Bay City Blues

Five years before Ron Shelton turned his script for Bull Durham into his directorial dbut, NBC aired Bay City Blues, which introduced millions of people to the pleasures, idiosyncrasies, and slightly desperate aura surrounding the minor leagues.  NBC’s prime...

The Shows That Changed Television

Television’s progress as a creative medium began, arguably, with I Love Lucy, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.  When the television series about a ditzy redhead married to a Cuban bandleader premiered on CBS in 1951, it introduced the three-camera format...

Thursdays at 10

For nearly 30 years, from 1981 to 2009, NBC defined quality television programming in the 10:00 p.m. time slot.  Hill Street Blues debuted in 1981 and changed the production of television drama. Story lines became story arcs, lasting several episodes.  Moving cameras...

The Doctors Are In

When City Hospital premiered in 1952, it set off the medical genre for prime time television.  Naturally, shows about medical implications offer drama that, in the right hands, captivate audiences. St. Elsewhere followed the model of Hill Street Blues by using story...

Furillo, Esterhaus, et al.

Hill Street Blues began NBC’s tradition of quality drama in the 1o:00 p.m. time slot on Thursday nights.  This tradition lasted nearly three decades, ending in 2009 when The Jay Leno Show occupied the hour. Premiering in 1981 to 1987, Hill Street Blues changed...