Hill Street Blues (Chicago: credit, neighborhoods, school)

[xS☺B☺s]

I know a lot of the outdoor scenes of Hill Street Blues was filmed in Chicago. Do any of you Chi-towners know where exactly they used to shoot? Having moved from BOS down to DFW I'm getting addicted to this show cuz I'm jonesing for some old northern city grit!

[Lookout Kid]

The police station is the old Maxwell Street station (exterior shots only). It's still there today, but is now the UIC Police Department. Otherwise they shot all around the city. The squad cars look just like Chicago squads, but have the department name changed to "Metro Police".

[xS☺B☺s]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

The police station is the old Maxwell Street station (exterior shots only). It's still there today, but is now the UIC Police Department. Otherwise they shot all around the city. The squad cars look just like Chicago squads, but have the department name changed to "Metro Police".

Thanks for the info. I'll google map it.

I'm gonna get some snaps of different shots from the show. I'll post em and we'll see if you guys can tell me where in CHI these shots are from. Being almost 30 years ago, it may be kinda challenging!

Edit: Oh wow that's cool! I found it on Google maps. First thing I noticed is they actually used the real street name for the cross st (Morgan St). And wow, that neighborhood is cleaned up! Talk about urban renewal! Did it real used to be as much of a mess as it looked in HSB or was that just set decoration? Has that college always been there?

[Lookout Kid]

Yes it's cleaned up quite a bit. The University has been there for decades, but has only recently spawned student-oriented neighborhoods nearby (UIC has traditionally been a commuter school, but that's beginning to change a little).

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Bostonian08

...I'm gonna get some snaps of different shots from the show. I'll post em and we'll see if you guys can tell me where in CHI these shots are from. Being almost 30 years ago, it may be kinda challenging! ...

Sounds good.

[FleeTheRustBelt]

Not to discourage you or anything, but a lot of HSB was actually filmed in LA. Kind of surprising that they could find parts of LA that looked that rundown and gritty, at least in the early 80's. Still, there were some location shots filmed in Chicago, especially the title sequence. I always loved the cop car with its lights on going past the Old Style sign in the snow....SO old-school Chicago.

[Lookout Kid]

The Wikipedia entry actually has a lot of information about filming locations, and city references in the show. It's pretty interesting. They never named the fictional city, and some of the references in the show conflict with one another.

[yohignez]

Does anyone know the name of a meat market/butcher shop located somewhere on Maxwell street. I know the one called Meyers, but there was another one. Had to have been sometime around the late 50's or early 60's.

[caveman67]

In the Hill Street blues opening credit sequence, after 10 seconds, police cars drive from right and turn towards camera. In that scene background there's a bridge, some smoke pipes and a large high building (or perhaps there are actually several buildings, but it looks like one building with some wings or other shape, not ordinary box style).

Does anyone know what that large building is and what's it's address? It's profile looks like a big hospital here in Finland, and that made me very curious at 80's. Hill street blues is now on 3rd run here, and still very good tv serie. Perhaps internet time makes it possible to finally get answer to my question...


ps: I read this interesting thread. I learned some interesting things about HSB at IMDB.com, for instance that most of scenes were shot in LA, California. Not like Chicago, eh?

[linicx]

Welcome to Chicago, Caveman57 from Finland.