The WORST episodes of Hill Street Blues

Every episode of Hill Street Blues ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Hill Street Blues!

This groundbreaking and award-winning NBC crime drama provided a very realistic view into the lives of the dedicated cops and detectives of an urban police station. From January 1981 to August 1986, the show ran on Thursdays at 10/9 Central, with occasional repeats on Saturdays at 10/9 Central. From August 1986 to August 1987 first-run episodes aired Tuesdays at 10/9 Central.

Last Updated: 9/19/2024Network: NBCStatus: Ended
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Of Mouse and Man
star
6.86
65 votes

#1 - Of Mouse and Man

Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 2/11/1982

Joyce's fellow PD Pam Gilliam is gunned down; Hill's position as VP for the Black Officers' Coalition puts a strain on both him and Renko; Goldblume tries to deal with an abusive landlord; Fay threatens to bring WAD to the Hill; LaRue and Washington trade up from a cocaine dealer to a PCP lab.

Directors: Thomas Carter
star
7.11
37 votes

#2 - Heat Rash

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/14/1982

Hill and Renko arrest councilman Detweiler for drunken driving; Belker is joined by actor Jon Gennaro on his undercover job; Fay goes to work as a crime reporter for an advertising weekly; and Furillo looks into the charges made against his men by a bitter Lou Hogan.

Directors: David Anspaugh
Watch Now:Apple TV
star
7.16
38 votes

#3 - Domestic Beef

Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/7/1982

Belker forgets his mother's birthday; Hill and Renko look into urban cattle rustling; LaRue and Washington apply for jobs in the Bahamas; and Furillo sits on a board of rights for a fellow captain accused of neglecting his duties.

Directors: Jeff Bleckner
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Blues for Mr. Green
star
7.28
25 votes

#4 - Blues for Mr. Green

Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/15/1984

Belker plans to accompany a prisoner to Las Vegas; Mayo and Garibaldi follow a juvenile murder suspect who has threatened witnesses; Hill faces an IRS audit, with tips from Ray; LaRue and Washington catch a guy with stolen airline ticket forms; Joyce works with a burned out P.D. on the defense of Escobedo and Munoz on assault charges; and Coffey and Bates bust a young black boy for shoplifting.

Directors: Bill Duke
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Low Blow
star
7.29
24 votes

#5 - Low Blow

Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/29/1984

Jablonski's female nemesis comes to the Hill for a final showdown; the vacationers are stranded in Las Vegas with Myrna Schnitz; Furillo has to persuade Biff Lowe to help incriminate the Berlettas; and the Cisco Kid returns as an Indian and takes Fay hostage.

Directors: Rick Wallace
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Your Kind, My Kind, Humankind
star
7.32
71 votes

#6 - Your Kind, My Kind, Humankind

Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/28/1981

The Dekker Avenue Merchants Association continues helping the police; Eddie Hoban finds himself out in the cold; Hill, Renko and Belker all have personal problems; Furillo tries to help a confused Santini decide what to do; and LaRue asks Cynthia Chase along on a dull stakeout that suddenly heats up.

Directors: Arnold Laven
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Gatorbait
star
7.33
70 votes

#7 - Gatorbait

Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/7/1981

Renko gets put out when a Division homicide detective ridicules his efforts to learn who killed a 15-year-old prostitute; Furillo learns that he may be in line for a promotion to commander; LaRue and Washington have a surprise for Hunter during his annual Alligator hunt in the city sewers; and Fay asks Furillo's help with an obscene phone caller.

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More Skinned Against Than Skinning
star
7.33
24 votes

#8 - More Skinned Against Than Skinning

Season 7 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/23/1986

Racial tensions rise again when a white undercover officer shoots his black partner; a temporarily blind Buntz goes undercover with Belker as a beggar; Hill and Renko find several skinned bodies; and Joyce tries to defend a shopkeeper who has adapted Nazi paraphernalia as a deterrent against robbers.

Directors: Dale White
Writer: David Black
Watch Now:Apple TV
star
7.33
36 votes

#9 - Here's Adventure, Here's Romance

Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/13/1983

The only witness to a massacre in a gay bar is an off duty cop; the Cisco Kid ties up traffic; and Goldblume offers to be Fay's natural childbirth coach.

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A Wasted Weekend
star
7.33
21 votes

#10 - A Wasted Weekend

Season 7 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/13/1987

Buntz reassures Officer McBride about her shooting of an armed robber; Goldblume is kidnapped while trying to start a short vacation; and Hill, Renko, and Jablonski take a disaster-prone hunting trip.

Directors: John Patterson
Writer: David Mamet
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The Spy Who Came in from Delgado
star
7.33
66 votes

#11 - The Spy Who Came in from Delgado

Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/21/1982

Hunter uses pedigreed hounds to track wild city dogs; the scam saloon begins producing results, despite Captain Freedom's help; Fay fixates on cemetery plots; Frank becomes incresingly disgusted with his lawyer and Chief Daniels over the actions of the Sullivan Commission; and a suspicious Calletano learns the truth about a gorgeous new khaki officer.

