Hill Street Blues The granddaddy of dramas brought a gritty realism to television that had never been seen before. Hill Street Blues was visceral and raw. Its characters were flawed but as real as their stories. When Officers Hill and Renko were blown away in the initial episode America gasped. Director Gregory Hoblit's use of a hand-held camera to put the viewer in the midst of the constant bustle in the station house was a TV first. Hill Street Blues was HBO before HBO. St. Elsewhere Followed Hill Street Blues out of MTM's boutique production house of the early 80's founded by Mary Tyler Moore and then husband Grant Tinker. Set in St Elegius Hospital, a fictitious melding of Boston's teaching hospitals, St. Elsewhere introduced America to a new generation of young actors that included Denzel Washington, David Morse, Mark Harmon, Howie Mandel, Alfre Woodard and Ed Begley, Jr. St. Elsewhere combined the life and death reality of a hospital with a let's-not- take-ourselves-too seriously sense of humor that had never been seen before and rarely executed since. Of current shows, only Boston Legal comes close to pulling it off. St. Elsewhere was the brainchild of Bruce Paltrow whose spin-offs included a daughter named Gwyneth. The Sopranos What Steven Bocho started with Hill Street Blues, David Chase took to the next level with The Sopranos, and did so brilliantly. Bochco made America fall in love with cops. Chase made America fall in love with a brutal killer, a New Jersey mob boss trying to hold onto a lifestyle where in his own words, "guys like us end up in Rikers or the morgue." Never before had the flaws of a lead character been shown with such unflinching and uncompromising honesty. But it wasn't just James Gandolfini's Tony who pulled us in. It was Carmella, Big Pussy, Paulie Walnuts, Chrisopher, Adriana, Sylvio, everyone. The Sopranos spawned The Shield, Deadwood, Brotherhood, Dexter, and a host of shows that followed Chase's blueprint for The Sopranos. Because they did, we are now in the heyday of television dramas. The Honeymooners This show is the perfect example of how the key to a successful show is good stories and characters with whom the audience can identify. The Honeymooners was set in an almost barren two room flat (and we never saw the bedroom). The actors rarely left the kitchen unless it was to make a trip up stairs to visit their neighbors. Yet, the characters created by the great Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows, Art Carney and Jean Kean are indelibly etched into our memories. Too many shows today rely on production and gimmicks. The Honeymooners never needed any of that.
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