Heart of the City

Especially when they happen to wander into the pop culture of middle America.

Mr. Grand, if you ever change your mind, I'd love a copy of your tapes of this abandonware. Seeing this program when it first appeared, I immediately recognized a class act, watched every episode I could, and was very disappointed, even angry, when the powers-that-be canceled it. "Heart of the city" (I suppose referring to Officer Kennedy, who definitely had one) was head and shoulders above most commercial TV fare, for which I've not had much time ever since.

In addition to the actors already commended, several of the last episodes featured a troubled boy 13-14 years old in which officer Kennedy took a special interest. Guest star Andre Gower so smoldered in that role, that I expected him to burn a hole in my TV screen any moment.

I'd be more of a fan of the police if I had any confidence that most of them were menschen with hearts like Officer Kennedy in this great series. Sadly, We the People are sticking them with such randomly and senselessly vindictive laws to enforce nowadays, and turning the American gulag into such a growth industry for opportunistic corporations, that any mensch must have more and more trouble doing such work in good conscience.

I did not get to see Heart of the City during its original run on ABC in September of 1986. I was fortunate enough to see the program again a few years later on FoxNet when they re-ran old series to fill the off network slots before their syndicated series started. It was an excellent program about a police detective whose wife dies. So he works at night to stay at home during the daytime so he can keep an eye on his teen-aged children. Robert Desiderio was excellent in the lead. An emerging star also appeared in Christina Applegate in the role of Robin Kennedy. The show dealt with issues like sex, the death of a parent and troubled youth. All in all a wonderful, thought provoking piece of work that deserved better. I hope to see the episodes again. Catchy opening music as well.

Wasn't this the show that the Patti LaBelle-Michael McDonald song On My Own was always played when the lead character had flashbacks to his late wife? I feel positive it is, but, can't find any info to support that thought.

After the fatal shooting of his wife, Det. Wes Kennedy (Robert Desiderio) quit the SWAT team to be with his kids, rebellious 15 year old Robin (Christina Applegate) and Kevin (Jonathan Ward). He is working the night shift in a tough downtown precinct. He is a superior investigator which only gets him ostracized by his less committed colleagues.

This ABC drama is 13 episodes with very poor viewership. They start with a problem in the pilot. The show wants to have this edgy teenage outsider world and the band is playing reggae swing. There must be a hard punk band somewhere in L. A. It's almost laughable but it's indicative of a deeper issue. The creators are E. Arthur Kean and Michael Zinberg. Kean is a veteran writer whose best work is in the 70's and Zinberg seems to be more noted as a TV executive and director. The writing comes from a previous generation although it is trying for gritty with edgy material. They dip too often into melodrama with a couple of good episodes hitting the bull's eye.

Desiderio is a TV actor most known for his soap roles. He's not really the cop type. As for his family life, I am a little confused about the kids' ages. Apparently, they're both 15 and Kevin is the older one for some reason. Are they twins? At least, they have Christina Applegate. She has a short platinum do. She is melodramatic, but she is playing the rebellious teen. There are too many instances where characters are being dumb. Dumb kids are fine, but dumb cop daddy is less fine. I cannot believe the dad when Robin gets arrested. The first words out of his mouth should be "Don't say a word to anyone". He is an investigator and does very little of it with his kid on the line. This show is only able to sometimes fulfill its ambitions of better drama.

"Heart of the City" was a first rate show, and it was rather controversial in its day. I think that the reason it was first rate was that it was made by people who were willing to *let it* provoke controversy.

One talking point I still remember to this day was the double-standard the father (Robert Desiderio) used when his son had sex for the first time and when his daughter wanted to give up her virginity, too. He would sit on his son's bed, as I recall, and explain the facts of life to him and say how proud he was that his son was being so mature about this monumental decision, etc., etc. When it came to his daughter, however, it was more like, "You're grounded until your 21 for even *thinking* about sex!"

Jonathan Ward and Christina Applegate were very good as the two kids, and they had a good on-screen chemistry with Robert Desiderio. It was a family situation which was realistic, unlike some of the contrived garbage TeeVee tries to foist on us most of the time.

The police procedures were done very realistically. I still remember that (unlike most shows!) the writers managed to get the police unit designations right for radio chatter. The father, for example, was a "King" unit -- the designation for an LAPD detective.

This was a very good series and deserves to be on DVD. I have the whole series on tape, but I would *still* buy a DVD of it. BTW, as I say on the message board, sorry -- I won't make copies of the tapes for anyone. :(