Hill Street Blues is the police drama series created by Steven Bochco and followed the public and personal lives of police officers working out of a single precinct in an unnamed American city. The series was groundbreaking for its realistic depiction of the day to day life of officers and provided the template for many series to come. Hill Street Blues premiered in the US on NBC in 1981 and ran for 7 seasons until its final episode in 1987.
The following weapons were used in the television series Hill Street Blues:
Several officers, notably Officer Andy Renko (Charles Haid), Sgt. Esterhaus (Michael Conrad), Officer Bernard Harris (Mark Metcalf), Det. Michael "Mick" Belker (Bruce Weitz), Officer Lucy Bates (Betty Thomas), and Officer Joe Coffey (Ed Marinaro), carry Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolvers. When Renko forces Bates and Coffey to help him look for it in the garbage after it was stolen at a wedding in "Pestolozzi's Revenge" (2.09), Bates tells him looking through the trash is stupid, as "they wouldn't dump a $310 Smith & Wesson." Furillo identifies Renko's weapon to the grand jury as a "standard .38 caliber Smith & Wesson service revolver" after it is recovered in "Freedom's Last Stand" (2.11). Bobby Hill (Michael Warren) carries one while undercover in the restaurant during the same episode. A robber with a Model 10 shoots Captain Freedom (Dennis Dugan) to death in the same episode. The abusive boyfriend, Carter Reese (Felton Perry), in "Personal Foul" (2.16), has a police-issued Model 10. The store security guard in "Hearts and Minds" (2.01) fires at the robbers with a Model 10 as they drive away.
Officer Bobby Hill (Michael Warren) carries a Smith & Wesson Model 19 as his standard sidearm and keeps it in his purse when he goes undercover in drag to catch a serial rapist in "Double Jeopardy" (1.05). It is also carried in early episodes by Det. Sgt. Michael "Mick" Belker (Bruce Weitz) and others. Officer Fuentes (Steven Bauer) carries a Model 19 in "Presidential Fever" (1.02), until it is taken from him by a mob of angry Puerto Ricans when he and Officer Harris wrongly accuse them of burglary. Renko (Charles Haid) and Coffey (Ed Marinaro) each shoot the gun-wielding suspect in "Hearts and Minds" (2.01) with Model 19s. In "Blood Money" (2.02), the taxi driver murderer holds a Model 19 on Belker while the latter is undercover working as a cabbie. Officer Jerry Nash (Stephen McHattie) carries a Model 19 in "Cranky Streets" (2.06).
Capt. Frank Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) carries a first generation Colt Detective Special in a shoulder holster, notably seen when he removes the holster upon confronting Hector in the pilot episode. Det. J.D. LaRue (Kiel Martin) has a 1st Generation DS as his standard issue sidearm, seen when surrendering it with his badge (and having it returned to him). Det. Henry Goldblume (Joe Spano) reluctantly draws his Detective Special when he is cornered by thugs after his car blows a flat tire while driving through the ghetto in "Double Jeopardy" (1.05). He tells his supervisor that, until Capt. Furillo noticed, he had always carried the revolver unloaded, never expecting to use it. In "Hearts and Minds" (2.01), a suspect (Charles Picerni) grabs Alf Chelsey's (Gerry Black) Detective Special and shoots up the station before he is killed by Renko, Coffey, and other cops. The drug dealer who tries to rob LaRue and Washington (while they are undercover) in "Of Mouse and Man" (2.12) has a Detective Special. Two con artists posing as vice cops (including one played by John Ratzenberger) carry 1st-generation Detective Specials in "Some Like It Hot-Wired" (2.15). A man with a Detective Special accosts Washington while he and Belker are undercover in a porn theater in "Personal Foul" (2.16).
