Hill Street Blues

Name: Hill Street Blues
Genre: Crime

1981–1987NBCCrime

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Mike Post's piano over squad cars pulling out into snow — the sequence that taught American drama an opening could be melancholy rather than exciting.

Hill Street Blues opens with a main title sequence of 82 seconds.

At 82 seconds, it opens well above the 47-second median for crime sequences in this catalogue.

It arrived on NBC in 1981, when Truth or Consequences, Another World and Search for Tomorrow were also on the network.

1 sequence35th most looked up of 248 in the 1980sIMDb ↗

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The opening titles

Season 1

82s

The opening credits.

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Art Deco geometry and Christopher Gunning's theme — a title sequence that establishes the period, the register and the fastidiousness of the detective in one gesture.