Product Description

Created by Steven Bochco (?Murder One,? ?NYPD Blue?) and Michael Kozoll, and featuring an ensemble cast including Daniel J. Travanti, Veronica Hamel, Bruce Weitz, Charles Haid, Betty Thomas and James Sikking, each episode chronicled a day-in-the-life of the cops on the beat, starting with the infamous morning roll call and ending with a recap of the day?s events. The first hard-hitting series of its kind, ?Hill Street Blues? garnered 26 Emmy® Awards ? including four for Outstanding Drama ? won two Golden Globes®, and is credited with inspiring beloved dramas such as ?St. Elsewhere,? ?Law & Order? and ?NYPD Blue.?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6250 in DVD
• Brand: TRAVANTI,DANIEL J.
• Released on: 2006-05-16
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 3
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 850 minutes

Amazon.com
Despite critical acclaim, Hill Street Blues could not get arrested ratings-wise its first season. Far from being careful out there, the superb second season did nothing to tinker with the integrity of this groundbreaking series to make it more audience friendly. Multiple storylines, overlapping dialogue, gritty language, and a pseudo-documentary style capture the palpable chaos and tension of what one character calls "the rat-infested, poverty-stricken urban reality." From the precinct-house shooting rampage that opens the season to a hijacked hearse in the season-ending episode, Hill Street Blues deftly walks the line between police procedural and personal drama, further fleshing out its gallery of compelling and colorful characters. Belker (Bruce Weitz) is still a growling mad dog who takes bites out of perps. But in one of the series' most memorable story arcs, he forms a surprising bond with the delusional costumed citizen Captain Freedom (Dennis Dugan), Public defender Joyce (Victoria Hamel)'s steamroller persona breaks down when a colleague is murdered and the case is thrown out because of a technicality.

Other dramatic developments: LaRue (Keil Martin) falls off the wagon and endangers his partner, Washington (Taurean Blacque), during a drug bust ("Zen and the Art of Law Enforcement"); Goldblume (Joe Spano) gets personally involved in the case of an abusive slumlord ("Of Mouse and Man," featuring future Miami Vice star Edward James Olmos as a threatened tenant); Esterhaus (Michael Conrad) is still bedeviled by sexual siren Grace Gardner (Barbara Babcock); and Precinct Capt. Frank Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti, who earned his second Emmy for Best Actor) and Joyce bring their clandestine affair out into the open. Other ongoing storylines involve realistic depictions of police corruption and inter-partner race relations. Hill Street's second season fulfilled the promise of its auspicious first, and repeated as TV's Outstanding Drama Series at the Emmy Awards. No roll call of classic, trendsetting TV series would be complete without it. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

Feel good TV...well, why not?
Hill Street Blues is not a happy show per se. Sure, it is frequently funny, but it is a MASH brand of gallows humor. The show is also tragic, violent, gritty, at times it is even emotionally overwhelming. So why do I call it feel good television? Because watching it makes me feel good. I can't describe it exactly, all I can say is that I have turned into a Hill Street Blues addict. It has reached a point where I can't sit down and watch a single episode, I have to watch two, three, even four. God help me, Hill Street Blues is wrecking my social life! But I'm loving every minute of it.

Needless to say, I consider Stephen Bochco's series to be one of the hallmarks of television. It is a brilliant, groundbreaking, highly ambitious program that isn't without its flaws, but then how many great works of art are truly flawless? Strangely enough, it reminds me of the original Star Trek, ahead of its time but also very much a product of its time. Sure, the acting isn't always the greatest, but every actor embodies his or her character so thoroughly that it is impossible to imagine these roles being played by anybody else. Sure, the show can be overly melodramatic, or didactic, or dated, or cliched, or juvenile, or even corny...again, so what? Watching Hill Street Blues is like watching the whole art form of TV undergoing an incubation process, gradually evolving into adulthood. Besides, each episode is so varied due to the ensemble cast and the multilayered style of storytelling that even if you're groaning one minute, you know that you are going to be laughing or crying or simply sitting back and admiring the incredible artistry of the whole thing the next. There may be bad moments, but no bad episodes. Even the opening credits are brilliant. Most TV shows on DVD, I fast forward through the main theme, but not Hill Street Blues, here the opening is an integral part of the rhythm of the show and losing it feels like missing out on something substantial. Hill Street Blues is endlessly entertaining, a joy to watch...feel good television.

I am eagerly looking forward to season three, and also dreading it because I know that I will once again be a slave to my house, to my television set. And loving every minute of it.

where's season 3?
Please, please release season 3 and the other seasons of Hill Street Blues. The first two season were excellent and I want more!


Other fans, please click on my review as helpful so the powers that be can see we want more HSB.

gotta have it..........
Half way through season one discs and season two will be a must have. Great characters Capt. Furillo, Sgt. Esterhaus, LaRue, Washington, Hunter, Goldblume, et al. If you're not familiar with these names buy season one and then join me in ordering number two. Entertaining story lines mixed with part grit, humor and lots of pathos. Quality TV that stands up well about an inner city police precint. One of the best TV series ever, winner of multiple Emmeys and highly recommended.