I started watching NYPD Blue when I was in Year Eight at high school after my legal studies teacher said it was a good show. Turns out, I tuned in just when Danny Sorensen (Rick Schroeder) joined the show, and I had no idea about John Kelly or Bobby Simone.
No doubt, Dennis Franz as Detective Andy Sipowicz is the star of NYPD Blue, and the heart of the ensemble show. His journey from a season one racist, homophobic drunk through to a stationhouse commander by the time the twelfth and final season is over was highly believable, and Sipowicz, who saw more tragedy than most, is now an iconic television character.
That said, Jimmy Smits as Bobby Simone was brilliant: the final episodes of Smits' run, where Detective Simone was dying were some of the best episodes of any TV show I have ever watched. Wish we'd seen more of David Caruso's John Kelly. Marc-Paul Goesselaar as the more youthful John Clark did a solid job after Rick Schroeder left the show.
And what of the supporting cast? All brilliant - particularly Kim Delaney as Diane Russell, Gordon Clapp as the delightfully awkward Greg Medavoy, Bill Brochtrup as PAA John Irvin, Nicholas Turturro as the youthful James Martinez, Jacqueline Obradors as Rita Ortiz and the two squad leaders, James McDaniel as Arthur Fancy and Esai Morales as Tong Rodrigues. Who else? Charlotte Ross as Connie McDowell, Sharon Lawrence as Sylvia Costas and Andrea Thompson as Jill Kirkendall. All great characters, all with so much (often tragic) depth.
Violent, brash, at times highly emotional and very controversial given the content and the era in which it aired (though definitely not by today's 'anything goes' standards!), we will never see the likes of NYPD Blue again.
