It has everything. People who we can all associate with. The stories were always keeping up with the times. The everyday struggles of different people and how their lives interact through everyday routine. It made you go through an emotional roller coaster every week. The characters were awesome. I especially loved Belker. The way he treated the trash he cleaned off the streets. He acted the way toward criminals that we all like to see. All the actors were excellent. the way sgt. Esterhaus said "Let's be careful out there". It was always nice to her those words. Now when I watch the show, it's like visiting an old friend.

This show set the bar for other cops shows like NYPD Blue, Law & Order, and Homicide:Life on the Street. As it had great acting and writing. Along with an awesome ensemble cast. Led by the great Daniel J Travotti as the long-suffering but level-headed Captain Frank Furillo. As the cops battle both their professional and personal lives. While trying to bring the criminals down. Really loved Bruce Weltz's cop as he barked at the criminals as he was really cool. While future NYPD star Dennis Franz was on there. The show dealt with problems head on and come as you are type of shows that you just don't see these days.

Characters from this show are forever etched in my mind. The writers crafted such a wonderful collection of personalities--I doubt if they will ever be matched. I rarely send my crews out to a job site without first reminding them "Hey, let's be careful out there." Every now and then I pick up something too heavy and yell "Bobby, I think I done herniated myself!" My kids poo pooed the show as a relic from the 80's until they got me a season collection for Christmas. I made them sit down and watch a couple of episodes with me. They're hooked too. Our Hill Street collection is one of the few we travel with. Vacation, family visit, whatever, pop it in the player and you're wide awake and entertained for at least an hour!

Hill Street Blues is a timeless show and still the pinnacle of police dramas. There will never be another show like it. Of this television series, most importantly,was the honesty and integrity that we witnessed in such an unscrupulous community. The lives of the men and women of this police precinct became important to us. The success and failures of the characters we bonded with brought elation... and sadness. We were allowed to ride along as silent partners of the “street cops”, and to be a fly on the wall behind the closed doors where the most important and private conversations were held. As Sergeant Phil Esterhaus might have said “As it were, Hill Street Blues is as close to perfect as mere mortals can get”.