Farewell to NYPD Blue: Best Moments Ever
by Alan Sepinwall
In addition to the lists of Best Episodes, Best Interrogations and Best
Nude Scenes, here are some other classic scenes from the last 12 years.
- 4-B dies (in "True
Confessions"): A year before he started moping around as Ross on
Friends, David Schwimmer played the first great tragic character on
"Blue," Josh "4-B" Goldstein, a nerdy lawyer who lived in Laura Kelly's
apartment building and went off the rails after getting mugged in the
laundry room. John Kelly kept trying to get 4-B to let it go, but the poor
guy went Bernie Goethz, shooting his attacker, then getting killed while
trying to bust up a subway robbery. His sad, lonely death scene (and the
following scene, where John gets up to call the kid's parents) in the
fourth episode was when I fell in love with the show.
- Graveyard melody (in "Emission
Accomplished"): Kelly's old friend Kevin Sullivan, an outcast
since he ratted on his crooked partner as a rookie, is the best bagpiper
in the department, but nobody wants to let him in the Emerald Society, so
he plays his pipes in a Queens cemetery. The shot of him piping into a
setting East River sun is just about the prettiest thing the show ever
did, and a reminder of what the show lost when Bochco started cutting back
on the New York location filming. (And, yeah, this one is in the Best
Episodes list, but it's so great I'll mention it over and over and over
again.)
- NYPD Brow (in "Tempest in a
C-Cup"): Andy, desperate for a conversation-starter on his first
date with Sylvia, says, "I like fish," which prompts Sylvia to ask why he
ordered chicken. Then he explains about his saltwater tropicals, and she
talks about how she likes to watch him mop his brow as he eats. Not the
passionate start of a Kelly/Licalsi or Simone/Russell romance, but more
fun.
- Detective Martinez (in "Up on the
Roof"): The writers never knew what to do with him afterwards, but
James' shining moment came at the close of his first solo case as a
detective. The perp is a condescending asshole who insists on calling him
"Pedro," and when the guy lawyers up, James leans in, John Kelly-style,
and explains that they'll get a conviction (and a tougher sentence)
without a statement. "When you get a chance, write me a letter. Tell me
what your cellmate's like. Tell me what it feels like to have a subway
right up your ass. And my name's James, you little pisspot, and now I'm
going to get you your lawyer."
- Janice gives it up (in "Guns 'N Rosaries"): In the Best
Episodes list, I talk about the amazing final two scenes, but just as
great is Janice's confession of the Marino murder to Father Downey, one of
the longest, most patient, best sequences the show ever did (and certainly
Amy Brenneman's finest hour as an actress).
- Bucci family reunion (in "Rockin' Robin"): An earlier first
season episode had established that Andy was friends with Dom Bucci, a
decent man whose daughter Jenny went missing years ago, with no solution.
As a big attaboy to reward Andy for all the progress he'd made in one
year, Milch decided to let Andy not only solve the Bucci case, but
discover that Jenny was still alive and well. The shot of tiny Jenny
emerging from behind Sipowicz to face her overwhelmed father still makes
me misty-eyed every time.
- Bobby's badge (in "The
Final Adjustment"): In Simone's earliest story arc, he tried to
prevent the son of one of his dead wife's friends from becoming a juvenile
delinquent, going so far at one point to threaten the tough older kids who
were recruiting the boy. To make sure they got the point, Bobby pressed
his badge into the forehead of the leader (a young Giovanni Ribisi) and
suggested he look in the mirror if he wanted to know whom to file a
complaint about. The first sign of Bobby's rare but welcome mean streak.
- "Duke of Earl" (in "Large Mouth
Bass"): This one is Franz and Smits' favorite scene, and for good
reason. Simone, glowing after having sex for the first time since his wife
died, is blasting the car radio on a stakeout and starts singing along to
"Duke of Earl." At first, Andy is annoyed, but he eventually joins in on
the chorus, then clams up when two night shift cops (including Bill Clark)
pull up to relieve them. The moment where the Sip/Simone partnership went
from good to great.
