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Vale: Steven Bochco

US screenwriter, best known for creating Hill Street Blues, LA Law & NYPD Blues, has died.

Celebrated US screenwriter Steven Bochco, best known for creating Hill Street Blues, LA Law & NYPD Blues, has died aged 74.

He died in his sleep on Sunday following a battle with cancer.

Hill Street Blues ran for 7 seasons from 1981, attracting critical acclaim despite an initial small audience.

With a universe of engaging yet flawed characters, a zippy pace, overlapping dialogue, and a documentary style it went on to win 26 Emmys.

Bochco bombed with his next series, Bay City Blues, about a minor-league baseball team, which led to a falling out with his production company. But he went on to create the hit legal drama LA Law, which ran from 1986 to 1994, and hired David E. Kelley, then a lawyer, as his protege.

After Cop Rock proved an embarrassing debacle in 1990, he rebounded with NYPD Blue, with collaborator David Milch, which aired from 1993 to 2005.

Bochco’s other series included Doogie Howser M.D., Philly, Brooklyn South, Murder One, Raising the Bar and Murder in the First.

Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger called Bochco “a visionary, a creative force, a risk taker, a witty, urbane story teller with an uncanny ability to know what the world wanted.”

Source: USA Today

4 Responses

  1. From memory Hill St Blues was the first ever US drama series to feature concurrent storylines stretched over multiple episodes. The network was concerned viewers would find it too confusing. Something we take for granted now.

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