Some of the Hill Street precinct officers carry Colt Python revolvers. The junkie who shoots Bobby and Renko in the pilot episode fires four shots from a 6" barrel Python, later recovered by LaRue and Washington while chasing down Billie (Karole Salmon) in "Film at Eleven" (1.06), with several policemen referring to the weapon by its caliber, notably Washington referring to it over the phone as a "3-5-7 Magnum". Bobby Hill (Michael Warren) carries a Python in "I Never Promised You a Rose, Marvin" (1.12) when he and Renko pull over a man before helping his wife deliver her baby. A Python is also one of the weapons seen on the table during the same episode as Furillo argues with Swanson. EAT commander Sgt./Lt. Howard Hunter (James B. Sikking) keeps a Python in a large shoulder holster. It is first seen in "Politics as Usual" (1.03), when Hunter is telling Capt. Furillo that "a Steyr SSG hits from a thousand yards" during an argument about security for the President's upcoming visit to Hill Street Precinct and later referenced by Hunter in "Rites of Spring, Pt. 1" (1.14) when he mentions that he introduced himself to a woman locked out of her apartment by blowing the broken lock off with his ".357". He finally draws it when looking for the flesh-eating dogs in "The Spy Who Came in From Delgado" (2.10).
In the pilot episode, EAT commander Sgt. Howard Hunter (James B. Sikking) carries a Smith & Wesson Model 15. A continuity error in "Zen and the Art of Law Enforcement" (2.13) has Renko (Charles Haid) carrying a S&W Model 15 rather than his usual Smith & Wesson Model 10. In fact, he is carrying a Model 10 in one shot but in the next it is a Model 15.
Undercover Det. J.D. LaRue (Kiel Martin) carries a third-generation Colt Detective Special in an ankle holster in "Politics as Usual" (1.03) when he tells his partner, Sgt. Washington, that he's got "a .38 strapped to [his] ankle". Det. Washington himself (Taurean Blacque) also carries a 3rd Generation Detective Special, notably seen when arresting Eddie Hoban (Rob Berger) in "Film at Eleven" (1.06). Capt. Frank Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) draws his own from a shoulder holster when questioning Eddie's girlfriend Sherry in "Choice Cut" (1.07), trying to see if she was telling the truth by discerning between his own Detective Special and a suspect's Colt Python. Furillo later hands it to Chief Daniels when he resigns (unofficially for a few minutes) in "Freedom's Last Stand" (2.11). In the same episode, Renko (Charles Haid) carries a 3rd-generation Detective Special while undercover.
Narcotics Officer Charlie Weeks (Charles Hallahan) draws and fires a Smith & Wesson Model 36, which he identifies to Internal Affairs as his "S&W .38" when he kills one of the drug dealers in "Rites of Spring, Pt.1 " (1.14). An undercover policeman working at the sting restaurant in the second season draws a Model 36 when a gang attempts to rob it. In "Of Mouse and Man" (2.12), LaRue (Kiel Martin) and another cop, referred to as Cal, carry Model 36s while undercover. Det. Goldblume (Joe Spano) draws a Model 36 from an ankle holster while undercover in "Some Like It Hot-Wired" (2.15).
Error creating thumbnail: File missingSmith & Wesson Model 66 Snub with 2" barrel - .357 MagnumError creating thumbnail: File missingA display in "Shooter" (2.17) shows: 1st row: Remington Model 31. 2nd row: Remington Model 870, bolt-action rifle. 3rd row: S&W Model 629, S&W Model 276 gas gun. 4th row: S&W Model 66 Snub, S&W 59, two Browning Hi-Powers.
Colt Official Police
After Bobby Hill's potentially game-saving shot at the Police vs. Gang basketball game in "Personal Foul" (2.16), a gang member with a nickel Colt Official Police fires a shot at the ball, knocking it off the hoop.
During the gangland weapons sweep after Pam Gilliam's murder in "Of Mouse and Man" (2.12), Hunter picks up a small revolver from the weapons bin, calling it the "Walther PPK of the Methadone circuit" and saying "These people have about as much appreciation for small arms weaponry as a Marseilles pimp" as he tosses it back into the bin.
After the shooting of Officers Jack Halloran and Wallis Tubbs in "Shooter" (2.17), Bobby Hill (Michael Warren) finds a .357 (the caliber used to kill Halloran and wound Tubbs) in the trash near the murder site with "one unfired round in it". He identifies it as a Colt Python (as does Goldblume later) but, due to the lack of barrel ribbing, it appears to be a nickel Colt Trooper Mk III.
It turns out that the revolver (#199436) had been in the property of the police property department after a liquor store robbery but Officer Wallins (Ben Slack) of the property department, who had described it as a "$600 piece", sold the Trooper to his brother-in-law Jaworski (J.J. Barry) for $200. Jaworski, in turn, was later robbed of his weaponry including a Webley Mk IV and Uzi (both unseen but mentioned).
