Word About Biehn

Hill Street Blues was a highly respected police drama that played weekly from 1981 to 1987. It was gritty and well written with a good-sized ensemble cast of characters who dealt with a wide spectrum of police work as well as their own personal challenges of living. The series presented overlapping criminal cases that could take one or more episodes to unfold and were set against a background of arc stories about the continuing characters. In 1984, Michael appeared in three consecutive episodes entitled "Rookie Nookie," "Fowl Play," and "Bangladesh Slowly."

Rookie cop Randall Buttman (Michael) is an irritant from day one. From little things, like parking his foot on the dash of his veteran partner's patrol car to offensive sexual remarks to a female sergeant, he rubs people the wrong way. But beneath his smart aleck attitude lies a substratum of sheer cruelty. When his execrable treatment of a fellow rookie drives that young man to suicide, the aptly named Buttman instigates a cover-up. But will he go so far as to kill to protect himself? When a prostitute who witnessed his actions is found murdered, that is the question police must answer.

Michael's storyline is only one of several that occur during those three episodes, but it is a strong one, focusing on two young men, who, for different reasons, are both unfit to be police officers. By the time he made Hill Street Blues, Michael had grown sufficiently as an actor to be able to take hold of a bad guy role and really run with it, and in the persona of Randall Buttman, he creates a character who is bigoted, hate-filled and without compassion or remorse. If the yardstick of a villainous performance is the actor's ability to raise the hackles of even his most devoted fans, Michael as the reprehensible Buttman does indeed measure up.

Note of interest: Buttman's fellow rookie in "Rookie Nookie," the one with the fragile psyche, is played by a young Tim Robbins.