"Cop Rock" Co-Creator Steven Bochco Dead at 74

April 2, 2018 | by James Greene, Jr.

Television legend Steven Bochco passed away yesterday at the age of 74 following a battle with leukemia. Bochco helped deliver scores of groundbreaking programs to the medium across several decades, including "Hill Street Blues," "NYPD Blue," and "Doogie Howser, M.D." The New York City native also co-created the infamous ABC failure "Cop Rock," a musical drama about police that ran for 11 episodes in 1990.

Mercilessly attacked in its time and remembered as a disaster on par with Geraldo at Al Capone's vault, "Cop Rock" could at least say it had a theme song by Randy Newman. Granted, some people might also consider that a hinderance.

"I'm sorry it didn't work," Bochco remarked to the AV Club in 2016 for their "Cop Rock" oral history, "but I've never been ashamed of it or embarrassed... if you're a baseball player and you get a base hit three times out of 10, and you do that for 20 years, you're going to be in the Hall of Fame, but you're still gonna strike out sometimes."

Rest in peace, Mr. Cop Rock. Keep cop rockin' in the afterlife.