"Let's be careful out there"

I received an early Christmas present courtesy of Terry Teachout over at About Last Night. A cable TV channel, American Life TV (ALT), is rerunning Hill Street Blues every Sunday night at 9:00. Like Terry, I'd never heard of ALT until now so I checked my local cable carrier, and sure enough, they carry it. My DVR is now set to record Hill Street each Sunday.

To state that Hill Street Blues is my favorite TV program of all time is an understatement of large proportions. I loved that show - never missed an episode. In fact, I have the last five seasons recorded, on Betamax video tape, packed away in a box in my basement, waiting patiently for the day when Beta makes its comeback. Hill Street was on Thursday nights at 10:00 for most of its run, and I'd race home from work (I was waiting tables at the time and usually got off around 9:00) in order to be settled in on my couch when Sgt. Esterhaus began the roll call. The Museum of Broadcast Communications article that Terry links to does a fine job of identifying what was so unique and compelling about the show, both in style and content. But let me add an observation. The MBC article talks about some of Hill Street's influences, such as M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Barney Miller, and I'll concede that - nothing comes from nowhere. But Hill Street didn't seem to the viewer like it had any influences at all. The show was such a profound break from the normal TV fare at the time that it was almost like the introduction of a new medium. It was something brand new, and it was thrilling. Audiences had never seen anything as remotely compelling as Hill Street on TV before, and that was the source of its fierce fan loyalty. Chaotic, complex, hilarious, and intense, Hill Street owed nothing to the controlled, formulaic hour-long TV dramas of the 1970's. It opened up TV to a whole new world of possibilities and its influence was enormous. Most of the best shows of the past twenty years - L.A. Law, NYPD Blue, Homocide, The Shield, had they existed at all, would have been vastly different if not for Hill Street Blues. And none of these shows, as good as they sometimes were, ever topped it. I am looking forward to catching up with my old friend again, each Sunday night at 9:00.

NOTE: Terry mentions that the first two seasons of Hill Street Blues are available on DVD, which I was aware of. My question is: where are the other five seasons?

NOTE: I visited ALT's website and found two other nice surprises - The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show are also rerunning there, both on Monday nights, the former at 9:00, the latter at 10:30. Two of the great TV comedies of all time. The other great comedies, you ask? The Dick Van Dyke Show, the first few seasons of M*A*S*H, All in the Family, Barney Miller, Cheers, Seinfeld, and Frasier.