The Uzi (which Jaworski's cousin obtained illegally for him in Miami), reminaing unseen, becomes a plot point in the episode as Washington and Goldblume use it to trace the stolen weaponry to a black market gun salesman Bardo (Adam North). Furillo describes the Uzi as an "Uzi 9 mm semi-automatic rifle... serial number 932846B". By tracing the illegal sales of the Uzi, the detectives are able to successfully find the murderer.
During the roll call in the pilot episode, "Hill Street Station" (1.01), an undercover detective can be seen placing a Beretta M1934 during Sgt. Esterhaus's weapons inspection due to "alleged carrying of bizarre and unauthorized weapons by the officers of this precinct".
A female officer receives "assistance" from LaRue in removing a Bryco Arms compact pistol from her leg holster during the pilot episode's weapons inspection.
A female salesman (Susan Krebs) in "Shooter" (2.17) shows Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) a Heckler & Koch P7 PSP that she believes to be the "standard issue of the future". He tests it out for himself, reloading it. She incorrectly identifies it as a "German-made... .380 auto" with an "8-shot magazine, one in the chamber", in reality its a 9mm P7 PSP pistol.
Lt. Hunter's EATers (with the exception of himself) carry M1911A1 pistols in their holsters. In "The Last White Man on East Ferry Avenue" (2.03), Jesse John Hudson (Danny Glover) uses a nickel 1911 to murder Virgil and a female gang member.
Officer Bates (Betty Thomas) is seen placing a pearl-gripped Walther PPK confiscated from a street thug into a box at the beginning of "Jungle Madness, Pt. 2" (1.17). Jesse John Hudson's girlfriend/lawyer Samantha (M.E. Loree) shoots Hudson on the courthouse steps in "The Second Oldest Profession" (2.04) with an all-black PPK.
While searching for the ".45 automatic" that killed Pam Gillian in "Of Mouse and Man" (2.12), Hunter searches the trunk of a suspect and finds what Balentine, one of his EATers, describes as "three forty-fives, sir... automatic." Hunter then picks up one of the weapons, in actuality a 9 mm Star Model B, and tells him to get the weapons to the ballistics lab.
LaRue's partner, Sgt. Neal Washington (Taurean Blacque), places a Mossberg 500 shotgun with wooden handguard and sawed-off stock on the table during the pilot episode's weapons inspection. This appears to be the same shotgun seen later in the episode as used by Hector Ruiz (Panchito Gomez), one of the convenience store robbers.
Several officers from the Hill Street Station use Remington 870 shotguns in the pilot episode. Both Officers Bobby Hill (Michael Warren) and Andy Renko (Charles Haid) handle one during the armed robbery standoff. A Remington 870 is also seen on the wall display in "Shooter" (2.17).
Two of the thugs with Hector, including Juan (Jay Moreno) use double-barreled shotguns when holding the hostages in the back of Chuckie's in "Choice Cut" (1.07). A liquor store robber in "Your Kind, My Kind, Human Kind" (1.09) also carries one. When an armed robber tries to rob Belker's (Bruce Weitz) sting pawn shop operation in "Jungle Madness, Pt. 1" (1.16) with one, Belker shows him the two identical shotguns held by his detectives, telling the robber that they are a "12 gauge double barrel with a money back guarantee pointed right between your eyes!" When Belker places it down at the station, it accidentally fires and destroys a vending machine in the station. In "Jungle Madness, Pt. 2" (1.17), a motorist uses one to shoot Officer Joe Coffey. Mr. Popovich (Reuven Bar-Yotam) kills a young Latino with a double-barreled shotgun with exposed hammers in "The Last White Man on East Ferry Avenue" (2.03), which Goldblume (Joe Spano) takes from him and gives to Renko (Charles Haid).
An armed robber who faces off with Belker after trying to rob a bus in "Rites of Spring, Pt. 1" (1.14) carries a lupara. Another armed robber leads his gang into the sting restaurant to rob it, armed with a lupara, in "Freedom's Last Stand" (2.11).
