Growling and surly, he had us at, "You prosecuted the crap out of that one."

Those were the first words viewers heard Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) say to his future late wife, Sylvia Costas (Sharon Lawrence), on ABC's "NYPD Blue" in September 1993. His follow up? An obscene gesture and a line of dialogue we still can't publish in a family newspaper.

Yes, gruff Andy Sipowicz, the heart and soul of "NYPD Blue," did not begin his 12-year prime-time tenure as a warm and cuddly character. Instead, he was a racist, homophobic drunk who got shot in the pilot episode.

And yet, he was a racist, homophobic drunk who had at least a shred of decency, thanks to Franz's acting and the nuanced writing of "Blue" co-creator David Milch.

"This character, however flawed, had a huge heart and was a real hero," said executive producer Steven Bochco.

"We just realized that, at the core of it, this is probably a good man who just started some wrong turns on a downhill slide and couldn't put the brakes on," Franz said last month. "That's when we got introduced to him, at his very lowest. From that point on, we realized this was going to be a rebuilding and a re-understanding of himself and his journey over however long the show is going to go on."

Elayne Rapping, author of "Law and Justice as Seen on TV," said Sipowicz was appealing in spite of his unlikability.

"Even when he was really offensive, he was a character you could relate to as being a real person and not some sort of pretty face or macho hero," she said. "Even from the beginning, as offensive as his attitudes and opinions were, there was something about the character that was very compelling."

That's due in large part to the work of "Blue" writer Milch, who, like Sipowicz, is a recovering addict. In his 1995 book with Bill Clark, "True Blue: The Real Stories Behind NYPD Blue," Milch wrote that Sipowicz's personality is more similar to Milch's father. "He was always driven by things it was hard to understand, and which seemed to force him to live in a very narrow and specific way," he wrote, "and you didn't want to mess him up."

Franz, who previously had played a cop on Bochco's "Hill Street Blues" (Milch also wrote for that show) and other TV shows and movies, said he wasn't looking to play another police officer, but decided to read the script for "NYPD Blue" given his past experience working with Bochco and Milch.

"This is everything that 'Hill Street Blues' was and then some," Franz recalled thinking. "It was more insightful. I felt it was more focused and introspective of these individuals who the stories were about. And the dialogue and the adult content that it held for network television at that time was so groundbreaking that I was thrilled to death."

Kathy M. Newman, associate professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University, said Franz's Sipowicz began as a stock working stiff, "sort of a fat, ugly man, very lowbrow.

"I think he had to evolve if he was going to be as central to the show as he was," Newman said.

Much of that evolution was unplanned, as were the many cast changes that contributed to making Sipowicz the central character (Franz didn't get top billing on "Blue" until Jimmy Smits left the show).

When "NYPD Blue" began, David Caruso starred as Detective John Kelly, the show's more conventionally flawed hero who was determined to save his partner, Sipowicz, from his wicked ways.

Caruso was the leading man of "NYPD Blue" in its first season. He exited shortly after that first year, expecting to be a leading man in movies. That didn't happen, but his departure may have ensured that "Blue" would have a long, healthy creative life.

"If David had stayed with the show, my guess is the show never would have lasted this long," Bochco said. "One of the hallmarks of this show's energy over the course of 12 years is that we were periodically able to re-configure relationships, emotional entanglements, and it always gave us some fresh perspectives."

The departure of John Kelly led to a litany of partners for Sipowicz and helped contribute to his Job-like woes. His son, Andy Jr. (Michael DeLuise), died while trying to stop a robbery, and his wife, Sylvia, was shot in the courthouse, leaving him the single father of a toddler son.

His partners fared no better. Bobby Simone (Smits) died from a heart ailment and Danny Sorenson (Rick Schroder, who opted out of the show after three seasons) was found murdered and rolled up in a rug. Before his promotion to sergeant, Sipowicz's most recent partner was John Clark (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), who continues to solve cases.

With all the comings and goings, Sipowicz became the central character almost by default.

"Over the years we've really learned that, with the exception of [Sipowicz], you could pretty much survive the loss of anyone," Bochco said.

That included Sipowicz's third wife, Detective Connie McDowell (Charlotte Ross), who hasn't been seen on screen since Ross quit the show a year ago. ("We asked Charlotte if she'd like to come back [for the finale] and she declined," Bochco said.)

"We spent a lot of time in developing that relationship and having the audience accept that odd match-up and hopefully care about us," Franz said. "So when it was pulled out from under us and I realized it was going to limit us with the opportunities that I would be able to spend out of the police work and be able to go home, that was a disappointment. ... That being said, I think we did a pretty admirable job of not making it too apparent that she's with us, but not with us."

That Andy Sipowicz got to a place where he had a happy and contented home life shows how much the character has changed over the years. Bochco said he was proud that such growth came over a long period of time in a slow, incremental process.

"The kind of changes they went through were credible because they seemed to come about as a function of life lessons, pounding your head against the wall a certain way, time and time and time again. And finally, you learn, grudgingly, that there's got to be a better way to do this. If you have the patience to [make those gradual changes to characters], that in and of itself becomes the stuff of good stories."