written by evan hunter using the name ed mcbain, the book was inspired by a television show he greatly admired, "dragnet". mcbain chose to set his 87th precinct series in the fictional city of isola, based on new york city. in 1958 it was made into a film of the same name. in 1961, nbc developed an hour-long tv series "87th precinct". mcbain's work inspired many other writers and television producers to further develop the police procedural genre. most notably, in 1981 steven bochco produced the award-winning "hill street blues" for nbc. bochco set his gritty police drama in a precinct house in a fictional city much as mcbain did in "cop hater". apparently, evan hunter was unhappy with the similarity but he was reminded of his own borrowing of his predecessor's ideas.