on a popular network show.

(Also notable for having Jim Beaver (aka Bobby from Supernatural) in a couple of brief guest appearances as...Jesus Christ.)
posted by praemunire at 8:15 AM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


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posted by Splunge at 8:40 AM on April 2, 2018




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posted by Silverstone at 8:58 AM on April 2, 2018


I loved NYPD Blue. I'm hearing the theme song in my head right now.

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posted by 4ster at 9:02 AM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


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posted by bjgeiger at 9:12 AM on April 2, 2018


He also Produced/Created "Doogie Howser MD", which introduced us to a way-too-young Neil Patrick Harris (as well as Producer David E. Kelley, who took Bochco's tendency toward quirkiness and turned it up to 11).

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posted by oneswellfoop at 9:24 AM on April 2, 2018


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posted by Token Meme at 9:28 AM on April 2, 2018


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posted by MovableBookLady at 9:44 AM on April 2, 2018


Man, I loved Hill Street Blues. I still have the t-shirt I bought in an Ann & Hope in Woonsocket, RI in 1981 or so. Nearly thin enough to see through.
posted by suelac at 10:03 AM on April 2, 2018


. for the man who created Doogie Howser, the first blogger.
posted by Elly Vortex at 10:06 AM on April 2, 2018 [4 favorites]


(types comment in white text on blue screen; looks up for a bit, pensively; gets satisfied look on face; looks down to finish typing comment in white text on blue screen)

Executive Producers
LINDA MORRIS
&
VIC RAUSEO
posted by infinitewindow at 10:10 AM on April 2, 2018 [3 favorites]


In middle school I dressed as Doogie Howser one year for Halloween (8th grade Spike and early 90's Neil Patrick Harris were indistinguishable).

I knew of Hill Street Blues as Serious TV that my parents watched, along with Cagney & Lacey. I could watch Cheers, but never got into (or wasn't allowed to watch?) HSB. I'd like to watch it now.

I remember laughing my ass off at Cop Rock.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 11:14 AM on April 2, 2018


I always liked his production logo, as seen here. The violinist is Bochco's father.
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posted by dannyboybell at 11:34 AM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


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I loved Hill Street Blues, LA Law and NYPD Blue. They look dated now but at the time they were unlike anything else I'd seen on TV.

Bochco also wrote a cracking novel - Death by Hollywood - in which one character, Daniel Deveaux, was Bochco's very pointed dig at David Caruso and the outrageous demands he made which got him fired from NYPD Blue.
posted by essexjan at 11:46 AM on April 2, 2018 [3 favorites]


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posted by LobsterMitten at 4:28 PM on April 2, 2018


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posted by Joey Michaels at 6:48 PM on April 2, 2018


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posted by LeftMyHeartInSanFrancisco at 8:57 PM on April 2, 2018


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posted by bryon at 10:09 PM on April 2, 2018


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