Hi folks..Welcome to NEW YORK UNDERCOVER REWIND, the podcast that discusses all things related to the hit 1990’s television show, New York Undercover. I’m your host..Chris Rose.
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Let’s talk about Dick Wolf.
Dick Wolf was a former writer on 1980’s cop drama HILL STREET BLUES and a writer and executive producer on MIAMI VICE (starring Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas).
Wolf would then create and exec-produce NBC’s hit drama series LAW and ORDER, which premiered in 1990. The first half hour of the series follows NYPD detectives as they investigate a murder, while the second half hour focuses on the prosecution of the suspect by the district attorney’s office.
Wolf was and is pro law enforcement He was quoted in a 2003 interview with the Television Academy as saying “I’ve probably spent more time with cops than anybody who DOESN’t carry a badge..And I probably know more criminal law than most lawyers who are NOT criminal lawyers.”
Wolf signed on and pitched the cop show to the FOX network, which by 1993 had two important things working in its favor:
First, by the 1993-1994 season the network was airing primetime programming on 6 days of the week, up from only 2 nights in its 1987 launch.
Second, and most importantly, in December of ‘93 Rupert Murdoch and FOX secured the rights to the NFL’s NFC package away from CBS for $1.6 billion (a little under $400M per year for 4 years).
This was not only a watershed moment for the NFL, but for FOX-which would solidify itself as a respected 4th network and later secure a number of new tv stations and markets in which to to air the NFL games. The NFL on FOX would launch in September 1994.
Now..back to Wolf. While the show was initially pitched with two male African American leads, FOX pushed back and asked to make one of the leads a white character. After back and forth between both sides, it was decided to make one of the characters Puerto Rican.
Filming on the pilot began in the winter of 1994.
Cast as the male African American lead was Malik Yoba, familiar to most viewers at the time for his role in the Jamaican bobsled film, COOL RUNNINGS. Yoba would play Detective J.C. Williams.
Michael DeLorenzo would play Williams’ Puerto Rican partner, Detective Eddie Torres. DeLorenzo starred for a few seasons in ABC’s HEAD OF THE CLASS and FAME before that and was a well-known dancer, having danced prominently in a few of Michael’s Jackson’s 1980’s music videos.
Rounding out the cast was Patti D’Arbanville-Quinn as the detectives’ white female Lieutenant Virginia Cooper.
As with most television pilots, it’s always a crapshoot as to whether the series will get picked up by a network. Factors sometimes include show budget, pilot testing, cast chemistry, syndication viability, available timeslots and sometimes simply politics between the show producers and the network.
Fortunately, the pilot was officially picked up to series by FOX in May 1994. It was slated to premiere in September 1994 in the Thursdays 9-10P Eastern time slot behind hit comedies MARTIN and LIVING SINGLE.
The show, then titled UPTOWN UNDERCOVER, would change the face of television forever.
Next time on NEW YORK UNDERCOVER REWIND, we’ll discuss how and why the show’s title changed and analyze the first few episodes in the series.
I’m Chris Rose.
Thank you for listening. If you like what you hear, be sure to Subscribe, Like, Rate and Review us!
BA-DOW!!