It’s been fascinating watching the repeats of “Hill Street Blues” on Bravo. Not for the obvious reasons: The storytelling, the writing, the characters, etc. No, I’ve been struck by three things:
First, how little of the later years of the series I actually recalled. I did not remember, for instance, that Mick Belker got married and had a baby. I forgot characters who were in for entire seasons, such as Garibaldi and Mayo…perfectly good actors with zero characterization. I was amazed how little they gave Rene Enriquez as “Ray” to do, especially when one considers that the character of Norman Buntz essentially stepped in to fill his slot and practically took over the whole show (not to mention getting his own series and later showing up with another name on “NYPD Blues.”) It was as if, if the writers couldn’t come up with a storyline that focused on Ray being Hispanic, they didn’t know what to do with him.
Second, I can’t believe I didn’t realize Stan Jablonski, the sergeant who replaced the late, great Esterhaus, was gay. He had a thing for Belker. He was in denial of it, it was subtle, it was between the lines, but it was right there.
And third, geez, the guest actors on that series. Wandering through the hill in parts of varying sizes were Miguel Ferrer, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Armin Shimmerman, Lindsay Crouse (Maggie Walsh from “Buffy”), Tim Russ, Robert Pastorelli (“Eldin” from “Murphy Brown,” showing up in two different roles), Mykelti Williamson (back when he was Mykel T. Williamson), not to mention Peter Jurasik pre-Londo as Sid the Snitch.
The run is getting toward the end of the series. I’ve no idea if Bravo is going to start over at the beginning, but if they are and you’ve never seen it, catch it M-F at 7 PM (it’s repeated at 1 AM except for the Monday episode for some reason.) It’s worth seeing or re-experiencing.
PAD
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For those that work at home they are also showing episodes at noon, They’re out of sequence with the evening showings so it’s rather strange swapping between two periods of continuity. Just to make things worse I occasionally catch the Saturday showing which is two episodes back to back, again out of step with the other showings.
Yes it’s pretty obvious that I’m enjoying them too. You know the one thing I miss? It just doesn’t seem complete without the little MTM kitten in a police cap at the end.
Now you know what I do on my lunch break between Supergirl pages.
You mentioned Brent Spiner making an appearance on HSB. Remember his recurring bit-part in Night Court about the same time?
He played the “hick” owner of the snack bar in the break room.
Oh yes, I remember quite well. “Thaaat’s right, judge…it’s us again.”
A few people have asked me how I came to the conclusion that Jablonski was gay. Let’s put aside that not only did he never have a romantic interest, but whenever women expressed interest in him he shut them down flat. Its most prominent appearance was during the time that Belker had broken up with Robin. Stosh bonded with Belker, but then when Belker got back together with Robin, Jablonski was resentful about it to such a degree that Belker actually said it was almost like Jablonski was “jealous or something.” And the absolute clincher came when Stosh was in the hospital, and he was attached to a heart monitor. Belker walked in, and when Belker got within proximity of Jablonski, his heart rate sped up noticably. Stosh quickly yanked out the heart monitor wire, brusquely saying the machine was faulty.
It was very subtle, but it was there.
PAD
Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if that series was on DVD? There’s a website where you can vote on which TV series you want put on DVD… I can’t remember the url right now. Nic_Soapdish told me. I’ll have to ask him again…
I haven’t read this page in a week, but boy am I glad I did. I first started watching Hill Street Blues in spring of 2000. They were running it on TV Land at 4:00 AM. Since I had been busting my ášš to get certified as a teacher, I was often up at 4:00 AM
working on stuff. One morning, I took a break at 4:00 and found it was on. From then on, whenever I was up at 4:00 AM, I would watch it.
Another funny thing is that around the same time, I started reading Top 10. I instantly fell in love with that too. Whenever I would describe it to my friends, I would say, “It’s like Hill Street Blues with superheroes.”
I used to be able to play the theme on the piano.
Glad to see it’s on at a normal hour now.
One other thing. When it was first on, I was so young the only thing I ever really remembered was the theme and Norman Buntz getting his own show.
So when I started watching it again, a nice discovery is what a babe Joyce Davenport was.
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