'HILL STREET BLUES: SEASON ONE'

The role of Joyce Davenport had not been filled when Steven Bochco started shooting the pilot for his police drama. He spotted Veronica Hamel walking down the hall and thought, "If you can speak English, you've got the part."

She could and she did, which proved fortuitous for both. Hamel had been cast in a play and left town, with great fanfare, only to be fired after five days. "I just wanted to get out of bed," she says of the chance to audition.

Bochco's comments come in commentary shared with Joe Spano and James Sikking on the pilot, while Hamel is one of eight actors in a featurette on the boxed set (Fox, $39.98). Cast members are seated in a row on director's chairs, and it's an awkward arrangement that begs for a moderator. One key player is missing: Daniel J. Travanti, who was Capt. Frank Furillo.

Bochco's recollections are refreshingly candid, recalling his fights with censors, ordering actor Kiel Martin into rehab, firing the on-set drug dealer (his solid-gold Rolex was the tip-off) and responding to Michael Warren's pleas for more screen time. He threatened to craft a story about Officer Bobby Hill going bald; Warren's full head of hair was fake.

The groundbreaking series betrays its age when a hostage negotiator uses a pay phone. But its chaotic roll call, its use of handheld cameras, its grittiness, its layered stories and its talented cast of regulars are timeless.