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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 3 april 2018
Steven Bochco, creator of 'Hill Street Blues,' dies at 74

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ste- sprawling universe of en- other 10 or 12 years to get
ven Bochco, a writer and gaging yet flawed charac- to the point where I earned
producer known for creat- ters, a zippy pace and lay- the right to take a shot at
ing the groundbreaking po- ers of overlapping, scripted it."
lice drama "Hill Street Blues," dialogue, shot in a docu- Bochco grew up in Man-
died Sunday. He was 74. A mentary style. hattan, the son of a painter
family spokesman says Bo- But what really set the show and a concert violinist. On
chco died in his sleep after apart were the multiple arriving in Los Angeles af-
a battle with cancer. narratives that interlaced ter college, he wrote for
Bochco, who won 10 each episode with those several series at Universal
primetime Emmys, created that came before and af- Studios. Then he got a big
several hit television shows ter. With the rare excep- break: writing the screen-
including "L.A. Law," ''NYPD tion of the few prime-time play for the 1972 sci-fi film
Blue," and "Doogie Howser, soaps, almost every series "Silent Running." But Boch-
M.D." Premiering in January up to that time — whether co said the disrespect he
1981, "Hill Street Blues" chal- comedy or drama — made confronted as the writer
lenged, even confound- each episode freestand- soured him on writing for
ed the meager audience ing, with a reset button for the big screen.
that sampled it. Then, on the one that came next. "Once you've delivered
a wave of critical acclaim, Bochco once recalled the screenplay they don't
the series began to click a fan telling him that "Hill want you around, because
with viewers, while scoring Street Blues" was the first TV you're gonna get in the In this Aug. 17, 2016 file photo, television writer/producer Steven
a history-making 27 Emmy series with a memory. way of someone else's vi- Bochco poses for a portrait at his office in Santa Monica, Calif.
nominations its first year. "That's what I always sion," Bochco said. Associated Press
During its seven-season thought of myself doing in In his self-published mem-
run, it won 26 Emmys and the context of TV: craft a oir "Truth Is a Total Defense: Game," all the way to "Mur- work execs, along with the
launched Bochco on a show that over time would My Fifty Years in Television," der in the First," which ran flops ("Bay City Blues"! "Cop
course that led to dozens have a memory," he told Bochco tells the story of on TNT from 2014 to 2016. Rock"!) that made the tri-
of series and earned him The Associated Press in an his prolific career, which In his book, Bochco recalls umphs even sweeter.
four Peabody awards, in interview two years ago. "I he began at 22 as a story his great collaborations Details of a memorial ser-
addition to the 10 Emmys. sensed that very early in my editor on a popular NBC and his battles with ac- vice were not immediately
"Hill Street Blues" had a career. It just took me an- drama, "The Name of the tors, studio heads and net- released.q