[mkleesma]

(CNN) -- "Sopranos" fan? "Breaking Bad" binge-watcher? "Mad Men" admirer? Take a moment to thank "Hill Street Blues." "There is no 'Sopranos' without 'Hill Street Blues,' " says Syracuse University pop culture professor Robert Thompson, who wrote a book tracing "Hill Street's" influence. "Matt Weiner ('Mad Men') and Vince Gilligan ('Breaking Bad') and David Chase ('The Sopranos') and all these people ought to wake up every morning and send a note to 'Hill Street Blues.' " Graphic: The children of 'Hill Street' The entire seven-season run of the groundbreaking series comes out on DVD Tuesday. It wasn't a success that could have been predicted. When it premiered on NBC in January 1981, "Hill Street" was unlike anything else on American television. It was a serialized mixture of drama and comedy featuring diverse, colorful and three-dimensional characters -- the policemen and policewomen of the rundown Hill Street Station. It was well-written, boldly directed and creatively revolutionary. Still, initial ratings were poor and audiences were confused. It stayed on through a combination of key corporate support, determination and a little bit of luck. The result? Two decades of dominance for the Peacock Network -- "Hill Street" was the first cornerstone of its Thursday lineup -- and the bounty of novelistic TV series we see today. "It just changed the rules of TV," its producer, Steven Bochco, said in an interview.

[Buckeye McFrog]

'Hill Street Blues': The most influential TV show ever

Based on Pittsburgh's most notorious Amish neighborhood. (though one that is starting to gentrify)

[dfwgator]

Benny Hill Street Blues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pubg7s7wzEs

[Resolute Conservative]

I vote for Gilligan’s Island.

[skinkinthegrass]

!

[Oztrich Boy]

Most. influential. show. Ever?

hardly. It was a another cop show, not the first. And twenty years later the Sopranos? long pregnancy.

OTOH: Two words Vampire Shows, the new genre of the 21st Century

And "It was a serialized mixture of drama and comedy featuring diverse, colorful and three-dimensional characters "

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Also No Buffy, no Angel, No Summer Glau

[McGruff]

Never watched it.