Hooperman’s Christmas Episode Reflected the Unusual Nature of the Series

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We continue our look at some notable 1980s Christmas episodes by looking at an unusual Hooperman episode that spotlighted why the series was so different from other shows of the era.

After the success of Moonlighting, TV networks were suddenly all in on the idea of “dramadies,” shows that were mixes of dramas and sitcoms. Most of these “dramadies” were light one-hour dramas, like Moonlighting, while a few of them were sitcoms with a bit more dramatic styling to it (Frank’s Place, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, Doogie Houser, M.D., and, of course, the most successful of this batch of shows, The Wonder Years).

Hooperman, though, was different in that it was very much a cop show like Hill Street Blues, only a half hour long.

It was even created by Hill Street Blues’ creator, Stephen Bochco, alongside his then writing partner, Terry Louise Fisher, right after they had co-created the hit TV series, L.A. Law (they soon split as writing partners amidst a lawsuit. It sounds like it was a mixture of basic monetary disputes plus a bit of a fight for control. Bochco named Fisher the executive producer of L.A. Law so that he could concentrate on a 10-show deal he had with ABC, a deal that would eventually result in NYPD Blue, among other shows, but he wanted the ability to still step in and make decisions, and she obviously did NOT want that).

And it started Bochco’s then-wife, Barbara Bosson, who was famously the worst character on Hill Street Blues for years (she ain’t great here, either). I’m not saying Barbara Bosson is a bad actor, but whatever her skills were, they weren’t geared toward dramatic roles.

The show starred John Ritter as a San Francisco Police Inspector named, of course, Hooperman. He inherited the rundown building he lived in from the landlady, along with her dog. He hired a woman, Smith, to manage the building, and the two of them began a “Will they or won’t they?”

In this episode, the police department is having an “Open House” for citizens to stop by for food and drinks, and presents for little kids. One man (a young Richard Kind) shows up to report himself for what he believes to be a homicide he committed years earlier (he ran away, changed his name, and has since gotten married and had kids, but his guilt over what he BELIEVES to be him killing a guy haunt him), and a gay man visits the precinct because he has nowhere else to go on the holiday (one of the cops is gay, which was notable for the time, of course, and he talks the guy into calling his family…it does not go well).

Hooperman is weird because it’s really just an hour-long drama, except everything is cut off after a half-hour, so you really just feel like you’re getting sort of half of a compelling dramedy. It’s still a good show, though, as half of a compelling drama is better than most TV shows of the era (or now, for that matter).