Tommy Westphall Universe
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Tommy Westphall Universe

NYPD Blue is an American police procedural series created by Steven Boccho and David Milch for ABC. It ran from September 21, 1993 to March 1, 2005 for 12 seasons.

Series summary[]

The series documents the lives of the detectives, patrolmen and other employees of New York Police Department's fictional 15th precinct. Its ensemble cast changed several times over the years, but troubled, angry 'bad cop' Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) remained at the core of the cast over the course of its run. Other notable characters included detective Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits), detective Danny Sorenson (Rick Schroder) and assistant district attorney Sylvia Costas (Sharon Lawrence). Famously, David Caruso played lead character detective John Kelly through the show's first season and left a few episodes into its second, despite the show's massive popularity. He subsequently played another detective, Horatio Caine, in CSI: Miami.

Although it aired a few months after the grittier Homicide: Life on the Street, NYPD Blue got a lot of press for its depiction of the daily lives of police officers, which was more realistic than most shows that had come before it. It was also infamous for featuring a lot of nudity and raw language at a time when such things were not seen on mainstream US TV.

Spin-off[]

The sitcom Public Morals, which focused on an New York vice unit, featured John Irvin (Bill Brochtrup) as a regular character; he had been a recurring character in NYPD Blue prior to the show starting, and rejoined the cast after Public Morals was cancelled.

Westphall connections in NYPD Blue[]

  • Several episodes of NYPD Blue feature a nudist nicknamed Buck Naked (Lee Weaver); Buck first appeared in the 1980s cop show Hill Street Blues.
  • In "New York and Queens", an episode of The Drew Carey Show, a traffic tie-up is investigated by detective James Martinez (Nicholas Turturro) of NYPD Blue.
  • Steve Richards, a recurring criminal appeared in the episode "Skel in a Cell" of Brooklyn South.
  • Radio Man appears in "Waking Up is Hard to Do".
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