Hill Street Blues/YMMV

• Ear Worm: Mike Post's iconic instrumental theme. If you grew up in the 1980s, you will recognize the first few bars of this tune.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Dominique Dunne, daughter of writer Dominick Dunne and best known as the older daughter in |Poltergeist, appeared on the show as a teenage mother and victim of parental abuse. Some of her bruises were real, having been inflicted by her violent boyfriend the night before. He murdered her shortly afterward.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Dwight Schultz, Jonathan Frakes and Armin Shimmerman have small speaking parts in single episodes.
  • Brent Spiner portrayed a pornographer.
  • Peter Jurasik as "Sid the Snitch"
  • David Caruso as a gang leader
  • Andy Garcia as a gang member
  • Ally Sheedy as the Catholic school girl referenced below in Two Words: Obvious Trope
  • Ken Olin as Detective Harry Garibaldi
  • Barbara Bosson (Fay Furillo), Jeffrey Tambor (Judge Wachtel), Marco Rodriguez (Rico the Junkie), and Dennis Franz (Benedetto/Buntz) went on to star in other Steven Bochco-produced series.
• Seinfeld Is Unfunny: As groundbreaking as the show was in 1981, nowadays it can look downright quaint compared with the later shows it inspired (NYPD Blue, Homicide, The Wire).
• Sending Stuff to Save the Show: A success story.
• Too Good to Last: Averted. Hill Street was the lowest rated show ever renewed for a second season.