NYPD Blue or Hill Street Blues?

Did a rewatch of NYPD Blue a few months ago. Tried Hill Street Blues right after that and barely made it through the first episode. Might have been unfair since what I really wanted was more NYPD Blue.

HSB for me..... and Veronica Hamel.

Both are among the best series ever. Choosing one to watch depends on the type of show that you like.

HSB had many plots in each episode due to a larger cast. NYPD spent more time on each story.

HSB - From the opening theme song to the ending credits.

HSB

Let’s be careful out there…

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HSB

Let’s be careful out there…

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I loved the episode when Howard (SWAT guy) got a tank

I gotta go with Hill Street Blues. To me, that's the show that changed the paradigm, and NYPD Blue simply made it a bit more gritty.
Have we ever determined where HSB was supposedly set? I always assumed NYC, but my dad used to say it felt more like Philly.

I think it was unmatched with the sheer variety it presented: you had the Captain with office politics (Furillo, Howard, etc). You had the uniforms with Renko and Bobby Hill. You had the shady detectives with Larue and Washington. You had the quiet detective with Henry, and the borderline nutcase with Belker.

I watched each in its original run. My memory was that Hill Street Blues was the better show. I did a rewatch of each a few years back and thought NYPD Blue was clearly better. Not sure what to make of that other than TV got better at that kind of show.

Hill Street Blues was a better overall show, IMHO. The talent in writing room was undeniable, the acting was really solid across the large cast and it is fairly described as the grandfather of the modern "Golden Age" dramas.

On the other hand, I recognize NYPD Blue as an inflection point - that moment when character dramas were changing from what they were to what they were going to become. I think they just sensationalized a little too much and the show ran on the headlines and image over substance.

(Is this a Dennis Franz thing? )

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Have we ever determined where HSB was supposedly set? I always assumed NYC, but my dad used to say it felt more like Philly.

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They were coy with it because they didn't want to do anything specifically regional.

FTR - many of the exteriors for the opening and shots of the station are Chicago and the cars are either Chicago PD cars or deliberate replicas. Many of the actual shooting locations are, obviously, in Los Angeles.

My impression it was always supposed to be a large, Midwest urban center approximating Chicago.