- You could look it up (in "Innuendo"): Season two was big on
dictionaries, between a serial killer called Webster and this priceless
scene where John Irvin (then just filling in for Donna) gets fed up with
Andy's condescending homophobia and leaves a dictionary on Andy's desk to
explain the difference between "prostate" and "prostrate," which Sip had
been using interchangeably. The language lesson never took, but this was
the moment where the writers and fans realized this John guy could be more
than just a temp.
- God and dog (in "The Bookie and
the Kooky Cookie"): Necessity as the mother of invention: This
episode was coming in short, so David Milch asked Bill Clark to describe
the worst thing he ever saw as a cop. Clark told him the story of an
abusive dad who beat his baby to death and then fed the corpse to his dog;
Milch put the story into Sipowicz's mouth, as he explained to Sylvia why
he doesn't have faith in God -- "But I got faith in you."
- Bye, Andy Jr. (in "Auntie
Maimed"): I could make an entire list out of scenes from "A Death
in the Family" and "Closing Time," the astonishing two-parter dealing with
Andy Jr.'s murder and Andy's second fall off the wagon, so I'll instead
pick the last time we see Andy Jr. among the living. Sylvia has just given
birth to Theo, so Andy steps out to remind Andy Jr. that while he'll be
spending more time with the baby, doesn't mean he loves his older son any
less. It was the culmination of a three year story about the rebuilding of
their relationship, and because ABC had been running so many ads promising
a major death in the next episode, it was obviously a harbinger of
something bad for the Sipowicz clan. In retrospect, it may be more painful
to watch than the "Death in the Family" scene where Andy finds Andy Jr.'s
body.
- Black and blue (in "Closing
Time"): Okay, so one scene from "Closing Time" (one of the two
best episodes ever, along with "Guns 'N Rosaries"): Andy, having gotten
the crap kicked out of him while drunkenly trying to clear a corner in
Andy Jr.'s memory, sits in the emergency room, his ribs taped, his every
movement agony, his partner glaring at him. Until now, he's done
everything possible to shut his loved ones out and Bobby is about out of
patience with the self-destructive act. "Do you want people to help you,
Andy?"
Bobby asks, making one last attempt to reach out. Andy pauses -- a part of
him still needs to be punished for what he feels is his role in Andy Jr.'s
heroic death -- then says, "Please help me, yeah," and begins his return
to the land of the living.
- Happy Greg (in "He's Not Guilty,
He's My Brother"): In a development that never got followed up on,
Medavoy briefly found peace and contentment at the end of the third
season, having accepted Donna's departure and found a small apartment in
Brooklyn (he spent most of that season sleeping in the Anti-Crime crib, so
this was a step up). Hilarious as Gordon Clapp usually was playing up
Greg's stammer and neuroses, this view of an upbeat Greg bragging "I've
been remarkably allergy-free" was just as funny, if not moreso.
- Mickey'd Mouse (in "Unembraceable You"): The
Jimmy Liery arc from season four fizzled out at the end -- Milch actually
killed the guy off-screen -- but the scene where he drugged an undercover
Diane (posing as "Mouse") and carried her off into the night, apparently
to have his way with her, was easily the best of the show's infrequent
cliffhangers.
- These boots are made for looking (in "Tom and Geri"): Kirkendall rarely got
her own storylines, and when she did, they were usually awful (the whole
thing with her ex-husband ruined her). So if you were a fan of the
character like I was, you had to take pleasure in the little moments that
showed off her cool demeanor, like this bit where she and Diane arrive at
a crime scene where a man in S&M bondage drag has been hung to death. As
they're walking out, Jill turns to Diane and says, "Slap me for saying
those boots look kind of cool."
- Traffic jam (in "Taillight's
Last Gleaming"): One of the best (and unfortunately few) Fancy
showcases: racist Officer Szymanski pulls Art and Lillian over and
humiliates them for the "crime" of Driving While Black. Too bad it got
upstaged by appearing in the same episode where Andy met Jesus Christ. (If
you don't remember it, I kid you not.)
