Hill Street Blues - Season 1

I miss "HSB" so much that I've invented a fantasy scenario, if the show were revived. I'd simply call it "The New Hill Street Blues".Without furher ado, here it is.: Megan Gallagher revives her role as Captain Tina Russo-Torgersen, of Hill Street Precinct, in Police Chief Frank Furillos's former position. Her husband, Assistant FIRE Chief Thor Torgersen, would be played by Lance Henriksen (Megan and Lance's tribute to their "Millennium" years)! Their teenage daughter, Hilda, would be played by Brittany Tiplady (another "Millennium" tribute).Andrew Renko would now be the Master Sergeant Watch Commander, doing the morning roll calls done by Sgt. Esterhaus. His roll-call schtick would be telling outrageous anecdotes, to illustrate whatever the number one patrol priority for the day would be. Sometimes he'd even dress in costume to drive home that point. He'd still cutup with . . .Bobby Hill would now be Lt. Robert Hill, head of dectectives, the same position occupied by Ramon Calletano.Lt. Lucille Bates would now be in charge of the EATers, once spearheaded by Howard Hunter, and Lt. Joseph Coffey would be in charge of the EATers of a rival precinct. They're secretly married!Howard Hunter would be CEO and Chairman of the Board of Howard's Hunters, a Corporate Threat Assesment Firm. He also does mercenary work in the Middle-East. Grace Gardner is now Grace Hunter! Yeah, a little international espinonage thrown in. He'd visit the ol' precinct house, clean out his still smoldering pipe in the trash, and start another fire, for old times' sake!!Chief Furillo's wife, Joyce, now captains her own private law firm. Working with her as a skip-tracer, repo-man, P.I., and bounty hunter, is Michael Belker. A sometimes helper to Mick, would be that poker-faced pickpocket played so masterfully by Nick Savage! Oh, Mick and Deborah Kaplan FINALLY tie the knot. Much later in the show, Joyce's new mystery law partner is retired Rear Admiral Harmon Rabb, USN (Why not have a "JAG" crossover?)!Fletcher Daniels is now the city's mayor, in the middle of a gubernatorial campaign.Fay still worries her ex-husband, they remain friends, but is now married to a broadcast executive played by Leonard Nimoy. Fay's and Frank's son, Frank Jr., is a HOTSHOT drop-dead handsome rookie cop at Hill Street Precinct. He's played by either Elijah Wood, or Hunter Schlesinger.Hery Goldblume is an Associate Chief, Frank's right-hand man, head of Frank's Joint Commanders Staff--JCS Commander Henry Goldblume. This outfit would be known on the show as "King Frank's Knights of the Round Table".One of those Commanders would be Cdr. Neil Washington. A few years before, Capt. John D. LaRue would have died a hero's death trying to stop a major bank robbery, with his partner, Neil at his side.There's been conjecture about this city's location. Could just as well be Cincinatti; Philadelphia; Columbus; Buffalo; Pittsburg, PA; or Baltimore. Boston; Portsmouth, NH; or Bangor, ME, would be stretches, because there wasn't references to old Amereican history in this show.

Like so many of you who have written reviews, I too have waited nearly 20 years for this release. I was 12 when I first got hooked on HSB and I have to admit that I was worried that it would not live up to all the praise I have heaped upon it over the years. Boy, was I surprised -- the show is even better than I remember! Of course, it helps that I now understand some of the jokes and innuendo that went over my head then.The characters, the writing, the direction and the actors are all superb. Dan Travanti is still so compelling as the moral center of the show -- Frank Furillo's humility and humanity are so real that you cannot help but be drawn into the never-ending saga of the Hill Street precinct. Of course, his scenes with Veronica Hamel are shockingly steamy given that this was filmed in the early '80s. It is hard to believe that some of this stuff got past censors -- but thank God for Bochco -- he must have given them some headaches. Joyce Davenport was my hero -- such a strong female character, who obviously had good looks but did not rely upon them for her success. The seven-year development and evolution of the love story between Furillo and Davenport makes the relationship one that continues to resound today.I could go on and on about all the characters that you will come to love if you watch this dvd -- Esterhaus, Hill and Renko (can you say those names separately?), LaRue and Washington, Bates and Coffey, Belker, and the others. The incredible writing and depth of these characters puts every show that is currently on television to shame. But they all owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to this ground-breaking show. When the West Wing won its fourth emmy and was being compared to Hill Street Blues, the producers of the West Wing didn't want anyone to make that comparison because the West Wing, as good as it is, is no Hill Street Blues.As for the DVD, I too wish that Fox had made more of an effort in the production -- more commentary, liner notes and extras would be great. I hope for more as they release future seasons. Previously unseen footage or interviews would be great.All in all -- this is 5 stars. If you somehow missed this in its first run, or were too young to watch -- give yourself a gift. You will watch the pilot and honestly, you will never be the same. I envy you the experience to watch this for the very first time.

