Can 'Raising the Bar' raise Steven Bochco to Emmy glory again?
With his new TV series "Raising the Bar" debuting Monday night on TNT, Steven Bochco makes one more attempt for a big Emmy comeback.
"Raising the Bar" sure looks like the classic Steven Bochco vehicle for Emmy success. Starring Mark-Paul Gosselaar as a crusading public defender and Jane Kaczmarek as corrupt judge, it's a drama about the American justice system like Steven Bochco's previous Emmy sweepers "L.A. Law," "Hill Street Blues" and "NYPD Blue." (READ MORE about the series in Lynn Smith's L.A. Times article.)
Steven Bochco holds the record for winning the second-most Emmys as the producer of programs claiming a best-series award. He's won seven times: "Hill Street Blues" (1981, 1982, 1983, 1984), "L.A. Law" (1987, 1989) and "NYPD Blue" (1995). Only David E. Kelley has triumphed more (eight).
Steven Bochco's first hit the Emmy jackpot in 1981. Despite the fact that "Hill Street Blues" was merely ranked 87th out of the 96 shows in prime-time TV, it received the most Emmy nominations in history: 21. Then, on Emmy night, it set a record for most wins in one year: eight. That record would be tied by "ER" in 1995, but wouldn't be broken till "The West Wing" won nine in 2000. Today only three TV series have surpassed its overall tally of 26 wins: "Cheers" (28), "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (29) and "Frasier" (37). "Hill Street Blues" is tied with "L.A. Law" and "The West Wing" for winning the most Emmys as best drama series (four). (Bochco only participated in two of those two of those best-series wins for "L.A. Law.")
In 1994, another Steven Bochco show with "Blue" in the title set a record for most Emmy nominations — "NYPD Blue" (26). The super-hit was widely presumed to sweep on awards night. "No question about it," crowed USA Today. "An 'NYPD Blue' coup!" However, it lost (as I had predicted, writing the L.A. Times Emmy predix in those days — hooray for me!) to "Picket Fences."
Finally, in 1995, when that year's hot new drama series "E.R." came roaring into the Emmys with the most nominations, did "NYPD Blue" rally and finally win best series.
Since then, Bochco has struggled valiantly to get back into the Emmy derby, but has failed — even with new series about the legal justice system — over and over and over again: "Murder One" (1995), "Brooklyn South" (1997), "City of Angels" (2000), "Philly" (2001), "Over There" (2005), "Commander in Chief" (2006).
(Bochco Productions)
EXCELLENT! I loved the first episode of RAISING THE BAR! What a great job you did!!! Thank you! I can't wait till next week!
Posted by: Janet Schliff | September 02, 2008 at 08:18 PM
Whoops, I recant that. Looks like Kelley also won for L.A. Law in 1991. I'm using the awards database at the Academy's website, and they misspelled David E. Kelley's name in the 1991 entry, so it didn't come up during my search.
Someone should let the Academy know stat about the misspelling. Doesn't look very professional, does it?
Posted by: marc604 | September 02, 2008 at 12:08 AM
Your information on David E. Kelley looks to be incorrect, Tom. He hasn't won 8 Emmys as a producer, but instead only 7:
L.A. Law (1989, 1990)
Picket Fences (1993, 1994)
The Practice (1998, 1999)
Ally McBeal (1999)
In addition to that, he's won another 2 Emmys for writing, for L.A. Law in 1990 and 1991.
Making that a total of 9 Emmys on Kelley's resume.
Posted by: marc604 | September 01, 2008 at 11:54 PM
I hope this one takes off for Bochco. We could use some of his Idea's back on Tv..good luck Raising the Bar
Posted by: reddot | August 30, 2008 at 03:36 PM