1980s TV Shows: A Trip Down Memory Lane with… Joe Spano (Lt. Henry Goldblume in “Hill Street Blues”)

Exclusive Interview by Karen Beishuizen

“Hill Street Blues” was a police series that aired on NBC from 1981 to 1987. It ran for seven seasons and 146 episodes. The show pictures the lives of police officers of a police station on Hill Street in an unknown American city. The series won 26 Emmy Awards during its seven seasons. Joe Spano played Lt. Henry Goldblume for the entire run of the show.

KB: “Hill Street Blues”: What was the show about?

“Hill Street Blues” was a gritty, sometimes hilarious, realistic story about a group of cops in an urban precinct that looked a lot like Chicago, their work, pains, loves and joys.

KB: How did you get the part as Lt. Henry Goldblume?

A friend from Berkeley, Greg Hoblit, was working with Steve Bochco on a show called “Paris” with James Earl Jones, when I came down to LA and they cast me for a couple of shows as the city coroner.

KB: What did you like about the character and how did you make it your own?

He was a guy who tried to do right… and I tried to do it right.

KB: Did you and the other actors get some police training to make it look believable on screen?

As I remember, we had someone on set who we could go to for question or could jump in if we were going wrong. But it was more of a relationship story than a shoot ‘em up.

KB: How did a week on the set looked like from getting the script to filming?

Not sure what you mean. We had 7 days to get a show shot and then whatever they needed to do to get it to be what they wanted it to be. It would sometimes be a month before a show would go on screen after it was shot. There were a number of writers, so they were probably working on a number of different shows at the same time. As the season went on, it got closer from writing to shooting to editing to getting it the screen.

KB: Where was the show filmed?

It was shot here in Los Angeles and environs. Except for the title shot in back of the titles. That was shot in Chicago. We often had to use fake snow and burning street heater cans when the temperature was in the 90’s.

KB: Do you have a favorite episode where you starred in and why this one?

I must have at the time. But…that was at the time. I will have to say I loved the show written by David Mamet (from Chicago). I do believe it was the only episode written by our team. And the only one that the actors played word for word. It was the longest piece I ever had in a show and I so loved Mamet from the plays he had done and I had seen who I was to see and do.
Apart from that I loved the pilot.

KB: Looking back now would you have played Henry Goldblume differently?

No.

KB: Are you still in touch with the other actors or are there reunions?

Yes. Betty, Bruce, Charlie, Michael. We are putting up a get together dinner next month.

KB: How do you explain that this show is still beloved after 40+ years?

Writers Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll and the group put together, and especially Bob Butler, who with Steven and Michael had the idea and who directed the pilot (inspired by the 1977 doc., The Police Tapes), wanted to make something new and true and Steven made it happen. Not to mention my friend Greg Hoblit! They were brilliant and demanding and knew what they wanted to create..

We tried to make it as true and human as it could be.

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