Joshua Rich
Daily Arts Editor
As a young Capitol Hill intern in the summer of 1993, I attended the regular brouhahas that were Rep. Ed Markey's (D-Mass.) committee hearings on profanity and offensive material on television. Held in a big, stuffy room in the Rayburn House Office Building, the meetings seemed remarkably familiar. They were eerily reminiscent of old newsreel clippings of McCarthy's 1950s witch trials. In this case, though, a mere TV show was scrutinized.
A few big Hollywood producers and white-haired TV gods arrived to tell how they were going to revolutionize TV. They were going to give the American people flashy new dramas, hip comedies and a certain program that would be the best on the tube.
The best ... ay, there was the rub!
The media circus at whose heart I found myself sitting was a gimmick. A cheap trick. A ploy organized by a few strict members of congress who had invited some showbiz bigwigs to pitch in their two cents.
And while the term "V-chip" was never far from any elected official's lips, an innovative new cop drama that was all the buzz of Tinseltown became the real issue of debate.
"'NYPD Blue' is coming to ABC next season," bragged one of the honchos sitting before the committee. He promised the nervous representatives that this would be a landmark show - the program that would be so remarkable that it would break the long-standing taboo prohibiting graphic material from the little screen. (In recent years, a panelist at that hearing - Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America and father of the MPAA's ratings system - has noted that "NYPD Blue" would probably get a "PG-13" rating were it a feature film.)
But while Washington was warming up to this wonderful new show, Averagetown, U.S.A., wasn't so keen. Numerous ABC affiliates blacked out the program, claiming their audiences did not deserve to see a show that included mild profanity and brief nudity - even after 10 p.m.
Well ... the joke's on them: Having opened its fourth season Tuesday evening with typically high ratings, "NYPD Blue" returned as the best program TV has to offer.
Three years after the big to-do in Washington, there is still no "V-chip" for sale at every Radio Shack in America, plenty of graphic language and imagery remains on the show and few stations dare prevent their audiences from watching it.
"NYPD Blue" marches on.
What once was a major cause of concern for politicians who feared it would corrupt America, has become a fantastic phenomenon greater than anyone may have anticipated. And what a pleasant surprise that is.
Nevertheless, "NYPD Blue" has undergone some reconstruction since producer Steven Bochco - creator of "Hill Street Blues" and "L.A. Law" - brought it to TV. A silly disclaimer now warns that the show contains "scenes of a frank and explicit nature" - even though it is on long after the little ones have gone to bed. Now an almost entirely different cast works in New York's 15th police precinct (after ballsy David Caruso left the show to pursue what has become a dud of a big-screen career, and others followed suit). The show's trademark shaky-camera technique and fresh, raw cinematic styles have been copied by numerous envious competitors. And talented actors like Dennis Franz, Jimmy Smits, James McDaniel, Sharon Lawrence and Nicholas Turturro - the show's true cement - are now given the accolades and recognition they have long deserved.
Since its inception, "NYPD Blue" has not folded to political, industrial or critical pressures; it has consistently remained the lone gem of high-quality television. It is a show that risks to exhibit graphic violence, a show that presents people of all levels of beauty in various stages of undress (all to the betterment of its gripping plots) and a show that has never compromised the profession or so-called "real life" that it intends to depict. So nice try, Michael Crichton, creator of "ER." Even if you let dinosaurs run wild through your show, "NYPD Blue" will still be superior to the banal medical drama competition you provide on NBC.
I'll take the real thing any day.
So should Ed Markey - that is, once he gets his committee back in January.
- Joshua Rich can be reached over e-mail at jmrich@umich.edu.