Hill Street Blues (1981) – Cranky Streets, and Chipped Beef

Robert Crais pens the teleplay for Cranky Streets from a story by Michael Kozoll and Steven Bochco. It first debuted on 10 December, 1981. With city and union negotiations faltering tensions are running high on the hill. Renko (Charles Haid) and Hill (Michael Warren) find themselves assigned to be training officers. When Renko pulls a…

Hill Street Blues (1981) – Jungle Madness, and Hearts and Minds

The two-hour finale to Hill Street Blues inaugural season first aired on 26 May, 1981. It was written by series creators Steven Bochco, Michael Kozell and story editor Anthony Yerkovich. There’s a lot going on, Washington (Taurean Blacque) and LaRue (Kiel Martin) are running up leads and suspects in the shooting by a racist officer,…

Hill Street Blues (1981) – Choice Cut, and Up in Arms

Seven episodes in writer Lee David Zlotoff brings us full circle with Choice Cut. First airing on 14 February, 1981, the episode sees Frank Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) dealing with a hostage situation in a supermarket, not entirely dissimilar from what happened in the first episode. In fact, it’s the same hostage takers! They went…

Hill Street Blues (1981) – Double Jeopardy, and Film at Eleven

Double Jeopardy, known in some markets as Dressed to Kill first aired on 31 January, 1981. Written by series creators Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll, the episode puts Operation Duckling into action. It seems the serial rapist they’ve been trying to apprehend since the beginning of the series is still out there, and the precinct…

Downton Abbey – Now What?

  So there it is. I’m all caught upon Downton Abbey, I finished the feature-length Christmas special last night, which seemed to effectively tie up a lot of plot lines from the first two series in one 90 minute go. It also, however, set up a lot of things I expect to follow-up on in…