Hill Street Blues premiered 40 years ago today

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The groundbreaking gritty NBC police procedural that Steven Bochco created with Michael Kozoll paved the way for today's Golden Age of Television. Hill Street Blues ran for seven seasons, ending in 1987 after 146 episodes. "The ambitious police drama seemed doomed even before it hit the NBC airwaves on Jan. 15, 1981," Greg Braxton wrote of Hill Street Blues in the Los Angeles Times in 2014. "Test audiences were unimpressed by the gritty pilot that focused on the personal and professional struggles of police officers working in a crime-ridden urban precinct. In fact, many hated it — there were no recognizable stars, the camera was unsteady, the scenes were noisy and confusing, and there were too many characters. Hill Street Blues got off to a shaky start, and it barely received a second season — at the time, it was among the lowest-rated shows ever renewed at the network. But audiences eventually embraced it, and, during its seven-season run, the series racked up 26 Emmys, including four consecutive awards for outstanding drama. Even today, Hill Street Blues is widely regarded as truly groundbreaking, and its success paved the way for the current golden era of serial TV drama where large ensembles drive complex story lines filled with heroic but flawed characters." Bochco added: "There’s no question that the show was a tipping point in not only how an audience responded to TV but how those of us making TV came to see what we were doing in a very different light. It expanded the drama form and the medium. Lots of shows that came behind us might not have had the same success if we had not broken through.”