FOR nearly 20 years now – from “Hill Street Blues” in 1980 to “NYPD Blue” today – Steven Bochco has been the most prolific creator of popular TV cop shows.
Every show he made has not been a hit. “Cop Rock” (a singing cop musical!) is one of TV’s most infamous wrong turns.
But Bochco’s shows have never failed because they were pale or dumb – or a lot like stuff we’ve seen before.
“My career is heading exactly where it’s supposed to be heading,” Bochco told The Post this week. “Straight to the garbage dump.
“I’m a TV guy,” he says a bit more seriously. “And I love creating shows and helping other people create shows,” he said. “This is what I do.”
Which may be why he is being honored tonight in Manhattan with a Lifetime Achievement award by the Mystery Writers of America.
The prestigious prize, a Raven Award, is one of the few in the business decided by other professional writers.
“Actually, I think they ought to call it the ‘Conundrum Award,'” Bochco said, laughing. “Personally, it’s a mystery to me why I’m getting it.”
The mystery writers are not confused.
“He exemplifies the finest qualities in television programming and is an inspiration to all writers in the field,” said Mystery Writers of America chair Marilyn Wallace, whose committee has honored such non-mystery types as Isaac Bashevis Singer and President Clinton.
Bochco is, in fact, very familiar with the prize. He has already been honored by the MWA for episodes he’d written for “Hill Street Blues” and “NYPD Blue.”
086 . 0008.00″I wouldn’t particularly think of [those shows] as mysteries in the pure sense of the word,” he said. “The truth is, I never thought to write mysteries until I wound up getting bullied into writing for [Peter Falk’s NBC mystery show] ‘Columbo’ in 1971. I remember protesting 086 . 0001.09that I couldn’t do that sort of stuff, but they basically said, ‘Shut up and write!'”
And although he won’t admit it, Bochco knows his writing – and the shows he’s created – have altered the television and pop culture landscape.
For every flop like “Brooklyn 086 . 0001.09South” or “Public Morals” (his only comedy), Bochco created a show that broke new ground, like “L.A. Law” and “Doogie Howser.”
“I hate hearing when people say there’s too much junk on television – there’s just enough of it on!,” he said.
“When you think back to the last five, six years, the volume of real quality programming has been remarkable,” he said. “Not all of it succeeded; ‘Murder One’ was a good show but didn’t succeed, even though it was generally regarded as being a first-rate show.
“And that’s not to mention all the stuff that has succeeded – shows like ‘Homicide,’ ‘ER,’ ‘Law & Order’ and the David E. Kelley’s ‘The Practice’ and ‘Ally McBeal.'”
That doesn’t mean that Bochco is a couch potato. He admits that he rarely watches television – including his own shows.
“I don’t watch my shows on television because I generally watch them here at work,” he said. “And I don’t watch much TV in general, not out of snobbery, it’s just a function of what I do all day. I like to go home and read or watch a ballgame or go out to dinner.”
Lifetime Achievement awards are supposed to make you reflect on your career, which Bochco is hesitant to do – lest anyone think his career is winding down.
He is happy, he says, just to say that he’s grown as a writer.
“If you grow as a person you grow as a writer,” he said. “The older you get and the more you live, the more lessons you learn and the better writer you’re going to be.
“That experience isn’t necessarily going to make your craft better, but your perception about things becomes more complex, to the extent where you can translate that into your writing.
“I hope that’s true,” he said, “and if it’s not, then shame on me.”086 . 0000.00 00000
