I watched the show about a year and half in, during the "Jimmy Smits" years and maybe two beyond. When Smits and Kim Delaney, the leads that I liked best had left I gave it one year then left, too.
They are both so doable! Yum!
NYPD BLUE is at last over.
It was really good for a good, long while.
March 1, 2005
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Watching the Detectives
By LUCAS MILLER
WITH the 12-year run of "NYPD Blue" ending tonight, I have to confess deep affection for the show, and not just because of its much lauded realism. The show started when I was a rookie in New York, and I was struck by how much Detective John Kelly, played by David Caruso, seemed like some of the guys at my station house. I recognized his wonder at the cruelties of the world. I also recognized the anger in Dennis Franz's Andy Sipowicz: the bizarre mix of nobility and self-destructiveness. But most of all, I recognized the language and the sets. The grungy office really did look just like the one in my precinct, and the producers used the old Ninth Precinct station house on East Fifth Street for the outside shots.
Yes, the dialogue was highly stylized, but it was a style pretty close to that of a lot of real detectives. (This was no wonder - the show's creator, Steven Bochco, recruited a veteran homicide detective, Bill Clark, to be a co-producer.) Even after I had a few years on the job, I had to ask the veterans about the more obscure terms from the show: we all knew "61" (a complaint report) and "skel" (a dirtbag). But what is a "yellow sheet"? A "57"? (A rap sheet and a request for a transfer, respectively.)
Real cops are not usually fans of cop shows - I don't know any who like "CSI," be it set in Miami, New York or Peoria - but "NYPD Blue" was popular with my colleagues. That the public cared to watch a show that looked and sounded a little like us was flattering. I had a commander in Narcotics who had a picture of a woman on his desk; I always assumed it was his wife. One day I looked closely and saw that it was an autographed picture of Kim Delaney, who played Detective Diane Russell on the show.
Many police officers maintain that the most realistic police show in the history of television was the sitcom "Barney Miller," far more so than that father of reality TV, "Cops." The action was mostly off screen, the squad room the only set, and the guys were a motley bunch of character actors who were in no danger of being picked for the N.Y.P.D. pin-up calendar. But they worked hard, made jokes, got hurt and answered to their straight-man commander.
In the end, I guess it wasn't the realism that made me such a fan of "NYPD Blue." It was that the show made detective work look as romantic and as satisfying as I think it is.
For real detectives, most of the action does happen off screen, and we spend a lot of time back in the squad room writing reports about it. Like Barney Miller's squad, we crack jokes at one another, at the cases that come in, and at the crazy suspect locked in the holding cell six feet from the new guy's desk. Life really is more like "Barney Miller" than "NYPD Blue," but our jokes aren't nearly as funny.
As for the "CSI" franchise, it's certainly true that more and more cases will be solved with DNA evidence. But let's face it, the technical aspects of shows like "CSI," and also the legal wrangling of the "Law and Order" dynasty, don't have the appeal of "NYPD Blue" - nobody fantasizes about being an assistant district attorney.
Real detectives spend a lot of time talking to people - witnesses, suspects, victims - and the really good ones can read people very well. Frequently, it's obvious who did the crime - detectives just have to find the evidence to prove it. Sometimes, when there is no evidence, a confession is the only way to lock the guy up. "NYPD Blue" was right to emphasize that aspect.
But the thing that most lacked authenticity and jarred my sensibilities - even more than glimpses of Dennis Franz's naked behind - was the brutality of the typical interrogation. It wasn't a stretch that Detective Sipowicz played fast and loose with the rules sometimes, but in real life you can't beat or threaten suspects into confessing - not only because it is wrong, but also because it won't work. How often did you feel like telling the high school bully your innermost secrets?
In the end, I guess it wasn't the realism that made me such a fan of "NYPD Blue." It was that the show made detective work look as romantic and as satisfying as I think it is. Believe it or not, sometimes being a cop is just as exciting as what you see on TV. And once in a long while, we really can see who the bad guy is when we meet him, he does confess, and we really do solve the case in one episode. I loved watching that.
Lucas Miller is a detective with the New York Police
Department.
One more... I'm guessing this is about 10 years old. 
Is it getting hot in here...She's so nummy!
Consistantly excellent sense of style over the years, too.
Great sense of style :sigh:
Hey! That's Jenny from "All My Children"! I haven't seen her since then. The years have been kind.
Posted by: Her Brother | March 02, 2005 at 02:27 PM