FILE - Producer Steven Bochco listens to the Democratic debate between presidential hopefuls Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., in Los Angeles in this Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008 file photo. The groundbreaking creative mind behind "NYPD Blue," ''L.A. Law" and "Hill Street Blues" said Friday Jan. 10, 2013 that he doesn't have the creative drive he used to have. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, File)
January 11, 2014 - 12:49 PM
PASADENA, Calif. - Veteran television producer Steven Bochco has a three-word explanation for why he's slowing down: "I'm just old."
The groundbreaking creative mind behind "NYPD Blue," ''L.A. Law" and "Hill Street Blues" said Friday that he doesn't have the creative drive he used to have.
The 70-year-old hasn't retired, though. Bochco is producing "Murder in the First" for the TNT network this summer. The drama stars Taye Diggs as a San Francisco homicide detective who teams with Kathleen Robinson to solve a single crime over the course of a season.
"I remember when I used to be the youngest guy in the room," Bochco said at a news conference with journalists who cover television. "Now I'm the oldest guy in the room. As things change, you change with it. I'm totally comfortable with what I'm doing at this stage in my life."
Bochco said he takes pride in having helped television dramas move into a new creative era in the 1980s through "Hill Street Blues," to the point where many critics consider the present day the golden age of television drama.
"We were certainly aware of advancing the agenda," he said.
News from © The Associated Press, 2014