- Wet and walking (in "I Don't Wanna
Dye," "Prostrate Before the
Law" and "Hammer Time"):
Three great scenes from the arc where Andy had cancer in his "prostrate":
1)Andy's nightmarish allergic reaction to the radioactive dye for the CT
scan; 2)Sylvia and the nurses helping Andy take some verrrrrry small and
slow steps after his surgery; 3)Andy wetting his pants in the middle of an
interrogation, then having to borrow a pair of Medavoy's (which somehow
fit) to get through the day. If David Milch ever wanted to write a
hospital show, it'd be damn good, I think.
- Get me a 12-pack, please (in "Along Came Jones"): Near the end
of Baldwin's first episode, Greg walks in on his new partner getting
dressed for a run. Medavoy's quadruple-take at the sight of Henry Simmons'
torso is one of Gordon Clapp's best reaction shots in the 12-year run.
- Voodoo child (in "Everybody Plays the
Mule"): Baldwin, Andy and Danny are working a case involving two
missing Russian children. The chief suspect is their father, a raving
lunatic who keeps going on about "black devils." Andy, still trying to
feel his way around his new co-worker's sensibilities, tentatively
suggests that Baldwin play into the guy's deranged fantasies. Baldwin
doesn't want to do it, but he also doesn't want to lose the case, so he
walks in and somehow makes himself seem even bigger than usual. When the
man boasts about how he protects his children from these devils, Baldwin
leans in, glares and, sounding like a cross between Geoffrey Holder and
Darth Vader, says, "Give them to me." Guy folds in half a second and
admits he killed the kids.
- Everybody fights Raymond (in "A
Little Dad'll Do Ya"): The show rarely bothered with fight
scenes, with the most memorable from the early seasons being John Kelly's
one-punch takedown of Steroid Roy. So it was both surprising and
impressive to see the squadroom nearly trashed by brawling behemoth Ray
Morrison, the fight drawn to a halt only by pint-sized Connie whacking the
6'7", 285-pound Ray over the head with a fire extinguisher.
- Chicken shit! (in "Low
Blow"): One of the happiest accidents the show ever had. The
precinct uniforms are heckling John Clark over his upcoming boxing match
with Ed Laughlin, accusing him of being a chicken. At one point, John
pokes his head into the coffee room to find a living, breathing, clucking
-- and shitting -- chicken. The live bird poop was unplanned (as Mark
Tinker says, who could make a chicken crap on cue?), and Mark-Paul
Gosselaar just about lost it on camera. Still, the reaction that survived
editing is a howler.
- And here's to you, Mrs. Sipowicz (in "Nude Awakening"): I didn't have room
to mention it in the Best Nude Scenes list for The Star-Ledger, so I'll
slip it in here: Theo walking in on a stark-naked Connie in the Sipowicz
family bathroom was arguably the show's most explicit nude scene (even
with her hands trying to cover the naughty bits, I think we saw more of
Charlotte than we ever saw of Kim or Amy or anyone else), and the funniest
since Sylvia joined Andy in the shower.
- For the bird (in "Colonel
Knowledge"): The comic highlight of Eddie Gibson's abbreviated
stint as squad boss: Andy, fed up with listening to Gibson's parrot The
Colonel, enlists the help of a TARU tech to play the bird an endless loop
of Andy saying "Douchebag."
- Bale lays down the law (in "Dress
for Success"): At the end of his first shift, Lt. Bale stands in
front of the squad and calmly tells them that he's been ordered to clean
up this "rogue squad" by any means necessary, and if the detectives don't
get with the program, they'll be gone. The writers eventually wimped out
on letting Bale carry out Operation: Tightass (or whatever the bosses
called it), but that doesn't diminish what a spectacular introduction that
was for the character and for Currie Graham.
- Congratulations? (in "Stoli with a
Twist"): Even with eight episodes to go in a 12-year run, Dennis
Franz found new ways to surprise. After being informed by Lt. Bale that he
had passed the sergeant's exam, a stunned Andy returns to his desk and
looks around the empty squadroom, flashing back on everything he's been
through in this assignment while contemplating a life without it. Nothing
is said, and everything is. As good a bit of silent acting as you'll ever
see.