Several officers at the Hill Street station, including Sgt. Esterhaus (Michael Conrad) prepare for a potential attack from the local gangs in "Can World War III Be An Attitude" (1.04) with Ithaca 37 shotguns. Bobby Hill (Michael Warren) grabs one from his and Renko's patrol car en route the armed robbery in "Choice Cut" (1.07). Santini (Jeff Seymour) briefly handles one inside the patrol car in "Up in Arms" (1.08). Both LaRue (Kiel Martin) and Washington (Taurean Blacque) fire Ithacas at the liquor store robbers in "Your Kind, My Kind, Human Kind" (1.09), with Washington fatally wounding one of the robbers with his. Lt. Howard Hunter (James B. Sikking) can be seen loading and carrying an Ithaca 37 in "Hearts and Minds" (2.01). A drug dealer carries one in "Zen and the Art of Law Enforcement" (2.13) but is shot by Washington's Detective Special before he can shoot him with it. Renko (Charles Haid) and Hill each handle their patrol car's Ithaca 37 when Carter Reese takes his family hostage in "Personal Foul" (2.16).
A Remington Model 31 is seen at the top of a wall display in "Shooter" (2.17).
Error creating thumbnail: File missingRemington Model 31Error creating thumbnail: File missingA display in "Shooter" (2.17) shows: 1st row: Remington Model 31. 2nd row: Remington Model 870, bolt-action rifle. 3rd row: S&W Model 629, S&W Model 276 gas gun. 4th row: S&W Model 66 Snub, S&W 59, two Browning Hi-Powers.
Rifles
Heckler & Koch 93
A Heckler & Koch 93 is seen unloaded with its stock extended on the table during the "Armaco bunker buster" demonstration in "Shooter" (2.17).
Error creating thumbnail: File missingAn S&W Model 276 Gas Gun is among the weapons being displayed to the officers, with an HK93 further back on the table, in "Shooter" (2.17).
M16A1
The Emergency Action Team (EAT) utilizes M16A1 rifles. In some scenes that don't require the weapons to be fired, some EATers carry MGC M16 replicas (determined by the muzzle brakes on some of the guns). Some of Jesse John Hudson's gangsters in "The Last White Man on East Ferry Avenue" (2.03) have M16s. Also, M16 rifles are seen in the background of some scenes in the precinct, in almost every episode.
Lt. Howard Hunter (James B. Sikking) is seen looking over a Winchester Model 70 in "Your Kind, My Kind, Human Kind" (1.09). To his disappointment, he finds "strawberry jam in the trigger housing" and accidentally breaks the weapon when he racks the bolt too hard for emphasis.
One of Lt. Hunter's EATers carries what Hunter claims is a "Soviet 109 incendiary rocket launcher" when his squad carries "riot gear on loan from the Stockholm police" during the hostage crisis in "Choice Cut" (1.07). It is in fact a M9 Bazooka.
One of Lt. Hunter's EATers carries a Federal M201-Z Grenade Launcher during the hostage crisis in "Choice Cut" (1.07). When not being used, M201-Zs are often see hanging in the EAT truck.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingFederal M201-Z 37mmError creating thumbnail: File missingOne of Hunter's men holds an M201-Z during Hunter's discussion with Furillo about how to counter Hector's demands. Though it has no sling swivel on the barrel, the ladder sight is visible behind the top latch, indicating that it is an M201-Z versus the earlier L-5.Error creating thumbnail: File missingAn M201-Z hangs in the back of Hunter's truck behind LaRue and Washington in "The Spy Who Came In From Delgado" (2.10).Error creating thumbnail: File missingAn M201-Z is seen in the immediate foreground in the EAT truck as Henry talks to Hill and Renko in "Personal Foul" (2.16).
Smith & Wesson Model 276 Gas Gun
A salesman (Barry Pearl) in "Shooter" (2.17) is seen showing off a Smith & Wesson Model 276 Gas Gun, referring to it as the "37 mm Armaco bunker buster" with a "weight less than 8 kilos". Lt. Hunter (James B. Sikking) holds it himself but Furillo tells him the cost of two gas guns would cover bulletproof vests for the whole precinct.
During the standoff outside Mr. Popovich's house in "The Last White Man on East Ferry Avenue" (2.03), Lt. Hunter (James B. Sikking) mentions the EATers' new "Cyclops urban warfare grenade launcher".
