Using an ensemble cast of 14, which included Bochco's then-wife Barbara Bosson, college buddy Charles Haid and best friend James B. Sikking, Bochco and cocreator Michael Kozoll wrote story lines that were never resolved in an hour. "We were trying to do something we hadn't done before," Bochco says. "We never thought of it as pushing the envelope."
Everyone else did. As former NBC chairman Grant Tinker told TIME magazine in 1988, "Steve has always been one to break the rules. He does it more cleverly, even diabolically, than anyone else. He rocks the boat as a hobby."
After Hill Street snagged a record-setting eight Emmys in its second season, Bochco, who had paid his dues as a scriptwriter and story editor on crime shows like Columbo and The Name of the Game, was given a free pass to keep rocking. L.A. Law (1986-1994) squeezed humor, and drama, out of divorce and civil litigation. "I thought, 'If I can create the illusion of a full-service law firm, then I can free myself from having to do a murder mystery every week,' " says Bochco, 55, whose fertile imagination also produced Doogie Howser, M.D., Hooperman and Murder One.
After the 1990 failure of the operatic Cop Rock, Bochco decided again in 1993 to break the rules of TV drama. The gritty NYPD Blue, which reunited Bochco with Dennis Franz from Hill Street and Jimmy Smits from L.A. Law, made network suits anxious. To compete with the forbidding specter of cable TV, Bochco introduced partial nudity (so far 12 actors have bared their flesh) and raw language (the ABC broadcast-standards department permits 37 foul words per episode). When NYPD Blue premiered on Sept. 21, 1993, 57 ABC local stations refused to air it. It is now regularly in the Nielsen Top 10.
Bochco's gift, says Joe Spano, 52, who played Det. Henry Goldblume on Hill Street, "is his ability to tell a tale and to hire people who also know how to tell a tale." The results are so believable that "sometimes I've had detectives point out specific scenes and say, 'My partner did that to me,' " says NYPD Blue's Kim Delaney, 37. The characterizations ring true, in part, because Bochco likes to work with people he knows well. Says pal of 35 years Charles Haid, 55, who played Hill Street's crude Renko and is now a successful TV director: "He often writes toward the personality—I hate to say it, but he did with me. There's no one in the world that can write a hemorrhoid or boil joke the way this man can."
Bochco has no qualms about stealing his actors' experiences. L.A. Law's Harry Hamlin, 47, now married to actress Lisa Rinna and father of a 9-month-old daughter, remembers sharing a few anecdotes with his boss. "One Halloween," he says, "I was in court on an inconsequential civil matter and the clerks were wearing costumes. The next week, lo and behold, I'm wearing a gorilla outfit in court on the show. One day on the set I mooned somebody next to the coffee stand. Steven happened to see that and in the next script, I mooned some cops."
Bochco also incorporates the serendipitous. "I was in a scene with Jimmy Smits when we ended up singing 'Duke of Earl' together in a car," says Dennis Franz, 54. "It could have been edited from the show, but it turned into a little wonderful thing that always touched my heart."
The plot twists frequently come out of left field. "A lot of people write in that comedy-drama style, but he set a standard," says L.A. Law's Corbin Bernsen, 44, who, after eight seasons playing snarky divorce lawyer Arnie Becker, moved to London with his wife, British actress Amanda Pays, and their four sons. Now living in L.A. again with his family, Bernsen says, "Very few people believe in that absurd world like Steven does." As Susan Ruttan, 49, who played Bernsen's lovesick secretary and now keeps busy with guest spots on shows such as Suddenly Susan, points out, "Who could have predicted Arnie and Roxanne falling through the ceiling? Steven always kept you off-balance."
Perhaps Bochco's most famous absurdity is the Venus Butterfly, a never-revealed bedroom maneuver that L.A. Law's Michael Tucker used to win over Jill Eikenberry. Eikenberry, who is married to Tucker in real life, remembers visiting her mom in Wisconsin when Bochco called late at night with the idea. "He said, 'Listen to this!' " Eikenberry recalls. "He knew that it was going to be an amazing thing. I think the Venus Butterfly was responsible for catapulting us in the ratings." Ironically, after the show ended, the couple dropped out of Hollywood to study tantric sex in their new home near Mill Valley, Calif. "We discovered that the key to a good relationship is to focus on the woman's fulfillment," says Tucker, 55. "We still get asked about the Venus Butterfly," adds Eikenberry, 51. "Now that we know what it is, we're not telling!"
Being inducted into the Bochco universe was a life-changing experience for the unknown actors he hired. Betty Thomas, 51, now the successful director of The Brady Bunch Movie and Dr. Dolittle, remembers using her Hill Street paychecks to buy her first color TV and washer and dryer. "I bought a great house," recalls Michele Greene, 37, who played L.A. Law's Abby Perkins. "It was so exciting to be part of something that was so big at the time." Bochco's brother-in-law Alan Rachins, 56, acted for 24 years before L.A. Law (and now Dharma & Greg) brought him mainstream success. "I'm a very late bloomer," he says. "I loved my role. It was a love affair."
Bochco knows how to keep the fires burning. "Steven will say, 'Hey, I just saw a director's cut of episode 4 and you broke my heart,' " says NYPD Blue's Andrea Thompson, 39. "Kudos have been missing for me in other jobs." Adds Hill Street's Sikking, 65: "Steven is capable of being extremely interested in others. I'd trade all my success to maintain my friendship with him."
The New York City-born son of a concert violinist father and a painter mother, Bochco even remains on good terms with ex-wife Bosson, 59, mother of his two grown children. "He knows how to bring out the best in everybody he works with. We always had such a good time on the set," she says. Michael Warren, 53, who played Officer Bobby Hill on Hill Street and has since appeared in Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding, remembers a running joke about his thinning hair. "Bruce Weitz started calling my hairpieces Little Willies," he recalls. "He'd come up to me and say, 'Little Willie's a little far back today.' " The camaraderie is no accident. "In the casting process, one of the things Bochco considers is how easy is this person going to be to work with, is he going to be part of the family?" says NYPD Blue's Gordon Clapp, 50.
Blair Underwood, 34, remembers nervously joining the top-rated L.A. Law in its second season. "It would be like walking into ER now," he says. "Steven put his arm around me and said, 'I want you to know you have a home for the next five years.' " NYPD Blue rookie Rick Schroder, 28, had a similar experience. "Everyone's been great, especially Dennis," says Schroder, who commutes to the set from Colorado, where he has been living with his wife and three kids. Schroder can take further comfort from Jimmy Smits, 43, whom he replaced last December. "You know when you get a Bochco show you're going to get something different, you're going to get something innovative, and you're going to get good writing," Smits says. "And when you give that to an actor," chimes in L.A. Law's Susan Dey, 46, "it's Christmas."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
