Does Anyone here agree with me because I feel like that "NYPD Blue" laid the groundwork for "The Shield" to flourish.
Shame NYPD Blue didn't receive a spin off. I can definitely a "L.A Law" legal drama airing concurrently with NYPD Blue.
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Hill Street Blues checking in.
Not really.
The first show that somewhat realistic police shows on the map was Hill Street Blues. Steven Bochco created Hill Street Blues, LA Law, and NYPD Blue.
Arguably, The Shield is closer to Hill Street Blues than to NYDP Blue. And Hill Street Blues was a massive success.
The Shield is also inspired by The Sopranos.
In NYBD Blue, the police officers bend or or break rules, but it's almost always done to charge and to convict criminals. In The Shield, some police officers are hardcore criminals who treat actual police works as a side job.
Hill Street Blues is somewhere in the middle. The police is shown in a sympathetic light, but there are moments of abuse of power and corruption.
Another highly influential police show was Homicide: Life on the Street.
There was an aborted attempt to make a new version in 2019 that was supposed to be a modern pick up of the old show, but I don’t believe ABC ever broadcast the pilot.
Not a bad Idea
I'm no tv expert, and I watched my fair share of tv in the mid to late 90's and early 2000's. So I was there when The Shield premiered on FX, and god knows I was aware of the show as FX just ran ads non-stop for like 6 months leading up to the show's premiere.
I don't think the theme of the show connects in any real way to NYPD Blue or Sipowicz. It really felt like The Shield was similar in tone to alot of Fox Network tv shows at the time. Like as if it was forcefully trying to be edgy.
I think it has more in common with Training Day, which came out around the same time.
Is that a question?
If you’re suggesting The Shield would not have been successful on its own without NYPD Blue then no I don’t agree. There were more than enough crime dramas to seed that ground.
there's almost zero in common between Blue and the Shield. Blue is an upgraded version of Hill Street Blues, which paved the way for more realistic police procedurals and a magnificent series in its own right. The Shield is a fast paced, reckless antihero action series disguised as a cop drama where realism is nowhere to be seen
My favorites from that era are Homicide: Life on the Streets, Millennium, and Forever Knight.