Welcome to the TV section of my website. This section is dedicated to 4 of  my favorite shows "Hill Street Blues", "Dallas", "Quantum Leap" and "NYPD Blue" as well as a host of other shows past and present.   To the right are links to complete episode guides to most shows, the Internet Movie Database and TV Guide online. Stay tuned!

Episode Guides IMDb.com TV Guide.com

	"Hill Street Blues" and "Dallas" while both dramas, were on opposite ends of the genre during their run. "Hill Street Blues" ran from 1981-1987 and is still the TV show with the most Emmy wins with 27. Rumored to be based around the street life of Chicago, the show revolved around the characters of Capt. Frank Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) and DA Joyce Davenport (Veronica Hamel) the rest of the ensemble cast was very rotating, some would leave, some would join, but the most endearing character and actor to the show was Sarg. Phil Esterhaus (Michael Conrad), who died after the 4th season. The loss of the man and the character can be seen and felt by the shows that aired after that. "Hill Street" portrayed gritty life on the streets, mixed with humor and "human drama". While mostly serious, the funny parts were that much more enjoyable. The finale saw Hill Street Station burn, but survive, and really launched Dennis Franz into a "cop drama" icon. "Dallas" on the other hand, was one of the first prime time soap operas. Running from 1978 to 1991, "Dallas" was based, obviously, in good old Dallas, Texas and was most like a southern Texas sized version of "Romeo and Juliet". Romeo being Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy), whose proud and powerful family loomed heavily over the series, countered by Juliet, Pamela Barnes Ewing (Victoria Prinicipal). The Barnes family always the underdog, falling sometimes under the heels of the Ewings, but tried on many occasions to rise above. It was that back and forth personal and professional jousting that really drew my interest. Of course, as every soap does, the show had it's man you love to hate J. R. Ewing (Larry Hagman). Over the course of the series, and still today, the man is a legend on the TV screen providing for the most entertaining bits of television. The whole "Who shot J.R." storyline that linked seasons 3 and 4 were some of the most watched shows in TV history (By the way, for those who don't know, it was Kristin Shepard, J.R.'s sister-in-law). Watching the bad guy win was almost as fun as watching him lose and in true soap form, depending on the circumstance, you really weren't sure who to root for. The series tried, and failed, to make lightning strike twice as they tried to return Bobby to the land of the living one year after he left. After his departure, the show seriously wavered and was never the same. Here too, there were comings and goings, some more impactful than others. The show ended on a rather whimsical note of "It's a Wonderful Life" southern style (after most of the family/actors went their own seperate ways), then wrenched you with J.R. pointing a gun to his head and later, off screen, a shot fired. Of course, not one to end on a sour note, "J.R.'s Return" the TV movie, years later, would answer the question of whether he lived or not, obviously, and did well enough to warrant a second made for TV movie, but didn't do too well and hadn't been seen or heard from since. For their times, two top dramas that are worth watching.
	"Quantum Leap" was a sci-fi drama based on the time travelling experiment "that went a little "ca-ca"", starring Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) and his best friend, Al (Dean Stockwell) a hologram from Sam's own time who Sam (little children and crazy people) can see and hear. The series ran from 1989-1993. The plot was, basically, that Sam found himself "leaping" into to different people and time periods in order to "put right what once went wrong". The sci-fi twist on the premise of helping others, one life at a time, really drew me to this show, one of my favorites. With the help of Al and Ziggy, Sam's AI computer  problem solver with an attitude, Sam went about changing the lives of strangers. It wasn't until later seasons that both Sam and Al found themselves affecting their own lives, past, present and future. In the later years, the series briefly introduced an "evil leaper" as a counterpart, a foil, for Sam, Alia, but in the end, she was just a product of her enviroment, a further future, a dark one at that. But by the end of the story arc, Alia ended up being "free", where and when, we'll never know. As the series was stretching on, it was decided to start turning real life events into the mix of time travel. Starting with Vietnam, the Kennedy assassination, Marilyn Monroe, the Civil War and even Elvis, it was then that I realized the show wasn't long for this world. My instinct being true, the series ended by having Sam "leap" to the actual date of his birth (Aug. 8th 1953) and coming across a way station, a bar, actually, for "leapers" like himself. Throughout the episode, "Mirror Image", Sam is constantly reminded of people he had previously helped. By the end, Sam realized he could never "leap" back home. Instead, he "leaped" into a situation that altered his best friend's life, Al, forever. What changed because of this and how Sam was affected, we'll never know, at least, not yet. The last words of the show were fitting, yet disappointing, "Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home".
	If "Hill Street Blues" was the granddaddy of all cop dramas, then "NYPD Blue" is it's grandson. The show was created and written by the same creative force that made "Hill Street Blues" and cranked it into a 90's and beyond style cop drama that many, many shows are trying to emulate. The show began in 1993 and centered it's story around Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz), a detective in the 15th Precinct and took place in New York City (hence the name). The show got off to a moderate start and had barely began to push the envelope or even scratch the surface of true "life" in the streets of New York.   In time, though, it went on to become a really provocative TV show, showing partial (acceptable for TV) male and female nudity and I'm convinced spawned dozens of  "provocative" other shows, no matter what the genre and has practically set today's TV standard. Without this show, there probably wouldn't be a "Law and Order" franchise or "CSI", none of which got my attention like this show did. Not just for what they showed, but the powerful topics and especially the "human drama" which seemed to ooze from Sipowicz. In the shows 10 year + history, Andy has lost 3 partners, a wife and a son. It's how he dealt with each loss, through a battle with alcoholism and other personal demons that made this show great.   The feature cast surrounding him is always fun to watch too. Again, rotating actors and characters came and went, but the center, the crux of the show remained, which is why it's lasted so long. I think in this case, the exits and arrivals were so beautifully done that one could see Andy's partners and colleagues as "chapters". Thus far, after the aforementioned losses, this current regime has been going strong 2 years + now. I think this show will last a few more seasons before hanging up it's holster for good and I look forward to watching how it all plays out in the end. The only drawback to this series is that, in later years, it's been plagued by pre-emption practically every time the wind blows. I think that too, adds to it's current longevity.   These are but a small sample of my all time favorite TV shows. Each has depth, character and a "life" all it's own. My true TV habits have far more age and range almost as diverse as the channels they find themselves on. From Saturday Morning Cartoons growing up, to primetime dramas like the above and "ER", action shows like "MacGyver" (my best friend's favorite) to primetime soaps like "90210" and "Melrose Place", comedies like "Must See TV Thursday" for the past decade or so (Cheers, Cosby, Friends, etc.) to even daytime soaps "All My Children" and "Days of Our Lives". Let's not forget today's cable shows "Oz", "Sopranos", "Six Feet Under" and the like. Even sports have their day. All of them. All these shows on certain days in their time period filled many a night of mine in front of the TV. To me, this was an escape from reality, a break into a fantasy what life could be like scenario, easy to get caught up in. In a world full of wars, sick, dying, homeless and downtrodden, while life also offers love, family, friends and joy, mind you, TV is like looking on the other side of the mirror, stepping into a world of the good, the bad and the ugly. All of which has it's own draws. Like life, tastes vary and variety and diversity are all too common on this side of the looking glass.

dave626@earthlink.net