Hill Street Blues: The Complete Series [DVD]

When the classic police drama "Hill Street Blues" began its historic run on NBC in 1981, it very quickly became my favorite TV show. At that time, I was in the sixth year of my U.S. Air Force career. Unfortunately, I was only able to see the entire first season and part of the second before I shipped out for the first of a pair of long overseas military assignments that kept me out of the U.S. until 1989. As a consequence, when I departed the U.S. in 1982, I never was able to see another episode......Until late last year, that is, when I purchased "Hill Street Blues: The Complete Series" from Amazon.com. This magnificent package from Shout! Factory contains all 146 episodes of the iconic show that changed the tone and format of police dramas forever, with its gritty realism, use of "handy cams," outstanding acting and writing, and multi-episode story arcs. Now I could watch all of the exploits of Furillo, Davenport, Hill, Renko, Hunter, Goldblume, and every other character in this wonderful show.There's not much I can add to the praise that's already been lavished on the show itself, so I won't even make the attempt. I will comment on the quality of the "Hill Street Blues: The Complete Series" package. I was extremely impressed with Shout! Factory's efforts to provide a first-class product to its customers. Each episode is shown in its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio. The video and audio quality are both top-notch. Colors are appropriately vivid throughout, and images are sharp and well-defined. Video resolution is sharper than I expected for DVDs. There's a certain filmic feel to the episodes, brought on by a light layer of film grain that's always present. Stereo 2-channel audio is clear and crisp, with a nice balance of low, mid, and high range frequencies.The packaging in which "Hill Street Blues: The Complete Series" arrived deserves praise for its quality as well. The package contains 34 discs, with each season's discs (4 or 5 single-sided discs per season) mounted in its own standard-sized, multi-disc DVD case. The DVDs are all securely mounted inside each case, so they're easy to handle and there's almost no chance of them getting damaged.I'm still in the process of watching the entire season for the first time. So far, I've made it halfway through Season 4. I am constantly mesmerized by "Hill Street Blues," which doesn't seem dated, even 30-plus years after it first was broadcast. I'm sure I am going to continue enjoying this series for years to come. Most highly recommended.

I loved this series in the 80s, especially since Furillo completely matched my Dad's integrity as he was also in a stressful job dealing with political idiots and opportunists and didn't stand for people doing the wrong thing but at the same time he was compassionate and respected by everyone.The quality is quite good, the same as the original Fox release of Seasons 1 and 2 and the iTunes 1-3. There are one or two episodes in the final season that have a warning at the front that says 'mastered from the best available sources' however the quality on a 92 inch projection screen was very good, probably just ever so slightly less definition than the other episodes with the slightest ghosting on the edge of the pillar box.On a 40-50 inch plasma or LCD I doubt you'd notice the difference. For some reason though, the same as broadcast episodes the opening titles in Season 6 look as though they used a really old version of the film stock, don't know why, perhaps there was a reason for it at the time but I remember it having a very slightly different tone in the opening music during one of the seasons when I watched it in 1986 and that must have been it - perhaps only a couple of seasons before the end they were looking to re-use some bits that no one would necessarily notice and it's probably only noticeable now because of the HD capability of modern equipment. I watched the entire series again as alluded to above on a 92 inch screen from a Marantz DV9500 DVD Player (top of the range at the time of purchase and upscaling to 720p), the projector is 1080p and I thought it was fine - only comment would be it's obviously from whatever studio masters they had access to and unlike internet downloads there are NO scenes missing, all complete.All in all a fantastic package.I remember LOTS of Entertainment Tonight segments and spots on HSB when it was on the air, pity they couldn't get hold of that old footage for special features but what there is are very good.I am rapt with this, been waiting since the 90s for this and thanks to Shout Factory for doing it, brickbats to Fox for being useless curmudgeons and not remastering it for Bluray, it certainly deserves it considering its place as a paradigm shifting series in TV history. It holds up extremely well today because it pioneered everything used in current quality TV - ensemble cast, handheld camera work, gritty realism (the police cars were beaten up and dirty unlike any police show before it), going from one moment of laughter or reflection to gunshots going off and death unexpectedly. I remember how shocking that was in 1981-87 and how at the time it was 'West Wing-like' and totally the most intelligent, most exceptionally well written and produced show on TV. The scripts were required reading in classes at Universities.

I really enjoyed Hill Street Blues when it aired in the 80s, and enjoy it as much now. Some really great stories. There were a few too many repetitive gags, though for the most part the characters do evolve.Fun fact: You can fast forward through any scene with Fay and not miss a worthwhile thing. It's my understanding that Bochco cast his wife in the role for the pilot as a one time thing, but a network exec insisted she be made a regular, so blame Fred Silverman for that poor decision. I don't blame the actress. Who would think it's a good idea for the ex-wife of a police captain to constantly barge into his office like that?I'm into season 4 now, and just had my first glitch where I had to skip over a few seconds of a disc. Otherwise it's been 100% playable and entirely watchable for the SD version that it is.

I love this show! I did not have a chance to watch it when it was on tv. This set of dvd's is great. I can sit down and watch them now. Love the characters and story lines. I do mean they have characters on this show. It is a very chaotic police station run by a very calm Captain and Sgt. Love this show! The dvd's are in good condition I only had a problem with one so far. It comes with a small book giving history of the show and a description of the episodes. Great entertainment. You do have to wonder how they solved crimes without cell phones and computers back in the 80's.