The Cops on Hill Street Blues Had a Bittersweet Christmas in “Santaclaustrophobia”

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We begin our look at some notable 1980s Christmas episodes by looking at a bittersweet episode of Hill Street Blues.



We begin our look at some notable 1980s Christmas episodes by looking at a bittersweet episode of Hill Street Blues.

One of the main reasons why Hill Street Blues was such a great show was because of the writing staff on the show. This episode appeared in the third season, and it was still being written by Steven Bochco & Anthony Yerkovich & Jeffrey Lewis, all three of which were talented TV writers, so having them all work together was great for the series.

This series always stood out for how much it was willing to go bittersweet with its endings.

Bruce Weitz’s Mick Belker has a fun Christmas at the job going undercover as a sidewalk Santa Claus (to catch muggers robbing sidewalks Santas), and then serving as Santa at a charity event, but we see at the end of the episode, he is spending Christmas all alone.

Meanwhile, Taurean Blacque’s Neal Washington, always a steady presence on the show, finally breaks down after he accidentally killed a liquor store owner earlier in the season. There’s a great bit where Joe Spano’s Henry Goldblume gets through Neal’s hard exterior, and notes that the guys who hold things in as much as Neal do are often the ones who break the hardest.

Bobby Hill’s deadbeat father visits him, played by the great James McEachin (I spotlighted his work as a guest star on TV shows, including this one, a while back). As I noted then, McEachin is so good as Hill, just charming enough to see why Hill would accept him, but also enough of a jerk to see why Hill wants nothing to do with him.

There’s some humor, as always, as the cops are all dressed up for a charity event as elves when they see the armed muggers they’ve been trying to find all episode, so they arrest them in costume.

But it’s really marked by Belker’s sad lonely Christmas, and Joe Coffey (Ed Marinaro) making sure an injured Lucy Bates (Betty Thomas) DOESN’T spend Christmas alone in the hospital.

The show really tried not to lean too hard on the angst or the happiness. It was a great series.