Episode
Hill Street Blues: Politics as Usual
Overview
Hill and Renko decide to split up as a team; LaRue is offered a bribe by a drug dealer who turns out to be a cop; Furillo tries to negotiate with the gangs to ensure a peaceful Presidential tour; Belker agrees to a blind date; and Fay is arrested in a hot tub.
Details
- Series
- Hill Street Blues
- Season
- Season 1
- Episode
- Episode 3
- Air date
- 1981-01-22
- Runtime
- 50 min
Episode context
Politics as Usual is Episode 3 in Season 1 of Hill Street Blues. It aired on 1981-01-22. The runtime is 50 min.
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Episode 2: Presidential Fever
Hill and Renko meet again for the first time since their shooting; Esterhaus tries to avoid Grace Gardner, the new police decorator; two transfer officers get themselves into trouble; Belker pursues rapists in the park; and Furillo must deal with Fay's demands for more money and an impending Presidential visit.
Episode 4: Can World War III Be an Attitude?
Furillo backs LaRue in the bribery case brought by Macafee; Hill and Renko bust a car thief who's a mechanical whiz; and Esterhaus sees Grace in a new light when they share a crisis at the station house when the Presidential visit is cancelled and gang revenge is feared.
More episodes from this season
Episode 1: Hill Street Station
Precinct Captain Furillo tries to defuse a hostage situation despite the advice of his gung-ho Emergency Action Team leader and the temperament of a self-absorbed gang leader; public defender Joyce Davenport tries to find a client who has been lost in the bureaucratic maze; Detective LaRue gets a lapful of coffee; Sgt. Esterhaus confides to Fay about his teenage sweetheart; Officers Hill and Renko are shot in the line of duty.
Episode 5: Double Jeopardy
Neal continues to investigate Macafee's life as a way of clearing LaRue; Belker and several others go undercover dressed as women to catch a rapist; Esterhaus broods over his two women; and Goldblume questions his ability after losing a jumper.
Episode 6: Film at Eleven
A television reporter rides with Hill and Renko; Washington and LaRue find the gun that shot Hill and Renko; and Belker busts Kevin Herman Dracula for biting a prostitute.
Episode 7: Choice Cut
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.
Episode 8: Up in Arms
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.
Episode 9: Your Kind, My Kind, Humankind
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.
Episode 10: Gatorbait
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.
Episode 11: Life, Death, Eternity
Furillo's chances for promotion are threatened when a city councilman is implicated in the murder of the teenage prostitute; LaRue continues to look for money for his ""saloondramat""; Fay's obscene caller breaks into her home; and Belker confronts an anti-Semitic cop just transferred to the Hill.
Episode 12: I Never Promised You a Rose, Marvin
Furillo pushes the investigation of Councilman McAuley; LaRue's business dream comes to a bitter end; Lt. Hunter gets his chance to test out an ""urban tank"" in sniper alley.
Episode 13: Fecund Hand Rose
Esterhaus faces immense pressure as his wedding day to Cindy dawns and Grace shows him what he's giving up; Furillo resents providing protection for Ralph Macafee, who's now a state witness; Belker busts an entertaining professional cat burglar; and everyone scrambles to get ready for the wedding ceremony.