Brooklyn South

Brooklyn South
Genre	Police drama
Created by	Steven Bochco Bill Clark William Finkelstein David Milch
Directed by	Paris Barclay Marc Buckland Jean de Segonzac Lesli Linka Glatter Elodie Keene Christopher Misiano Matthew Penn Mark Tinker Michael Watkins James Whitmore, Jr.
Starring	Jon Tenney Michael DeLuise Gary Basaraba James B. Sikking Yancy Butler Titus Welliver Klea Scott Patrick McGaw Richard T. Jones Adam Rodriguez Dylan Walsh
Composer(s)	Mike Post
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	22
Production
Executive producer(s)	Steven Bochco Michael S. Chernuchin William Finkelstein David Milch Michael Watkins
Producer(s)	Mark Tinker
Location(s)	Brooklyn, New York City, New York (exteriors only) Los Angeles, California (interiors)
Running time	45 mins. (excluding commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	September 22, 1997 – April 27, 1998

Brooklyn South is a short-lived American ensemble police drama series that aired on CBS for only one season during the 1997-98 television season. One of the show's producers was Steven Bochco, creator of many well-known police dramas such as Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue. The show was also created and produced by David Milch.

The series attempted to create a setting of a gritty, realistic police station similar to that of NYPD Blue, but differed by focusing on the uniformed police officers rather than the detectives. The pilot of Brooklyn South was noted as the first TV-MA rated episode on broadcast television.^[1]

Synopsis

The focus for Brooklyn South was the 74th Precinct in southern Brooklyn, New York City. Francis "Frank" Donovan was the patrol sergeant who presided every day over the morning shift assignments he gave to the uniformed officers. Donovan was an informant for the hated Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB), and secretly reported to Lt. Stan Jonas, who, early in the series, transferred from being an IAB officer to the precinct captain after the officious Captain Lou Zerola resigned in disgrace to avoid a public scandal. It was later revealed in the season that Donovan became an undercover informant 15 years earlier for IAB to protect his father, a retired cop living in Florida, from indictment for corruption.

In the pilot episode, a psychotic gunman went on a shooting rampage outside the police station, killing a number of policemen and innocent bystanders. He was wounded in the shootout and brought back into the station where he died from his gunshot wounds. It was later revealed that Ann-Marie Kersey, a policewoman whose boyfriend was one of the victims of the shooting spree, slipped into the room where the wounded madman was being held and kicked him in his stomach which caused his death. Because of the race related issue (the shooter was black and all of his victims were white) prompted the killer's black racist family to pressure the city to launch an Internal Affairs investigation. Eventually, everyone was exonerated for the suspect's death, and Kersey completely got away with it, though her guilt over killing a critically wounded criminal would haunt her off-and-on for the duration of the series. Kersey then had a romantic affair with Donovan, but it did not last. Although Kersey and Donovan never got back together, they remained on fairly good terms. Later in the series, Kersey was promoted to detective and traded in her blue uniform for a suit.

Also in the pilot episode, Phil Roussakoff, a burly officer, transferred to the 74th Precinct and was partnered with Jimmy Doyle, a well liked and respected street cop whose younger brother, Terry, was trying to become a police officer to follow in their late father's footsteps. Roussakoff was a beat cop who often used his fists or his big mouth to get out of a problem, but often regretted his actions. Terry left the police academy to take an undercover assignment to infiltrate an Irish street gang planning a bank robbery. Roussakoff briefly dated Jimmy and Terry's younger sister, Kathleen, but was awkward and uncomfortable to dating. Terry helped foil the Irish gang's robbery, and he ended up joining the police vice squad anti-crime unit.

Jack Lowery was a tough street cop coping with personal demons which included his selfish and nagging wife, Yvonne, who died early in the season. Lowery later started an affair with his female partner, Nona Valentine, which did not sit well with Clement Johnson, Nona's former boyfriend and the station's traffic cop. Eventually Nona and Clem got back together, then broke up, and by the series end, Nona got back together again with Lowery. Hector Villaneuva was a young rookie cop who was tutored by the rest of the officers how to do his job the best be could.

Richard Santoro was the station's desk sergeant, a police veteran who seen it all, and was the voice of reason in the station house of keeping things calm. Santoro later stuck up for Donovan when he came out as an informant for Internal Affairs Bureau to save Santoro from a corrupt IAB officer from ruining Santoro's reputation. Ray MacElwaine was a 50-year-old veteran police officer who transferred to the 74th Precinct late in the series and soon proved himself to everyone that despite his age, he could still "walk the beat" and take down criminals. MacElwaine also stuck up for Donovan after finding out Donovan's work with IAB. In the series final episode, MacElwaine decided to retire from the police force, and Santoro was promoted to Lieutenant. So, Captain Jonas threw a double-party for the entire police station in celebrating Santoro's promotion and MacElwaine's retirement. In his speech, MacElwaine changes his mind and decides not to retire, to great celebration.

Other secondary characters included Kevin Patrick, a police officer wounded in the opening shooting spree in the pilot episode, which made him a paraplegic, and his wife Noreen, both of whom were friends with Jimmy, Terry, and the Doyle family. Also, Emily Flannagan was the daughter of Irish mobster Paddy Flannagan who was the leader of the small Irish gang that Terry had infiltrated. After Terry's undercover work was done, he and Emily got romantically together, but the series ended before their romance could go any further.

Cancellation

The series was scheduled opposite ABC's Monday Night Football and struggled in the ratings, averaging 10.5 million viewers and ranking 74th for the season. The series underwent retooling in an attempt to boost ratings,^[2]but despite the changes, the series was canceled in May 1998 shortly after the first season wrapped.^[3]

Cast

Episode list

DVD release

On October 28, 2003, A&E Home Video released the complete series on DVD in Region 1.^[4]

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Brooklyn South at the Internet Movie Database
• Brooklyn South at TV.com
• Remembering Brooklyn South - Formerly titled "Save Brooklyn South," this page originated as part of an unsuccessful Internet campaign to keep the show on the air.