An Unofficial Guide to NYPD Blue Audiobook By Gene Kendall cover art

An Unofficial Guide to NYPD Blue

A Comprehensive Exploration of the Legendary Drama

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An Unofficial Guide to NYPD Blue

By: Gene Kendall
Narrated by: Brian L. Knutson
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It was a drama about friendship, addiction, and loyalty (with some partial nudity thrown in, of course). And, let's not forget the case of the week. NYPD Blue exploded in the public's consciousness in 1993, and remained a presence in American homes for 12 years. For the first time, the entire run of the series is explored through a series of essays, character examinations, and trivia.

Interested in Blue's short-lived spinoff? Curious to know the details behind the numerous cast deflections? Want to know how those prose novels fit into the big picture? And, is it possible an NYPD Blue children's book was published in the UK?

Join writer Gene Kendall (CBR, Not Blog X) as he explores the series in unprecedented detail, a retrospective for fans by a fan, that serves as a tribute to the greatest network drama in history.

©2017 Gene Kendall (P)2022 Gene Kendall Art Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV
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when NYPD blue came out. It was preceded by a ruckus turmoil of speculation, excitement, and titillation. However, when the show premiered and all that excitement lead it up to a partial shot of an overweight detective‘s butt and some slightly risky language, the show turned out to be more of a disappointment.
this book turned out to be much of the same. The author goes through much of the pre-production casting and eventual, hirings and firings of personnel, along with some of the controversy but a lot of it is glazed over or worse is not present, while the author tells people to go read , a different book on the subject… True blue written by the show runner.… A lot of it is very disappointing and well it does provide a concise guide to the seasons and what happened on screen, and a little bit of what went on behind the scenes, it is really apparent that even the author thinks you should’ve gone and read the other book. There also seem to be no new information or material… No production notes no Scriptnotes no interviews or later comments to give this book any real gravitas.

however, I did get sucked into the book and found it hard to turn off. The narration was so entrancing that I managed to keep up with the book and finish it. I think a poor narrator would have had me deleting this copy before I even got to the Ricky Schroder years. Is extremely dynamic and authoritative. I almost found myself wanting to argue with the book because the narrator had me so enthralled.

if you were a big NYPD blue fan fan, you should probably pick this book up and read it eventually. If you were only a casual fan or a TV cinema fan who likes to read the back stories of different movies and TV series and the adventures that go on behind the scenes , you can probably skip this one. If I hadn’t received a review copy, I probably would not have thought twice about it. i’ve recently read books like the secrets of Star Wars and the these are the voyages Star Trek season one behind the scenes, publications, and the amount of research and effort and detail put into these books may have spoiled me for this NYPD blue guide, but really if they did it’s the authors fault. This is not even offer a fraction of the same amount of research as those other books.
so it may be just my high standards, or the fact that I was only mildly interest in the production of the risqué series from my younger life, and hope that I would find out some of the reasons why the show failed so badly… Well, it made it 11 seasons I guess that’s not badly, but it was definitely a disappointment to many people who tuned in to watch that first… Daring… Episode.

if you had things you wanted to know about NYPD blew this book will answer some of them.

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Mostly things a true NYPD Blue fan would already know, a lot of it gleaned from the much better David Milch bio "Life's Work." The author's seemingly pathological hatred of Rick Schroder's Danny Sorensen character undermines his commentary with distracting rants (FWIW I found Schroder's unpolished line readings to be a remarkable artistic choice to sound less like an actor and more like an actual NY cop). Very thin commentary with little to no added insight. About a third of this isTV Guide-style entries. Avoid.

Not For True Blue Fans

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Listener received this title free

I am a fan of the BBC Sherlock TV series, and there was a time when I devoured everything about it. From behind-the-screen production book, an almost-all-pictures casebook, to a book written by a fan to analyze the show. There is certainly a market for this, as I am pretty sure ImdB itself is not enough for devoted fans.

This book is a gigantic, detailed review of the show. I remember when NYPD Blue first became available where I lived (far later than its original airing), but it was one of the shows that was quite a trendsetter, and even though I was not a regular fan or follower, I would sit and watch when it came to the screen.

So, although I am not familiar with most of the episodes (and it has been a long time), I enjoy reading how a show evolves and the challenge of keeping it fresh and interesting. I guess it's more enjoyable because I have similar frustration with the author about many things in the entertainment industry, like forced/unnecessary romance and unrealistic 'everyone is gorgeous' trope.

This is the first time I try an audiobook. While I can imagine it would be more lively for other books with dialogues and actions, instead of all narrations, the narrator does a good job in conveying the author's opinion and frustration for the show (too bad there is too little of them, imho). I can practically hear the eye-rolling.

If you are a fan of NYPD Blue, this is a good read. But even if you are not, it's interesting to read about the long-running show because some of the challenges and problems certainly apply to other shows you like.

For Fans and Others

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Couldn't even finish. The author is a hack but clearly doesn't believe so. Waste of my time and credit.

Whack!

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I just completed watching all 12 Seasons of NYPD Blue. Loved the show. Lots of things happen within the series that clearly were driven by circumstances external to the story. So, I sought a book that would shed some light on why characters left the show when they did.

This book doesn’t provide any detail that isn’t readily available online.

The author engages in no real journalism, he interviews none of the folks involved. Rather, it seems he just Googles some things.

The author shares a lot of his opinion about the series. I found those remarks tedious and mostly unsupported by anything other than his personal taste.

Terrible book.

Not What I Hoped For

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