No technology... no special effects... no global conspiracy... one NY borough cop station... hard, gritty acting.... amazing writing... never to be reproduced... never to be replaced...
So I wasn't the only one who was wrong about the location! Started to watch this Best Ever TV Series when I was about 9, when it was first released over here. Because of the weather that was shown in episodes, rain, cold winters, hot summers, plus the subway of course, I always assumed it had to be New York City. Only a few years ago, when I started researching the show, I was surprised that it was supposed to be a large mid western city, like Chicago! Most scenes where you see the sun shine in Summer were shot in Los Angeles studios. The establishing scenes like in the opening and closing were shot in Chicago proper.
Most TV shows in today’s time are trash nowadays. Only good TV shows that currently air today are Stranger Things, Terminal List and all of Taylor Sheridan’s shows.
Tour de force acting from a sublime cast and exceptional writing, plus that memorable theme music, make this my all time favourite tv show. Thank you so much for putting it up here. I really do appreciate it.
@@user-cr8dq7sc6h Absolutely spot on. Oh, and films weren't referred to as, “....a part of Marvel, Star Wars, Superman franchise.” The best cinema and television shows were, as you so rightly say, during the 1980s (I'll put the 70s up there too.)
Never has been a show before or after with such an enormous cast of main characters and re-occurring secondary characters, that gripped the audience's attention throughout its entire span. The Greatest TV Show Ever.
First watched this series around 1980. 44 years later, it is still as powerful and engaging as it was then. A once off series that felt so real. I never knew Howard committed suicide.
Watching these after all of these years is like the return of an old friend! I lived for this TV series. Look at how young they all are!! Writers and directors certainly don't make this type of crime drama anymore for sure!!
In my landscape design class that was.over at 8:30 pm we all rushed home to catch our favorite TV show. Half the class were watching Dallas, the rest of us- Hill St. Blues. Our teacher would just roll her eyes...😅
Too bad St Elsewhere ruined its own legacy with one of the worst final scenes of a TV show of all time and that was long before Seinfeld and Sopranos had terrible final scenes
I never had much interest in Hill Street Blues before I became a cop myself in 1983 as the whole scene looked a bit sordid and messy and I preferred to think of being a cop in terms of Hawaii Five O and CHIPS. Even after joining it was only the other cops I lived with that got me interested in it. While being a cop in Ireland was not as exciting or glamourous as Hawaii Five O it was not quite as raw as that depicted in Hill Street Blues but the internal police politics was just the same and just as infuriating.
This seems to have been the final episode starring Micheal Conrad who played the roll call sergeant before his death on the 22/11/83 from cancer. I was immediately struck by how unwell he looked and so did a bit of googling. Indeed this episode it seems did not air for the first time until 1/12/83 so after his death.
His roll name was "Esterhaus", an anglicised distorsion of the Hungarian Eszterházy, that was the name of the richest nobel family in Hungary in the 19th - 20th century. Surely there was something "nobel" in Conrads appearens! One of my favorite characters in this old, forgotten sitcom....
@@laszlok53 Sgt. Philip Freemason Esterhaus Not making that up! During the wedding scene, where he is about to marry this high school cheerleader Cindy, his full name is mentioned.
Overall, the cat at the end of the "Hill Street Blues" soundtrack symbolizes the ever-present dangers and uncertainties of life in an urban setting, while also serving as a metaphor for the resilience and adaptability required to thrive in such an environment.
If you move to live in The Hill Street area there is a sure fire way to make a fortune. Get the City contract to replace all broken glass in the offices of the Hill Street Police Station.
Is this a first run from Channel 4? Because they started showing it in Nov 1984, and Michael died in late '83... so I'm guessing this was one of the last episodes he made?