Everybody loves Hill Street Blues.Contrary to the general take on this series, it isn't very "realistic". It deals with realistic scenarios... to a degree but like just about everything on TV in the last 30 years, it tries to influence our perspectives of certain social issues, namely race relations.Everybody plays his stereotypical role. The main black cop is upset about the condition of "his people". His white partner is tired of hearing the excuses. The leader of what we now call the SWAT team is racist. This ones a chauvenist, that's one's a homophobe and the other one is an alcoholic. You know the drill. Always nice to see the beautiful Veronica Hammell in nothing but Capt. Furillo's loosely buttoned shirt though... and that thing she does with her tongue....Nevertheless, the show is excellent. All the actors do great jobs and by the time you see the end credits you're satisfied that you've seen a worthwhile, if not a tad bit corny television show that doesn't exist only to see how far they can push the boundaries of nudity, sex and profanity (cough... NYPD Blue... cough) and call it "a gritty, portrayal of life on the street" or whatever nonsense they use to justify the lack of creativity.My only gripe with this set is that the pilot show has been cut down to one hour for some reason. If you buy the shows individually, the pilot is two hours and I think it even says in the description that the pilot is two hours in the box set but it isn't. It's only one hour long.Good stuff. Certainly better than any cop drama made after this one stopped airing but don't go into it thinking that's it's some deadly serious portrayal of police work because it isn't. It has it's moments but it's just good all-around TV done the way it used to be - the way it ought to be.

Although I kept this box set - and enjoyed watching it, an old favourite.I believe it to been a 'pirated copy.Some of the 'features' could only accessed by trawling through the whole sequence on the DVD's in order and some of the 'visuals' were blurred round the edges.NOT one of my better purchases.

Life is complete. Seasons 1, 2 and 3 have arrived. Absolutely brilliant viewing. Without doubt this is by far the best US police programme ever. It far outstrips the ones which followed. When I was a chauffeur in the late 90's, I picked up a pair of New York cops who were over to follow up on a case they were working on. Their considered opinion was that this show is as near to the truth about cop work in the suburbs of most American cities as you're likely to get. Going from achingly funny one moment, to tragedy the next, it is truly riveting. And no bad language either. If you only ever buy one more dvd, make it this one. You'll soon want to see more.

I was and still am a huge fan of this groundbreaking (at the time) TV series. The multi-layered, intelligent storylines; the writing had pace and the viewer wasn't spoon-fed to the point where everything had to be spelled out and had a happy ending.Although it does come over as being somewhat dated now and does not have the gritty realism of, say 'The Wire'(superb!), it is still a thoroughly engaging watch and will definitely bring a smile to anyone who enjoyed it first time around.However, as great as it is to have the first two seasons on DVD; what isn't so great and has been mention in other reviews of these products, is the mindless and idiotic way these have been re-edited when transferred from the original tapes to DVD; so much so, that it has rendered some of parts of the story almost unintelligible if the viewer is not familiar with the original TV series.My opinion of these DVD sets is that they are still worth purchasing for the nostalgia trip, but prepare to be irritated by the moronic editing and the possibility that the remaining seasons may never be released on DVD.

Having seen most episodes during the television run, it a was a pleasure to see Hill St back in action again. The characters from both sides of the law are truly believable as the opposite could be said about Capt Ferrilo's relationship with the lady lawyer, must have been a shocker in initial tv run considering lawyers and Police rarely see eye to eye. All modern police series seem to have taken a hint from Hill St as you can see comparisons all the time. Not sure if I would go onto a second series though, might be taking nostalgia a bit too far!

This CD would not play on our DVD player. I have not kept the packaging nor the return address and so do not know how to send it back. That is my fault. The poor product quality is somebody else's.