Choice Cut
star
7.34
77 votes

#12 - Choice Cut

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/14/1981

Hector Ruiz takes hostages again, this time at a supermarket; LaRue and Washington try to connect the gun that shot Hill and Renko with addict Eddie Hoban; and Cynthia Chase uses the hostage scene to stir up the local merchants.

Directors: Arnold Laven
Watch Now:Apple TV
star
7.36
28 votes

#13 - Rookie Nookie

Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/18/1984

Furillo calls Goldblume off the murder investigation of his wife's rapist; Bates has problems with an insolent rookie; Mayo and Garibaldi bust a bogus cable TV installer; Belker goes undercover in a chicken suit and is plagued by a mime; and Hunter insults a female khaki officer, who barricades herself in the john.

Directors: Gregory Hoblit
Watch Now:Apple TV
star
7.37
30 votes

#14 - No Body's Perfect

Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/9/1982

The governor's dog is found; Eddie's role as an informant leaks out; Furillo tries to stop coroner Nydorf from testifying; and Crawford decides on his future course as a policeman.

Directors: Randa Haines
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Rites of Spring (1)
star
7.37
65 votes

#15 - Rites of Spring (1)

Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 5/19/1981

Furillo and Neal go out of their way to help clear an obnoxious, racist narcotics detective accused of shooting an unarmed black man; LaRue's drinking gets really out of hand; and Hill and Renko try to help a young black woman accused of neglecting her children.

Directors: Gregory Hoblit
Watch Now:Apple TV
star
7.38
32 votes

#16 - Praise Dilaudid

Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/17/1983

A pair of sweet junkie lovers create a hostage situation; the Robson arrest blows up in Daniels' face; and Wachtel shows up at the Wonderland as Murray's lawyer.

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Up in Arms
star
7.38
76 votes

#17 - Up in Arms

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/21/1981

Furillo gets orders to deal with a neighborhood merchants association; Esterhaus goes out to meet a criminal he helped put away; Harris and Santini get into trouble with the deadly black van; and Hoban's lie detector results are inconclusive.

Watch Now:Apple TV
star
7.41
29 votes

#18 - Watt a Way to Go

Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/4/1984

Goldblume takes the law into his own hands when his ex-wife Rachel is raped and refuses to press charges; Belker's undercover at the Stratford Hotel ends with Calletano and the Fimpels taken hostage; Hunter tries to defend an EATer's callous remarks during the taking of a sniper; and Joyce continues to work for Celestine's life.

Directors: Rick Wallace
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Jungle Madness (1)
star
7.42
69 votes

#19 - Jungle Madness (1)

Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 5/26/1981

Neal continues to investigate the Weeks shooting, despite pressure from the Chief to drop it because of the bad publicity; LaRue goes from one shady scam to another as he tries to raise money; Belker's sham fence operation nets a surprise; Shirrett Anders leaves her children again; Furillo warns LaRue to get help for his drinking problem after he ruins a drug bust; and Joe Coffey, Lucy's new partner, is shot.

Directors: Corey Allen
Watch Now:Apple TV
star
7.42
26 votes

#20 - Hair Apparent

Season 4 - Episode 20 - Aired 5/3/1984

Garibaldi tries to save himself some money by doing some unofficial police work for a guy whose car he rearended; Belker is left exposed on his latest undercover by agents from another agency; and the mayor's gang appointee to the Youth Commission comes under fire for favoritism.

Directors: Corey Allen
Watch Now:Apple TV
star
7.43
35 votes

#21 - Moon Over Uranus

Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/27/1983

A veteran cop's daughter is raped; a terrified woman asks Goldblume for help with her vindictive ex-boyfriend; Hunter looks for the rat that bit Daniels; Bates and Coffey answer a call about a survivalist; and Renko gets busted down to a moped and traffic ticket duty.

Watch Now:Apple TV
star
7.43
35 votes

#22 - Officer of the Year

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/28/1982

Joyce humiliates an unprepared Bates on the witness stand; Renko pushes an assault victim to press charges; Furillo's son is missing; and Calletano expresses his true feelings at a luncheon honoring him as the Hispanic Officer of the Year.

Directors: David Anspaugh
Writer: Karen Hall
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Some Like it Hot-Wired
star
7.43
35 votes

#23 - Some Like it Hot-Wired

Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 3/18/1982

Goldblume is bitter over losing a promotion; Joyce walks out of court while defending a repeat offender; Renko learns his father is dying; a stakeout to find a con team shaking down johns proves dangerous; and Esterhaus' prize car is taken by a team of car thieves.

Directors: Thomas Carter
star
7.44
32 votes

#24 - Phantom of the Hill

Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/2/1982

Belker makes a bust while picking up a ring at a jewelry store; Furillo tries to make a murder case without a body or autopsy report; Renko gets dumped; the Phantom strikes one final time; and a terrified Eddie implicates his lover in a vicious drug murder.

Directors: David Anspaugh
Watch Now:Apple TV
star
7.45
38 votes

#25 - Trial by Fury

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/30/1982

Furillo throws away the rule book when two young men rape and murder a nun during a church robbery; Belker befriends gay prostitute Eddie Gregg; Calletano faces a tax audit; and Joyce feels helpless as public opinion works to destroy her client.

Directors: Gregory Hoblit
Writer: David Milch
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