Hill Street Blues
Politics as Usual
TV Flash files “Politics as Usual” as hour 3 of 146 in the TV Flash guide — Hill Street Blues (1981–1987) on NBC, season 1, episode 3, aired 1981-01-22, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E03: listed hour 3 of 146 in the Hill Street Blues guide, hour 3 of 17 in season 1. It aired 1981-01-22 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Presidential Fever” (S01E02). Next is “Can World War III Be an Attitude?” (S01E04).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Hill and Renko decide to split up, only to reconsile after a breakdown; LaRue is offered a bribe by a drug dealer who turns out to be a cop; Furillo tries to negotiate with the Bloods and Shamrocks to ensure a peaceful Presidential tour; Belker agrees to a blind date; Fay is arrested in a hot tub.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Politics as Usual sit in the Hill Street Blues guide?
S01E03 is listed hour 3 of 146 — hour 3 of 17 in season 1, season 1 episode 3.
When did Hill Street Blues S01E03 air?
Politics as Usual aired 1981-01-22 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start?
The premiere is the grammar lesson: roll call, overlap, no neat bow. Stay through the first-season two-parters before you decide the mess is for you. If it is, seasons one and two are the argument.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Watch it to hear modern ensemble drama being invented in a precinct: overlapping voices, unfinished weeks, cops who fail in public. The roll call is the thesis. The city is the other lead. Seven seasons of network nerve, thickest at the start.
The roll call is the thesis. A precinct room, overlapping voices, a sergeant sending people into a city that will not resolve in 48 minutes. Hill Street Blues premieres in January 1981 like a dare to NBC’s idea of a cop show: handheld restlessness, serialized personal lives, humor that does not apologize for sitting next to a body. Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll are not inventing grit as a brand. They are inventing a grammar — how many stories a week can carry, how much a hero can fail, how a workplace can…
Filed against
- Daniel J. Travanti as Capt. Frank Furillo
Daniel J. Travanti earned Emmys as Capt. Frank Furillo on Hill Street Blues, the moral spine of TV’s messiest, most adult police ensemble. Overlapping dialogue and precinct grit grew up around his quiet authority. TV Flash marks him as…
- Veronica Hamel as Joyce Davenport
Veronica Hamel’s Joyce Davenport gave Hill Street Blues its public-defender steel — roll call, then chaos, serialized ensemble, messy cop lives, overlapping voices that taught network police drama to sound unfinished on purpose. On TV…
- Michael Conrad as Sgt. Phil Esterhaus
Michael Conrad’s Sgt. Phil Esterhaus owns the roll call that taught Hill Street Blues how to start — “let’s be careful out there” as thesis, overlapping voices as the new cop-show music. Steven Bochco’s NBC dare made ensemble drama sound…
- Bruce Weitz as Det. Mick Belker
Bruce Weitz’s Det. Mick Belker snarled through Hill Street Blues — undercover grit and Emmy-winning ferocity in TV’s messiest adult police ensemble. Overlapping voices and unfinished weeks needed an animal on a leash just short enough to…
- Betty Thomas as Lucy Bates
Betty Thomas’s Lucy Bates helped grow Hill Street Blues into messy, overlapping adult police drama — Emmy-winning presence in TV’s prestige turn of the 1980s. Later she directed hits; on-screen she owned the precinct’s human scale. TV…
- Joe Spano as Lt. Henry Goldblume
Joe Spano’s Lt. Henry Goldblume is one of the overlapping voices that taught Hill Street Blues how a precinct could sound unfinished on purpose. In Steven Bochco’s NBC ensemble, Goldblume belongs to the weekly stack, not a poster. On TV…