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From: krantz@csd2.UUCP (Michaelntz)
Newsgroups: net.tv
Subject: Re: Hill Street Blues; Who's the best Co
Message-ID: <4040001@csd2.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Dec-85 22:16:00 EST
Article-I.D.: csd2.4040001
Posted: Tue Dec 24 22:16:00 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 26-Dec-85 03:59:43 EST
References: <96000011@haddock.UUCP>
Organization: New York University
Lines: 83

/* csd2:net.tv / jimc@haddock.UUCP / 12:10 pm  Dec 20, 1985 */

Hello out there.

jimc@haddock writes, in brief:

> ...WHO IS THE BEST COP IN THE HILL STREET STATION, AND WHY?
> 

It certainly is not Lieutenant Buntz, who is the character portrayed
by Dennis Franz.  I find his character so repulsive that I feel less
inclined to watch Hill Street than in previous seasons
                                            Personally, I think
the best cops are (of course), Captain Frank Furillo and Lieutenant
Henry Goldblum. 


As a longtime "Hill Street" freak:

First, as regards Lieutenant Buntz.  Don't you think it's time 
that we had a cop on the Hill whom we really disliked?  Buntz
is hardly an angel; in fact he's probably a criminal - or will
be, soon.  Let's recall that in a previous incarnation on the
show, he played an utter scum with a badge, who eventually died 
in a blaze of red-handedness.  He's cute, though, and thus far
passably moral (Note in this season's Xmas episode how he ended
up on the sidewalk collecting passersby to see the water-stain/
Virgin Mary Miracle in a down-and-outer's apartment because the
guy needed the donations to make rent?  Right?  So ease up on
him.  We'll see what the writers decide next year.

Furillo is a Captain, and thus, I think, not really eligible
for "Best Cop" nominations.  At any rate, he's also an alcoholic,
though in remission, and that might to some minds disqualify him
as well.

Goldblum, though I'm prejudiced in his favor since he's Jewish,
is kind of neurotic and very prone to freaking out, as we all
know.  Not a chance for him.

Belker?  Charming and skilled, but too weird to win, though
         his wife, whose name I forget, has to be the cutest
         woman in the force.

Hunter?  No way.

J.D.  Ditto.

Renko or Hill, Bates or Coffee?  All too inexperienced still.

In summation (harrumph, harrumph), I'd have to say that Neil
Washington is the best cop on the Hill.  Completely together,
very sharp, very canny, quite ethical, cucumber-cool in the
clutch.   

New Category for Nominations:  Best Exchange Between 2 Characters.


The chubby receptionist, after an altercation with Howard Hunter
in which he calls her, among other things, `porcine', locks
herself in the Men's Room and starts yelling.  Goldblum comes
up to the door to see what the noise is about, and Hunter says:

"My God, Henry, the woman's barricaded herself."

Henry, amused by the parallel to situations he and Howard have
faced in the past (psychotic gunmen holed up in apartment dwellings,
etc.), looks at Howard (who is, recall, in charge of SWAT-team
decisions) and says with mock gravity, a wry grin on his face:

"What do you say, Howard?  Should we take her out of the game?"

Hunter ponders a moment, then completes the joke: Seems premature."


So when do we get net.hillstreet?

Michael Krantz Courant Institute 251 Mercer St New York, NY 10012


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