The Best TV Cop Shows Ever

Police dramas top the TV viewers' popularity lists every year, but think for a moment about what makes a show a high quality program as opposed to just another whodunit. Here's my picks of the best from the past and why they deserve praise.

Hill Street Blues:

When Steven Bochco studied at Carnegie-Mellon University (then known as Carnegie Tech) in the '60's, he was impressed with the dramatic potential of the police station in Pittsburgh's Hill District. He turned his observations into a gritty, realistic drama set in an unspecified urban area, populated with fascinating misfit characters.

Contrast the straight-laced and relentlessly one dimensional type of cop we were used to like Steve McGarrett of Hawaii Five-O with weird Bochco characters like Detective Mick Belker, who looked and acted like a homeless lunatic. Remember Lt. Howard Hunter, one tightly wound step away from berserk, played by James B. Sikking?

Hill Street Blues marked the introduction of the huge ensemble cast, new camera techniques, multiple story arcs and vivid characters with human foibles and lives we cared about.

NYPD Blue:

Steven Bochco teamed up with David Milch to kick it all up a notch with NYPD Blue. Like Hill Street Blues, this show had intertwining story arcs, shaky camera work, complex characters and all the realism of the streets. You could practically smell the rancid air of the detectives' gloomy office.

Few characters could embody shades of gray more than Detective Andy Sipowicz, initially presented to us as a raging, foul-tempered alcoholic who over the years sobered into showing his damaged vulnerability. Bochco continually pressed the limits to insert more adult language. When Andy Sipowicz grabbed part of his anatomy and snarled back at uptight ADA Sylvia Costas, "Ipsa this, you pissy little bitch!" we knew we were no longer in Matlockland.

Detective Greg Medavoy, as portrayed by Gordon Clapp, was a TV cop that broke the traditional mold. A bumbly civil servant, Medavoy lacked every dashing, glamorous attribute of stock character detectives, but reminded us of the guy at the next desk we've all known at work.

Unfortunately, by the end of its run, NYPD Blue dissolved into a hour of characters giving each other shifty, meaningful glances, but in its heyday, it excelled.

Homicide: Life on the Street:

The book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon provided the inspiration for this series written and directed by Tom Fontana. Simon shadowed real detectives for this look at the grim crime scene in Charm City, and several episodes were based on real cases, including the haunting, never-solved case of Adena Watson.

Homicide: Life on the Street tended to include more pretty people actors than the other realistic series, but even these characters were highly multi-dimensional and tortured by quirks and angst. Referred to as the "Murder Police" these detectives made us feel their pain, loneliness and anger like no other show's characters.

In many episodes, we watched suspects come unraveled in "The Box" under interrogation by the detectives, and in long story arcs we witnessed the job destroy the men and women who "spoke for the dead."

This was one of the first shows to axe anonymous background music and give us atmospheric and relevant popular music to accompany the plot.

NBC deserved being the focus of fan anger through much of the show's run, because it seemed to never really allow the program to succeed. The Friday night time slot was a loser, and the ratings never matched the profuse critical acclaim. Always one step ahead of cancellation, Homicide: Life on the Street remains the pinnacle of fine police drama.

The Wire:

We can't mention the greats from the past without a nod to the present leader, The Wire. Continuing to explore Baltimore's lurid side with another Simon inspired series, The Wire goes beyond the world of cops and criminals into politics, media and the community to reveal the tangled morass of urban culture.