NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues Creator Steven Bochco Passes Away at Seventy-Four

Steven Bochco, an icon of television who created shows like NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues, has passed away. TV Line has confirmed that Bochco died on Sunday after a long fight against leukemia at the age of seventy-four.

Bochco’s influence on the television landscape can’t be underestimated, with such legendary shows as NYPD Blue, Hill Street, L.A. Law and Doogie Howser M.D. among his creations. Boscho was born in New York City in December of 1943 to concert pianist Rudolph Bochco and his wife, painter Mimi. Bochco attended the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan and then moved on to the Carnegie Institute of Technology which he graduated from in 1966. Soon after graduation, he began working at Universal Pictures as a writer of television series on such shows as Columbo and Ironside.

His first television creation was The Bold Ones: The New Doctors in 1969, which he co-created with Richard H. Landau, Paul Mason. He developed The Invisible Man as a sci-fi adventure in 1975, but it was Hill Street Blues which rose him to prominence in the business. The police drama, which he co-created with Michael Kozoll, became an icon of the early 1980s and won four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama. He would move on to create Hooperman, a dramedy starring John Ritter, and L.A. Law which became another critical and commercial hit, in 1987. Doogie Howser, M.D., which launched Neil Patrick Harris’ career, arrived in 1989

Several other series followed, notably the now-infamous musical police drama Cop Rock which was a flop in 1990. Animated political comedy Capitol Critters was also less than successful, but Bochco had one of his most famous successes with NYPD Blue alongside David Milch in 1993. Blue was controversial for its willingness to push the envelope in terms of content, but was a critical and ratings juggernaut for much of its twelve-season run and picked up a total of twenty Emmy Awards.

Bochco began winding down his work in television after NYPD Blue a bit, but still kept busy. He served as showrunner for the single-season drama Commander in Chief and co-created USA Network’s Murder in the First, which ran from 2014 to 2016. Many of television’s current generation of writers have cited Bochco as an influence in his work, and he won four Peabody Awards: one for Hill Street Blues, one for L.A. Law and two for NYPD Blue.

On behalf of 411, our condolences to the fans, friends and family of Mr. Bochco. Television would not be the same without him, and he will be missed.