High Incident

I have a background in TV production and technical aspects, and I do love a good cop show. I think several factors helped HI become one of the best ever.

First in my mind was the involvement of Steven Spielberg. Look at the man's early work and his great use of pacing for the stories, but often with a well-positioned 'BOO!!!' at some point in the show. HI often had more action before the opening credits than other shows had in their first half hour with many instances coming from the 'total shock' department.

Next, the Technical work was magnificent! From the precision driving to the firearms aspects to the lighting of suspenseful scenes, this series rocked! The series made use of special cutaway Crown Vic Police cars that enabled seamless camera transitions from in-car to exterior camera work, perhaps another Spielberg method...

Casting was magnificent! Louis Mustillo as Russell Topps was and remains one of my favorite characters ever! R Lee Ermey as the female officer's retired Marine father in ep 2 was a masterstroke! The sense of history, the San Fernando Valley quirkiness, the frequent onset of genuinely funny and sweet comments from even minor characters was just about perfect. ('Richard, you were the best of them all!') Officer Topps in particular was put in many situations that showed the humanity of the character.

With the second season Lindsay Frost was added to the cast, and I'd watch Ms. Frost read the phone book!

Much was made of the final episode, 'Shootout' written by Ann Donahue after the infamous North Hollywood bank robbery shootout. Better fare has never been shown on TV! It had everything, and was a fitting sendoff to a great series that ended many seasons too early.

H.I. should rank with 'Boomtown' and 'NYPD Blue' as the best ever. Ms. Donahue's reward for her work on HI was her EP gig for the various CSI series, and many of the cast went on to greatness. Wonderful work!

I lost all faith in television since High Incident was dropped. I cant say enough good about it. From the first episode when Len's partner and best friend is

gunned down ( I almost broke down when I saw that ) all the way to the "final" bank robbery scene. The bright side, if any, is that it might be making it to DVD soon, and yes, part 2 of the bank robbery was shot.

By the way, Officer Marsh gets my vote for "Badass Cop of All-Time"!!!

I was a cop for 10 years, and High Incident is the greatest cop show I have ever seen. It captured the true emotion, tension, fast pace and sheer panic of police work better than anything I have ever seen. I would drop everything to make sure I was home on High Incident night, and so did all of my fellow cop friends. It was as true to life as you will ever get. David Keith and Cole Hauser were as believable as the guys that I worked the streets with. It was truly a sad day in my life when I found out that it had been cancelled. I honestly thought that show would become a television fixture along the lines of LA LAW and NYPD Blue. Just goes to show that people don't know a good thing when they have one. If anyone knows how I can get episode copies, please post here or email me Thanks!

This show was great! To date, it is the only police/real-life drama show I watched religiously. This show was beautiful in everyway. It was powerful, emotional, touching, and just great writing and filled with great actors. David Keith's role was awesome. I still remember the episode where he busts through a door of this house were a husband is beating his wife, and Kieth pounds the guy into the ground. One of my favorite scenes of all time in any movie or TV show. I hated that they left me hanging with one officer paralyzed, and another in a coma after the shootout. Hopefully, some day this show will be available on DVD or something.

This show was a show of realism, it captured something about the san fernando valley and at least what i perceived as realistic about the police there (having lived in that area). It showed the sharp contrast from life in the densely populated, gritty, harsh personality northeast (where i grew up), from the life in the suburban, wealthy, always sunny, windswept style, wide open, cheery yet serious, san fernando valley.

This is one of my favorite shows of all time and it always upsets me not only that the series ended, but that towards the end of the series it appeared the show veered from its manner and did stunts and the usual hollywood tricks to get ratings and save a show that seems headed to the chopping block.

One thing that bothered me about the series was that the character of marsh took the fall for the sexual harassment complaint (which i believe may have been part of the reason the show failed), when it seemed almost certain that he was the victim of an officer who knew she was about to get a justified bad review, seduced him and knew just when to kick him out of the house so that the regular police patrol would find him there - it may have made a nice episode for him to figure out that she set him up.

It seems a pity that such talented actors, especially David Keith in his element, Matt Craven and the rest, and writing and cinematography did not pan out into a long running fruitful series.