NYPD Blue
Two Clarks in a Bar
TV Flash files “Two Clarks in a Bar” as hour 177 of 261 in the TV Flash guide — NYPD Blue (1993–2005) on ABC, season 9, episode 3, aired 2001-11-13, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S09E03: listed hour 177 of 261 in the NYPD Blue guide, hour 3 of 23 in season 9. It aired 2001-11-13 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Johnny Got His Gold (2)” (S09E02). Next is “Hit the Road, Clark” (S09E04).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
After the funeral of his old partner, Danny, Sipowicz returns to the squad room and is abruptly teamed with his new partner, John Clark. Clark's father, John Clark, Sr. — Sipowicz's old nemesis at another precinct — butts heads with both Sipowicz and Clark Jr., when he interferes with their first case together, the mysterious stabbing death of a wealthy woman. Meanwhile, McDowell and Jones discover a vintage '56 Les Paul guitar is a key piece of evidence in the death of a young, struggling musician, and leads to the victim's own jealous roommate.The tension between Clark, Jr. and his father rises when Clark, Sr. crashes the 15th's toast to Danny.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Two Clarks in a Bar sit in the NYPD Blue guide?
S09E03 is listed hour 177 of 261 — hour 3 of 23 in season 9, season 9 episode 3.
When did NYPD Blue S09E03 air?
Two Clarks in a Bar aired 2001-11-13 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Why was it controversial?
It pushed mid-1990s network limits on profanity, partial nudity, and adult subject matter — the standards-and-practices war was weekly news.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Butts, badges, and Sipowicz — Bochco and Milch teaching broadcast how to be adult out loud. Dennis Franz's alcoholic detective is the decade's great network antihero badge: bigoted, broken, still the moral furnace. Twelve seasons of language fights, cast shakeups, and precinct grit that primed living rooms for flawed cops before cable took the patent.
Flash: September 21, 1993, ABC, Manhattan South. Butts, badges, and a language fight already in the EPK. Steven Bochco and David Milch did not ask the museum guard whether broadcast was allowed to be adult out loud. They put detectives on a shift where alcoholism, divorce, and precinct politics bleed into the case. Dennis Franz's Andy Sipowicz is the decade's great network antihero badge — bigoted, broken, still the moral furnace. Sources close to Standards & Practices were *unavailable for comment*. They were…
Filed against
- Dennis Franz as Andy Sipowicz
Dennis Franz’s Andy Sipowicz made NYPD Blue the decade’s great network antihero badge — bigoted, broken, still the moral furnace, Bochco and Milch teaching broadcast how to be adult out loud. Butts, badges, twelve seasons of language…
- David Caruso as John Kelly
David Caruso’s John Kelly made NYPD Blue’s first climb a redhead with a bruise — Bochco and Milch teaching broadcast how to be adult out loud, butts, badges, language fights. Dennis Franz’s Sipowicz is the long furnace; Caruso is the…
- Jimmy Smits as Bobby Simone
Jimmy Smits’s Victor Sifuentes made L.A. Law a Latino lead in Bochco gloss — 1980s catalog elevator-sex water-cooler firm, then NYPD Blue stretching the steel into butts, badges, and Sipowicz weather. TV Flash files him as the associate…
- Kim Delaney as Diane Russell
Kim Delaney's Diane Russell brought NYPD Blue a detective pulse beside Sipowicz — Bochco and Milch teaching broadcast how to be adult out loud, precinct grit, language fights, twelve seasons of badge weather. The desk files her as 1990s…
- Gordon Clapp as Greg Medavoy
Gordon Clapp's Greg Medavoy survived NYPD Blue's precinct grind — Bochco and Milch teaching broadcast how to be adult out loud, Sipowicz as the moral furnace, twelve seasons of language fights and cast shakeups. TV Flash files him as…