This is the eighth in a series of examinations of legends about television and the people involved in TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the previous seven.

This week is another special theme week! All Hill Street Blues-related legends!!!

Let’s begin!

TV LEGEND: Officers Renko and Hill were intended to be killed off at the end of the first episode of Hill Street Blues

STATUS: False, but at Least Partially True

Hill Street Blues debuted as a mid-season replacement in the middle of the 1980-81 TV season (January, to be precise). It is about the police department in a gritty town, most likely somewhere in the Midwest or the Northeast.

Each episode (more or less) is a “day in the life” type episode, following around the various officers, detectives, sergeants and captains of the police precinct on Hill Street.

An acclaimed drama, its great critical success (it won six Emmys its first season) and the burgeoning study of “demographics” (Hill Street Blues was watched mostly by more affluent viewers, allowing the show to sell more high end products in its commercials) allowed the show to be renewed for a second season despite terrible ratings (I believe at the time it was the lowest-rated show ever to be renewed for a second season). Eventually its ratings improved (and the critical acclaim remained) and the show ran for seven seasons, six of which were part of amazing 10 O’Clock hour on NBC’s Thursdays, a time slot that had literally three dramas air there regularly over the span of more than twenty-eight years (Hill Street Blues for six, L.A. Law for eight then E.R. for fifteen).

One of the most shocking parts of the first episode of Hill Street Blues is the tragic shooting of partners, Officer Bobby Hill and Officer Andy Renko, played by actors Michael Warren and Charles Haid, respectively.

At the the time of the shooting, it sure looked like both characters had been killed, but later in the episode, they both show up, showing the after-effects of the shooting (they’re both extra tense now that they’ve been shot - their friendship, also, is not as solid as it once was).

A long-lasting legend has sprung up based on behind-the-scenes talk mixed with the fact that they both looked pretty dead when the shooting happened. The legend is that the shooting was originally INTENDED to be fatal, but test audiences liked Hill and Renko so much that NBC told the producers of Hill Street Blues to bring them back.

That’s not true, but it’s awfully close to being true.

First off, yes, Renko was originally intended to die. Hill was not. Hill was going to eventually recover from his injuries and rejoin the cast. However, when I say “rejoin the cast,” Michael Warren was not originally intended to be the major player on the show that he ended up being. The original idea of Hill Street Blues (and really, this is more or less what it DID become) was to have a great deal of recurring characters playing officers and to have these actors only show up from time to time when the story asked for it. You would have a certain amount of “official” cast members while also a whole bunch of recurring officers who would not be listed in the opening credits. That’s where Warren was headed until, yes, test audiences DID basically turn him into a bigger character, as the test audiences loved him. But not just him, specifically the banter between Hill and Renko.

Charles Haid was actually only doing the pilot as a sort of favor for the show’s co-creator, Stephen Bochco, as he was already committed to another pilot for NBC. So he was just going to do the show, get killed off and move on. After the network wanted to bring him back, though (and his pilot was not picked up, so he wanted to come back, as well, as you might imagine) they quickly made a deal to bring him in.
I don’t know for sure, but I presume that’s why Haid has a better credit in the opening credits than most of the other actors (Michael Warren included).

The move paid off, as the pair were great on the show its whole run, and Haid and Warren were both nominated for Emmys (Haid twice, even).

TV LEGEND: Similarly, an episode was actually re-shot after airing to show a character who was killed surviving his attack so that they could bring him back.

STATUS: True

The first season of Hill Street Blues was meant to only be thirteen episodes, but NBC asked for some more at the end, so Bochco and company put together two two-hour movies that worked basically like a mini-series within a series, with essentially a four-hour long episode of the show. In the episode, a few new characters debuted who would stick around, including some narcotics cops and Officer Joe Coffey, played by Ed Marinaro.

Coffey was paired with Officer Lucy Bates (played by the great Betty Thomas), and it was clear that he wanted to take their friendship to the next level.

In any event, as a sort of tragic bookend to the first season, the final part of the last episode involves Coffey and Bates pulling over a suspect and the man shooting Coffey when he approaches the driver’s side window.

Originally, as aired, the blast clearly kills Coffey, giving the season a very somber ending.

However, as you might imagine, as the episodes were added very last minute, the producers of Hill Street Blues really didn’t have much time to dwell upon various decisions, and after the season ended, they decided that they would prefer that Coffey remained a character on the show.

So they actually went back and edited the scene to take away the shot where Coffey is clearly dead and add a new line where viewers learn that Coffey was taken to the hospital still alive (they left the chalk outline, but sometimes chalk outlines don’t have to mean that there is a dead body). And when Season 2 began, Coffey was just about ready to return back to work (and Marinaro was now added to the opening credits as a regular cast member).

Amusingly enough (SPOILER!), Coffey ended up getting killed off in Season 6 ANYways!

TV LEGEND: An imposter came up on to the stage to accept Betty Thomas’ Emmy for her in 1985.

STATUS: True

Betty Thomas is one of the few Emmy Award winners to win an Acting Emmy AND a Directing Emmy (Charles S. Dutton and Alan Alda are the only other ones that come to mind)!

Years later, Betty Thomas would become a popular Director for film and television.

She won a Directing Emmy for directing an episode of Dream On in 1993 and in 1985 she won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (her only win out of a remarkable SEVEN nominations!) for her role as Officer Lucy Bates on Hill Street Blues.

Sadly for Thomas, her moment in the sun did not go as she planned!

When Thomas’ name was announced, a man in a tuxedo jumped up from the front row and accepted the award in Thomas’ stead. However, Thomas was IN attendance!!!

The man was Barry Breman, a famous event crasher!

Bremen was known for sneaking into major sporting events, like the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the NBA All-Star Game and the Super Bowl, dressed in elaborate disguises.

Bremen is retired from these activities now (mostly because of the increased security in the days since September 11, 2001) and I bet Betty Thomas wished that he had retired a few years earlier!!

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com