'Hill Street Blues' creator Steven Bochco dies at 74

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Steven Bochco, a writer and producer known for creating the groundbreaking police drama “Hill Street Blues,” died Sunday, a family spokesman said. He was 74.

The spokesman said Bochco died in his sleep after a battle with cancer.

He created several hit television shows including “L.A. Law,” ″NYPD Blue,” and “Doogie Howser, MD", and won 10 prime-time Emmys.

He was known for his risk-taking approach that brought gritty realism and large ensemble casts to the small screen.

Premiering in January 1981, “Hill Street Blues” challenged, even confounded the meager audience that sampled it. Then, on a wave of critical acclaim, the series began to click with viewers, while scoring a history-making 27 Emmy nominations its first year.

A cover image of "Hill Street Blues" /Photo via mtime.com

During its seven-season run, it won 26 Emmys and launched Bochco on a course that led to dozens of series and earned him four Peabody awards, in addition to the 10 Emmys.

In his self-published memoir “Truth Is a Total Defense: My Fifty Years in Television,” Bochco tells the story of his prolific career, which he began at 22 as a story editor on a popular NBC drama, “The Name of the Game,” all the way to “Murder in the First,” which ran on TNT from 2014 to 2016.

Tributes poured in from across Hollywood including collaborators and fellow producers.

Robert Iger, the chairman and CEO of Disney, tweeted: "Today, our industry lost a visionary, a creative force, a risk taker, a witty, urbane story teller with an uncanny ability to know what the world wanted. We were long-term colleagues, and longer term friends, and I am deeply saddened."

Fellow producer and screenwriter Joss Whedon said: "Absolutely one of the biggest influences on Buffy (and me) was HILL STREET BLUES. Complex, unpredictable and unfailingly humane. Steven Bochco changed television, more than once. He's a legend."

Source(s): AP ,AFP