Roll Call 6:53 AM

I was a tween/teen in the '80s. I was familiar with a little show called Hill Street Blues, but never watched it. Since the wife loves Law & Order (all of them... ugh) and CSI (just Las Vegas, I hope), I thought we should check out what I figured was the first of these type shows. Luckily, Fancast has it, so we watched the two-hour pilot, "Hill Street Station". I wanted to give it a chance, and I know that pilot episodes are a bit ham-handed, but this seemed to suck quite a bit for such a big show.

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If you are not familiar, Hill Street Blues is a cop show that tries to look at the lives of the cops involved, and not just focus on crime; how the job effects them, their families, their relationships with other cops, etc.

The best part of the pilot is the little used Betty Thomas as "Lucy Bates". More after the jump:

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When show hottie (and second most annoying female character) Public Defender(?), Joyce Davenport arrives, all the men follow her gaping. Thomas gives either the best "what a bitch" look, or "yeah, I'd hit that too" look (not sure of her character's tastes).

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"what a bitch" or "yeah, I'd hit that too"

The show gets pretty melodramatic, and the characters get a bit ridiculous. They are in an unnamed, apparently north-eastern city, yet they have southern racist cop Renko in his cowboy boots and Alabama accent, partnered with, you guessed it, the black lead. Mick "Mad Dog" Belcher has a history of biting in fights, which they bring up numerous times. The sergeant, in his late fifties, is divorced and dating a girl in high school. He also speaks in an overly formal manner.

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"Don't think I don't know who was coppin' the cheap feel during the fight."

Hey! It's mediocre talent David Carusso as "Tommy Mann", leader of the Shamrocks!

In the end... I'll give a few more episodes a try, but I am not a cop show guy. If you really want to see the show that did it first, and probably better, check out Barney Miller. Even though it was a comedy, it was more a M*A*S*H type comedy. See Hill Street Blues here at Fancast. No idea where to see Barney Miller. Maybe it's on TV Land?