Word: hills
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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That stamp, first seen in his groundbreaking police show Hill Street Blues, has changed the face of TV. Unlike simplistic TV dramas of the past, Bochco shows typically feature a medley of interwoven plots and characters. They grapple with tough social issues, yet leap from scenes of intense drama to raucous comedy. They relentlessly push network standards of good taste, often with a schoolboy penchant for gross-out humor and sexual fetishes. "Steve has . always been one to break the rules," says former NBC Chairman Grant Tinker. "He does it more cleverly, even diabolically, than anyone else. He rocks...
...moreover, made up of the sort of young, upscale viewers that advertisers prize most. Bochco creates TV shows for people who don't watch TV. No producer of the 1980s has been more influential. "He's shown that there's an audience for excellence," says David Milch, a former Hill Street writer and now an executive producer of Beverly Hills Buntz. "In so doing, he has increased the possibilities for everyone...
That self-assurance -- some call it arrogance -- has contributed to professional rifts. In March 1985, at the end of Hill Street's fifth season, Bochco was fired as executive producer after he resisted efforts by MTM Enterprises to reduce the show's high production costs. And late last year Bochco became embroiled in a bitter feud with Terry Louise Fisher, his creative partner on both L.A. Law and Hooperman. After negotiations to take over Bochco's job as executive producer of L.A. Law next season went awry, Fisher was barred from the show's set. She responded with...
...playwriting at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie-Mellon). The only play of his to be given a student production was a "disaster," Bochco . recalls. But he established a close circle of lifelong friends -- among them Actors Michael Tucker (Stuart Markowitz on L.A. Law) and Charles Haid (Renko on Hill Street Blues...
...moved to MTM Enterprises, the studio started by Grant Tinker and his then wife Mary Tyler Moore. After a couple of failed series, Bochco and another MTM writer, Michael Kozoll, were asked by NBC to develop a police series with a human touch. They came up with Hill Street Blues, which debuted in January 1981. Though ratings were low at first, NBC stuck with the show; it went on to win a record 26 Emmys (six for Bochco alone) and to virtually reinvent television drama...