NYPD BLUE SEQUEL GETS A PILOT DEAL!

The new show has really big shoes to fill! One of my very favorite series of all time may have a new sequel and I am really excited about the news!! 

A new installment of “NYPD Blue” has scored a pilot production commitment at ABC, Variety has learned.

The new series follows Andy Sipowicz’s son, Theo, as he tries to earn his detective shield and work in the 15th squad while investigating his father’s murder. Original series writers and executive producers Matt Olmstead and Nick Wootton will write and executive produce the new show, with Jesse Bochco–son of “NYPD Blue” co-creator Steven Bocho–executive producing and directing. Dayna Bochco, Steven’s wife, will produce. ABC Studios will produce in association with 20th Century Fox Television.

Olmstead is repped by WME and Bloom Hergott. Wootton is repped by WME and Hirsch Wallerstein.

The original “NYPD Blue” ran for over 260 episodes and 12 seasons on ABC from 1993-2005. The series starred Dennis Franz, David Caruso, Jimmy Smits, James McDaniel, Amy Brenneman, and Nicholas Turturro among many others during its run. The show was nominated for 84 Emmy Awards and won the best drama series Emmy in 1995 and won the Best Drama Series Golden Globe in 1994. Franz also picked up multiple best actor in a drama series Emmys for his role as Andy Sipowicz.

Should the project move forward, it would mark the latest revival or continuation of a storied series to make it to air on a broadcast network in recent years. ABC most recently revived “Roseanne,” which was subsequently brought back as “The Conners” following the firing of series creator and star Roseanne Barr. On CBS, “Murphy Brown” was brought back after 20 years, while Fox has revived shows like “The X-Files,” “Prison Break,” and “24.”

TV LEGEND STEVEN BOCHO DIED APRIL 1 AT 74

RIP to my favorite tv producer of all time Steven Bochco

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Steven Bochco, Creative Force Behind 'Hill Street Blues,' 'L.A. Law' and 'NYPD Blue,' Dies at 74

The unwavering TV writer-producer, winner of 10 Emmys, butted heads with networks and almost always won.

Steven Bochco, the strong-willed writer and producer who brought gritty realism and sprawling ensemble casts to the small screen with such iconic series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law and NYPD Blue, died Sunday morning, a family spokesman told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 74.

Suffering with leukemia, Bochco received a stem cell transplant from an anonymous 23-year-old in late 2014.

"Steven fought cancer with strength, courage, grace and his unsurpassed sense of humor," spokesman Phillip Arnold said. "He died peacefully in his sleep [at home] with his family close by."

In a 2002 interview for the Archive of American Television, Bochco explained how he and Michael Kozoll, both working for MTM Enterprises, came to Hill Street Blues, which debuted on last-place NBC in January 1981 and amassed 98 Emmy Awards during its remarkable 146-episode run.

“We agreed that we would do it, on one condition, which we assumed would kill the deal right there,” he said. “I said to [NBC entertainment exec] Brandon [Tartikoff], ‘We’ll do this pilot for you on the condition that you leave us completely alone to do whatever we want.’ And he said OK.

“I began to hear words about myself: He’s arrogant, he’s this, he’s that. My attitude was, call me what you will, but I know I have a great project here. I don’t know how many great projects there are going to be in my life, and I’m not going to screw this one up. I’d rather not do it. And they folded. They virtually folded on everything.”

In 1987, CBS legend William S. Paley offered Bochco, then 44, the job of president of the network’s entertainment division. He turned that down to sign an unprecedented six-year, 10-series deal worth in the neighborhood of $10 million at ABC, which had just ended its contract with another legendary producer, Aaron Spelling. The pact gave Bochco ownership of the series he developed.

As Hill Street was winding down without him after he was fired at MTM, Bochco jumped into the legal world with a new deal at 20th Century Fox and created (with Terry Louise Fisher) the stylish NBC smash L.A. Law, which ran from 1986-94.

And with fellow Hill Street scribe David Milch, he came up with ABC’s controversial NYPD Blue, which aimed to compete with the risque kind of shows that were siphoning audiences from broadcast to cable. That series, the longest-running one-hour drama in ABC history until surpassed by Grey's Anatony, aired from 1993-2005.  READ MORE