Friday, March 04, 2005

The Passing of a Friend

In September of 1993 I was one of the few people in the Watertown, New York area to see NYPD Blue. The local affiliate had caved to the pressure and withheld the first few episodes. Working at the CBS affiliate at the time I had access to Satellite technology and was able to pick up this NYPD Blue show on a bird and record it for home viewing. What we saw was ground breaking, well written, well acted and just plain old Great Television. For the next 12 years we had a date once a week to watch this entertaining, thoughtful and risky show. My wife and I never missed an episode, when I worked nights we stayed up late to watch or watched it the next morning, we had a collection of friends who would record it when we were on vacation or out of town. Through schedule shifting, cast changes, cancellation threats and Ricky Schroeder we held on and enjoyed the ride. Last Tuesday marked the end of a series, it's like we will never see again. Last night the wife and I watched the hour long retrospective that aired before the finale (we didn't want to spoil anything) and marveled at the people involved and the envelope it pushed in it's early years. Better than MASH, better than Cheers, this hour long police drama seasoned well and brought it's fans, cast and crew on an incredible ride and I for one am thankful these people took the risk all those years ago. Tuesday nights will be very lonely for a while and CBS, NBC, and ABC with their CSI's, Law and Orders and such owe much of today's police drama success to Stephen Bochco and Bill Clark. The Fall Season is a little but dimmer with the loss of this great show and I for one am thankful of it's classy exit and now extra free hour of time I now have as nothing will ever replace it.

Thanks for the memories.

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