"Hill Street": Drama + time = comedy

"Hill Street Blues: The Complete First Season" (Fox, $28 street). Hard as it is to believe that this show debuted 25 years ago, it's even harder to imagine that such descriptives as "gritty" and "dramatic" once applied to "Hill Street Blues." Hailed in its day by critics, winner of 26 Emmys over six and a half seasons on NBC, the pathbreaking series finally arrives on DVD this week.

    Like many "classic" TV shows, the path broken by "Hill Street Blues" has since become so well-trod that it's impossible to re-experience the thrill of seeing it for the first time. That opening episode, with fistfights breaking out in the precinct room, the shooting (and improbable survival) of two show regulars in a bad neighborhood, and the sexual dalliances involving Capt. Frank Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) and his daytime nemesis, lawyer Joyce Davenport (Veronica Hamel) -- as dramatic devices they now seem as dated as that ridiculous, Curtis Sliwa-inspired outfit on Jesus Martinez (Trinidad Silva), one of the street toughs who frequented the show.

    Fortunately, it is now possible to enjoy "Hill Street Blues" as a comedy. Certainly the show's creator, Steven Bochco, had a lot of laughs while making the commentary track for the pilot, which is on the DVD. The weird romantic life of Sgt. Esterhaus (Michael Conrad), which was such a reliable source of laughs for the show's writers that after Conrad died, he was written out of the show with a joke about dying during intercourse. Travanti's deadpan stares were as hilarious as Jackie Gleason's. And of course, the outbursts from Belker (Bruce Weitz) -- "dogbreath!" "hairball!" -- instantly worked their way into pop culture lore, and created a character so indelible that Weitz struggled to find work after "Hill Street."

    After "Cops," "Hill Street Blues" may be the funniest cop show ever made.