Let’s Be Careful In Here, a Hill Street Blues Retrospective – “Hill Street Station”

Today, let’s see the first installment of “Let’s Be Careful In Here,” a retrospective look at Hill Street Blues.

Hill Street Blues was an excellent TV series than ran seven seasons between 1981-1987. Its first FOUR seasons all won Best Drama Series at the Emmys, and that was at a time when there was some SERIOUS competition on network TV, including St. Elsewhere, which was basically the medical drama equivalent of Hill Street Blue, the later seasons of Lou Grant (which was the reigning Best Drama on TV before Hill Street Blues), and Cagney and Lacey (which took over the award from Hill Street Blues eventually).

Here’s my video look at the first episode, “Hill Street Station,” which debuted in January 1981.

First, a look at the background of the show’s creation, and where the show’s director, Robert Butler, got the idea for the specific way that he filmed the first episode…

Next, a bit about the iconic theme song…

Next, we’ll look at how Kiel Martin’s J.D. Larue was BIZARRELY creepy in this episode…

Next, we’ll look at the introduction of a number of major characters…

Next, more first introductions of major characters…

Next, we look at a very controversial scene where Bobby Hill’s doles out his own “law” for a family that involves telling a teenage girl not to turn on her stepfather too much (plus a discussion of the weird subplot of Phil dating a high school senior)…

Next, I look at Frank’s superhero moment in the pilot…

Next, I look at the twist involving Hill and Renko…

Finally, I look at the twist involving Furillo and Davenport…

There ya go! A lot for this episode. Any future installments will have a LOT fewer videos than this (if I ever even DO a second installment).

If you have any Hill Street Blues thoughts, feel free to post in the comments or e-mail me at brian@poprefs.com