The 30 best TV crime dramas ever – ranked - The Telegraph
The 30 best TV crime dramas ever – ranked · 1. Inspector Morse (1987-2000) · 2. Cracker (1993-2006) · 3. Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989-2013).
Steven Bochco
Let’s be careful out there. The landmark NBC drama, created by <anchor>Steven Bochco</anchor> and Michael Kozoll, took the ensemble cast and intertwined serial storylines from soap opera, fused them with a police procedural, and came up with one of the most influential shows of all time. Each episode followed a day shift for the blue-uniformed officers at Hill Street precinct in an unnamed US city. Jerky camerawork gave it a naturalistic street-level feel, real world issues were tackled and police jargon littered the script. Groundbreaking and game-changing.
Steven Bochco, writer and producer  – obituary
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# Steven Bochco, writer and producer  – obituary

[Telegraph Obituaries](/authors/t/ta-te/telegraph-obituaries/)
5 April 2018 • 5:40pm


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![Steven Bochco (second from left) on the set of NYPD Blue with Jimmy Smits (left), Dennis Franz (Det. Andy Sipowicz) and James McDaniel](/content/dam/obituaries/2018/04/05/159408419_Disney-ABC-Television-Group_N-Y-P-D-BLUE_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqN4ePBoE4ef7kaLHd_OTbY8n5QU8PZTWWArcDEmWFyEM.jpg?imwidth=680)

Steven Bochco (second from left) on the set of NYPD Blue with Jimmy Smits (left), Dennis Franz (Det. Andy Sipowicz) and James McDaniel
Credit: Timothy White/ABC via Getty




Steven Bochco, the writer and producer who has died aged 74, was responsible for some of American television’s most intelligent and innovative crime dramas, including Hill Street Blues, LA Law and NYPD Blue; he was regarded by many as the most influential figure in modern television drama.

He pioneered the idea that crime series could be constructed in the manner of soap operas, with as much focus on the police characters’ private lives as on their work, and with storylines that stretched across several episodes rather than being wrapped up neatly in an hour.

He favoured a style of documentary realism over glossiness, exploring gritty issues and employing salty language. Although his programmes usually featured large ensemble casts, he was acclaimed for investing his characters with a depth rarely seen in popular television drama. Perhaps his greatest creation was Detective Andy Sipowicz in NYPD Blue who, brilliantly portrayed by Dennis Franz, won viewers’ hearts despite being a drunk and a racist.

Bochco fought long battles with executives as he sought to prove that viewers would welcome such challenging fare. Although he was vindicated, he lamented in recent years that his example had not, ultimately, inspired America’s commercial television networks to defy the advertisers and become more adventurous.

![The cast of Hill Street Blues, season 6](/content/dam/obituaries/2018/04/05/159407822_NBCUniversal_Hill-Street-Blues-Season-6_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqoI_2NJRaZCOt6d-aapOOo2tXKY6mc8JCi1cYhqZ43A8.jpg?imwidth=350)

The cast of Hill Street Blues, season 6
Credit: Gary Null/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty




His influence can be seen most clearly, therefore, in long-form dramas made for subscription channels – such as The Sopranos, The Wire and Breaking Bad – works comparable in artistic merit to the best feature films.

Steven Ronald Bochco was born in New York on December 16 1943. His father, Rudolph, was a Polish-born Jew who had emigrated to America aged three and became a concert violinist; Steven would go on to end the credits of his television shows with an animated photograph of his father playing the violin, accompanied by a snatch of Vivaldi. His mother, Mimi, was an artist. The family was poor, and Steven vowed from an early age to make money in whatever profession he followed.

He attended the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan, before studying playwriting and theatre at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. A summer job at Universal Pictures led to his becoming a full-time script editor and writer. He wrote several of the early episodes of Columbo among many other programmes, and also co-wrote (with Michael Cimino) the dystopian science-fiction film Silent Running (1972).

In 1978 he moved to MTM, the company run by Grant Tinker and his wife Mary Tyler Moore. Paris (1979), a detective series he wrote for James Earl Jones, was a flop, but he had better luck with Hill Street Blues, which he co-created and co-produced with Michael Kozoll for NBC.

Although the novelist Ed McBain complained that the series drew heavily on his 87th Precinct books (“If it hadn’t been stolen from me I would have admired it greatly”), Hill Street Blues was a departure from most cop shows with its focus on the realities of policing in shabby areas.

Initially it received dire ratings, but its first season was nominated for 14 Emmys and won six, and it ran for seven years from 1981. The combative Bochco was fired after five series, however, ostensibly for going over budget; this led to a protracted dispute and the departure from the series of his actress wife, Barbara Bosson, who played Fay Furillo.

![Steven Bochco](/content/dam/obituaries/2018/04/05/159408472_Sygma_American-Producer-Steven-Bochco_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpg?imwidth=350)

Steven Bochco
Credit:  Bill Nation/Sygma via Getty




His next big success, LA Law (1986-94), applied the same ensemble formula to lawyers, and was considerably more glamorous, but he returned to gritty police work in NYPD Blue (1993-2005), which he co-created with David Milch.

The series became renowned for its profanity and nudity. Bochco drew up a list of swear words that he insisted on being allowed to use, accepting a cap of 37 instances of each word per episode.

Among Bochco’s other hits were Doogie Howser, MD (1989-93), starring Neil Patrick Harris as a teenage prodigy who becomes a medical doctor at 16, and the gripping courtroom drama Murder One (1995-97). He had his fair share of flops, notably the bizarre Cop Rock (1990), a police procedural in which characters would burst into musical numbers.

In 2003 Bochco, who was a popular figure in the television industry, published a well-received satirical thriller, Death By Hollywood. His autobiography, Truth Is a Total Defense: My Fifty Years in Television, followed in 2016.

Steven Bochco’s first two marriages, to Gabrielle Levin and Barbara Bosson, ended in divorce. He is survived by his third wife Dayna Kallins, whom he married in 2000, as well as the son and daughter of his second marriage and a stepson.

**Steven Bochco, born December 16 1943, died April 1 2018**

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