My husband and I have just started watching this show from the beginning. I remember that it was one of my favorite shows when it first aired, back when I was young and single. My overall impression is that the characters that irritate me and the characters that I like are exactly the same 38 years later!
Furillo is sometimes way too tense and that can be frustrating. He's too indulgent of his wacky ex-wife as well. Speaking of Faye, I find all of the female characters on the show, with the exception of Lucy, completely nuts! Grace is over-the-top and very unrealistic. Joyce is a total and complete witch. She's nasty, arrogant and needlessly rude.
I do love Lucy as well as her partner Joe. As it was in 1981 my other favorites are LaRue, Washington, Hill and Renko. I love Esterhaus as well, but wasn't he dating an underage girl prior to the over-sexed Grace? That was odd. Belker is sometimes okay, but often annoying, and seems to have a bias against dogs! Howard is over-the-top but oddly enjoyable at times. Goldblume and Calletano are fine and rarely annoying.
One last thing; when I watched the show in the early 1980s I always assumed that it was New York City. Now that there's the internet and I've read about the show I've learned that the location was ambiguous. I've read that Bochco wanted it to seem like Chicago or Pittsburgh. There are way too many New York accents for that to be believable. I am 100% convinced that it's New York or Newark!
Furillo is sometimes way too tense and that can be frustrating. He's too indulgent of his wacky ex-wife as well. Speaking of Faye, I find all of the female characters on the show, with the exception of Lucy, completely nuts! Grace is over-the-top and very unrealistic. Joyce is a total and complete witch. She's nasty, arrogant and needlessly rude.
I do love Lucy as well as her partner Joe. As it was in 1981 my other favorites are LaRue, Washington, Hill and Renko. I love Esterhaus as well, but wasn't he dating an underage girl prior to the over-sexed Grace? That was odd. Belker is sometimes okay, but often annoying, and seems to have a bias against dogs! Howard is over-the-top but oddly enjoyable at times. Goldblume and Calletano are fine and rarely annoying.
One last thing; when I watched the show in the early 1980s I always assumed that it was New York City. Now that there's the internet and I've read about the show I've learned that the location was ambiguous. I've read that Bochco wanted it to seem like Chicago or Pittsburgh. There are way too many New York accents for that to be believable. I am 100% convinced that it's New York or Newark!