Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 2, 1994 TAG: 9407040092
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Rick du Brow LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: HOLLYWOOD LENGTH: Medium
For one thing, most producers fail more than they succeed - it's the nature of TV. For another, Bochco was best known for the most expensive kind of shows - hourlong dramas such as "Hill Street Blues" and "L.A. Law" - so ABC's financial risk was even greater.
Thus, the strong ratings and critical acclaim that greeted Bochco's controversial police series, "NYPD Blue," this past season were crucial in validating the network's commitment to the original deal.
As Bochco himself acknowledges, it's only the second of his first six series for ABC that can be considered a popular success. The other was "Doogie Howser, M.D.," a sitcom about a teen-age doctor that was a moderate hit with viewers.
"If you do 10 shows and four succeed," maintains the 50-year-old Bochco, "that's pretty remarkable. When's the last time anyone [in baseball] hit .400? We've got two out of six, and that's not bad."
It's ironic, as Bochco notes, that his first hit for ABC turned out to be "Doogie Howser." One-hour series from his production company, including the experimental drama-with-music police show "Cop Rock" and "Civil Wars," about two attorneys specializing in divorce cases, "didn't succeed, and those are expensive failures," he says.
Others that didn't make it in the ratings were the recent family drama "The Byrds of Paradise," about a widowed Yale professor who moves with his children to Hawaii, and "Capitol Critters," an animated show about a mouse and his pals who live in the White House.
But "NYPD Blue" revved up the deal again as it quickly established itself as a Tuesday night must-see. After all the angst over protests about its language and nudity - mild compared to cable and films but relatively strong for networks - it would have been especially rough for ABC if it had failed, says Bochco: "Not `Tough luck, kid,' but `What the hell are you doing to us?' "
Despite strains during the years of the multiseries deal, says Bochco, ABC has been "pretty good" considering that "nothing generates the kind of clout that success generates. Let's face it: At the end of the day, that's all that anybody pays attention to."
What "NYPD Blue" did more than anything else for ABC - and, in fact, for all the networks - was demonstrate that traditional TV can compete with cable by breaking from its old standards to win back viewers.
"NYPD Blue" (which Bochco created with David Milch) also helped restore some faith in network drama at a time when the form is considered too expensive and is being replaced by cheaper-to-produce newsmagazines.
Bochco's seventh series for ABC, another hour drama, is a postponed commitment targeted at the fall of 1995. Since last Jan. 1, he says, he has been free "to take anything else elsewhere" after ABC "has looked at it and decided whether they want it."
The changing network atmosphere and the demise of dramas, says Bochco, had a definite impact on his attitude toward making "NYPD Blue" - and, in fact, whether to do the show at all.
"It strengthened my resolve to do `NYPD Blue' the way we did," he says. "I was kind of resistant to do a cop show. I had done the one that everyone generally points to as the best of its time [`Hill Street Blues']. I couldn't see doing another unless I could stake out a new base.
"ABC corporately was under enormous pressure from affiliates and advertisers. I'm not sure we could have accomplished this show on any other network."
Looking at his six series thus far for ABC, Bochco says:
"I loved `Doogie.' I know a lot of people in the critical community didn't. They thought it was well-made and preposterously conceived, and I disagree."
"Cop Rock" was "the most fun I ever had making a show. It illustrated the difference between failing and not succeeding. I don't feel we failed in making the show we wanted to make."
"Capitol Critters" was a show "I was never really able to plug into. It was such an odd experience because of the animation. I always felt it was a wonderful concept. And the success of `The Simpsons' made it possible to do. I don't regret it, but it's not something I took any particular pleasure or satisfaction from."
The failure of "Civil Wars" left him "frustrated. I felt we got off on the wrong foot. We probably conceptualized it a little too darkly. I felt we turned the show around. It was genuinely well written, but it simply lacked the alchemy required. It never captured the audience."
"The Byrds of Paradise" was "a sweet show, a family show." Yet he was struck by the fact that "NYPD Blue" became a smash despite being "vilified by pressure groups," while this family series, supposedly typifying "the values that people were crying was generally absent from television," went under.
by CNB