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Jul. 18th, 2010 08:49 amDay 18 - Favorite title sequence
I barely need to say anything about this. Just watch.
Fine. A few extra Hill Street Blues reasons- for me, anyway.
I always watched and always loved the show when it was on, yet never watched it in syndication, so when I do come across a moment from it, I have pretty powerful where-were-you-then recollections of the scene, the character, the line. The never-named Northern city of its setting was, in many ways, B-lo; nothing was filmed here, but some of the most influential writers, including David Milch and Anthony Yerkovich, were from here, and the series always had a generous toss of references to distinctly local street names like Hertel Avenue.
The cast, few of whom had ever starred before, was built strong and stayed strong. When Sarge’s performer died early on, they segued the role to Robert Prosky, who, while never as big as Phil, did a fine job for the rest of the run. You laughed; you thought; you cared.
But this is about titles. Point taken. Unlike the themes to several of shows which I’ve recalled in recent days doing this thing, Mike Post’s theme never left me (even if his damn name did a few weeks back). Just hearing the sound of a garage door being manually opened is often enough to cue up those first soft, simple piano chords. Throw in the extended version released to radio at the time, which Larry Carlton played on, and you’ve got my heart BUSTED, dogbreath!
As that timeless music played, each actor got the same couple seconds of time, in contract-billing rather than alphabetical order, to speechlessly nail their characters, and they did. Watch again: Frank’s frantic over-the-shoulderness. Sarge’s and Bobby’s natural yet different laughs. Belker’s, well, Belkerness. Howard playing with dangerous toys. Henry all buttoned down. Faye looking clueless and Washington looking cool. On and on until Joyce shows up to seduce an entire nationwide audience with her brain.
I don’t remember many of the episodes as well as I do those from other multi-viewed or more recent fandoms, but if I could only take 60 seconds of video with me onto that desert island, these would definitely be in the running.
I barely need to say anything about this. Just watch.
Fine. A few extra Hill Street Blues reasons- for me, anyway.
I always watched and always loved the show when it was on, yet never watched it in syndication, so when I do come across a moment from it, I have pretty powerful where-were-you-then recollections of the scene, the character, the line. The never-named Northern city of its setting was, in many ways, B-lo; nothing was filmed here, but some of the most influential writers, including David Milch and Anthony Yerkovich, were from here, and the series always had a generous toss of references to distinctly local street names like Hertel Avenue.
The cast, few of whom had ever starred before, was built strong and stayed strong. When Sarge’s performer died early on, they segued the role to Robert Prosky, who, while never as big as Phil, did a fine job for the rest of the run. You laughed; you thought; you cared.
But this is about titles. Point taken. Unlike the themes to several of shows which I’ve recalled in recent days doing this thing, Mike Post’s theme never left me (even if his damn name did a few weeks back). Just hearing the sound of a garage door being manually opened is often enough to cue up those first soft, simple piano chords. Throw in the extended version released to radio at the time, which Larry Carlton played on, and you’ve got my heart BUSTED, dogbreath!
As that timeless music played, each actor got the same couple seconds of time, in contract-billing rather than alphabetical order, to speechlessly nail their characters, and they did. Watch again: Frank’s frantic over-the-shoulderness. Sarge’s and Bobby’s natural yet different laughs. Belker’s, well, Belkerness. Howard playing with dangerous toys. Henry all buttoned down. Faye looking clueless and Washington looking cool. On and on until Joyce shows up to seduce an entire nationwide audience with her brain.
I don’t remember many of the episodes as well as I do those from other multi-viewed or more recent fandoms, but if I could only take 60 seconds of video with me onto that desert island, these would definitely be in the running.