The best TV show . . . ever.

People through superlatives around today like confetti.  How many times have you seen a film advertised as “The #1 comedy in America” when the film in fact came in eighth at the box office behind seven dramas?  Or a TV show is hyped as “the most watched new comedy on Wednesdays” when it is the only new comedy on Wednesday? 

So I can forgive anyone who is skeptical when I tell him or her that the Greatest Television Series Ever Made is from those long ago times before DVRs, DVDs or even VCRs.  No, I’m not talking about What’s Happening!!, Full House, or even Knight Rider.  Hill Street Blues was the best, most influential, most innovative, best written, best acted, best directed series ever to appear on a TV screen.  In the twenty five years since its departure from the airwaves there have only been imitators, never equals.  NYPD Blue, an excellent show in its own right, was a pale imitation (little known fact: early episodes of Hill Street Blues feature an almost unrecognizable David Caruso as a gang leader).  Hill Street Blues did what The Wire did, but with broadcast network content controls and for twenty two episodes a season over seven seasons, not twelve episodes a year over five years.

People remember the flamboyant characters--snarling Mick Belker, gorgeous Public Defender Joyce Davenport, and hulking but gentle Sgt. Esterhaus, with his trademark, “Let’s be careful out there.”  But the tenth or eleventh tier characters were just as interesting--buttoned down hostage negotiator Henry Goldblume, sleaze ball screw-up J.D. LaRue, the Mutt and Jeff team of street-wise Bobby Hill and cowboy Andy Renko, and Captain Frank Furillo’s ex-wife from Hell, Faye (she wasn’t excessively mean or vindictive, just really, really annoying).  In charge of it all was Daniel J. Tavanti’s Frank Furillo, an island of sanity and morality sweeping back the ocean every week.

Hill Street pretty much established the multiple storyline format for episodic dramas.  It featured a multi-ethnic cast, had continuing plotlines, dealt frankly with racial issues, and the good guys didn’t always win (breaking even was a good day).  A ratings train wreck in its first season, it none the less received 21 Emmy nominations and became the lowest rated show ever renewed for a second season.  One can’t imagine today’s TV executives giving such a show a green light, much less having the patience to wait for the audience catch up with it.

The show wasn’t perfect; James B. Sikking’s portrayal of right wing cop Howard Hunter was overly broad, the large cast prevented many of the talented cast from shining as much as they might, and there was a reason why Barbara Bosson, who played Fay Furillo, only worked in TV series created by her husband Steven Bochco (I suppose the show could also be blamed for two lame spin-off, Beverly Hills Buntz and Bay City Blues, as well as Steven Bochco‘s later series Cop Rock).

But the quality of the show was undeniable from its first episode.  It received a total of 98 Emmy nominations, which among dramas places it only behind ER (technically Saturday Night Live has the most Primetime Emmy nominations, but since the show isn’t in Prime Time I’ve never understood why it was eligible).

For those too young to remember the show, check out the DVDs.  Or at least what is available; only seasons one and two were released on DVD, and season three is available via streaming.  This is an outrage; in a world where you can buy season eight of Full House, how can there not be a market for such an influential television show?

For the record, in my opinion the three best TV dramas of all-time are Hill Street Blues, The Wire, and Mad Men.  I confess that I never “got” The Sopranos; I watched season one on DVD but they just seemed like Italian-American stereotypes who solved every problem by whacking someone.  I also gave up on Breaking Bad in season three, when Walter White made yet another really stupid decision for the billionth time.  If forced to round out a top five I would probably add two more broadcast era shows, The West Wing and The Twilight Zone.

Of course anyone’s list of “Best” TV shows is highly subjective, and no one could possibly watch every show in existence.  For all I know Duck Dynasty is a brilliant show with scintillating dialog, but I’m never going to find out.  And how much do you discount shows that are great but have a couple of bad seasons towards the end, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or The X-Files?  That’s an argument for another day.