RIP Steven Bochco

Television has lost a GIANT. There’s just no way to overstate the impact Steven Bochco had on the medium. All the David Chase’s and Matthew Weiner’s and Vince Gilligan’s and other masterful storytellers who created series that elevated the TV drama to an art owe a huge debt to Steven Bochco. And I bet each and every one would be the first to agree.

HILL STREET BLUES was revolutionary. Viewers had never seen a TV drama that complex, that gripping, that real. To be honest, most viewers didn’t know what to make of it at the start. It took the unflagging support of Grant Tinker, who presided over NBC, to keep the show on the air despite it’s paltry initial ratings.

Once America did catch on, the show received the appreciation, ratings, and Emmys it deserved. When CHEERS premiered in September of 1982 we were the lead-in to HILL STREET BLUES. Talk about “the Best Night of Television on television.”

I’m sure there are a thousand tributes. More groundbreaking shows like NYPD BLUE and LA LAW followed. Bochco also discovered and nurtured some pretty astounding writers like David Milch and David E. Kelley. Bochco pushed envelopes, he challenged networks, and he challenged audiences.

And all the while, he was a mensch.

That’s an important key. Without naming names, there are a number of these brilliant show creators that followed who were horrible to work for. They’d pummel their writers, take all the credit they could, and created a toxic atmosphere. Not Steven Bochco. He supported writers, protected writers, and allowed them to blossom.

I can’t say I was a friend of Steven Bochco’s. I was, at best, an acquaintance. We had seen each other enough at functions, or when we both worked at 20th Century Fox that he knew who I was. The first time I met him was when David Isaacs and I were nominated for a WGA Award for an episode of OPEN ALL NIGHT we had written. By the time the nominations were announced the show had been cancelled and the production company disbanded. We had to pay for our own tickets. We were placed at the HILL STREET BLUES table. Needless to say, none of the HILL STREET BLUES writers knew who we were or that OPEN ALL NIGHT had even existed. But Steven was warm and welcoming. He was the first to console us when we lost and the first to congratulate us when we won our Emmys. (Of course he had just won one too.)

The last time I saw him was a year ago. I was recording my interview segment for the CNN documentary series, THE ‘90s. Steven followed me. I remember thinking he looked very thin. But he was his usual chipper self. I didn’t know he was sick. Perhaps others who were more on the inside did, but I had no idea. If you watch that segment (and CNN reruns it a lot, God bless ‘em), see for yourself. But anytime I was with Steven Bochco I knew I was in the presence of a giant. He leaves behind a legacy of excellence, vision, innovation, conviction, and inspiration. I wish I had had the chance to work for him.