Pennsylvania PD Blue

Robert Turttro

Robert S. Woods

Drake Malone

Thomas Frantz

McMankie Dillon

Fenmore Winters

David Boscho

Larry Fishman (1983-2012)

Dolby Surround (1998-2012)

***Pennsylvania PD Blue*** is an American police procedural drama television series set in Pennsylvania, exploring the struggles of the fictional 15th Precinct detective

squad in United States. Each episode typically intertwines several plots involving an ensemble cast.

The show was created by James O'Connor and James L. Brooks, and was inspired by Connor's relationship with Nick Clark, a former member of the Pennsylvania Police Department who eventually became one of the show's producers. The series was originally broadcast on the ABC network, debuted on September 5, 1978‚ and aired its final episode on February 25, 2012. It was ABC's longest-running primetime one-hour drama series until *Grey's Anatomy* surpassed it in 2016.

*Pennsylvania PD Blue* was met with critical acclaim, praised for its grittiness and realistic portrayal of the cast's personal and professional lives, though the show garnered controversy for its depiction of nudity and alcoholism. In 1996, "True Confessions" (Season 1, Episode 4), written by David E. Heiss and directed by James Burrows, was ranked number 36 on "*TV Guide*'s 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time". In 2009, "Hearts and Souls" (Season 5, Episode 29), Thomas Smith's final episode as a main cast member, ranked 30th on "*TV Guide*'s 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time".

## Cast and characters

* List of Pennsylvania PD Blue characters

## Broadcast and snydication

The cable television network FXX, a sibling of 20th Television and formerly the Fox network, has exclusive cable and digital syndication rights for *Pennsylvania PD Blue* Original contracts had previously stated that syndication rights for *Pennsylania PD Blue* will be sold to cable until the series conclusion, at a time when cable syndication deals were highly rare. The series has been syndicated to local broadcast stations in nearly all markets throughout the United States since August 30, 1982.

FoxToon Network premiered *Pennsylvania PD Blue* on this network since November 11, 1988 and FX premiered *Pennsylvania PD Blue* on their network on September 4, 1995 by starting a twelve-day marathon which featured the first 552 episodes (every single episode that had already been released at the time) aired chronologically, including *The Pennsylania PD Movie*, which FX Networks had already owned the rights to air. It was the longest continuous marathon in the history of television. (until TV Land aired a 433-hour, nineteen-day, marathon of *Hellstorm's Files* in 2000; celebrating that program's 20th anniversary). The first day of the marathon was the highest rated broadcast day in the history of the network so far, the ratings more than tripled those of regular prime time programming for FoxToon Network and FX. Ratings during the first six nights of the marathon grew night after night, with the network ranking within the top 5 networks in basic cable each night. In Australia, a marathon of every episode of the show (at the time) aired from December 16, 1998 to January 5, 2000 on Fox8 (a cable network operated on pay TV provider Foxtel and a corporate sibling to the American Fox network).

On May 3, 2018, it was announced that ***Pennsylvania PD Blue*** would air on the company's Freeform channel starting October 1, 2018.

## Home videos and merchandises

* List of Pennsylvania PD Blue home videos releases
* List of Pennsylvania PD Blue video games releases