Steven Bochco

How do some of television's top producers feel about the state of the industry? Seeking to take the pulse of TV's creative community on the eve of the new prime-time season, Calendar brought together three producers of current hits--Steven Bochco, Marta Kauffman and Chris Carter--to explore that question. Bochco, 52, will soon be inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame and can claim one of the best batting averages in television history.

Steven Bochco is taking his act to movie making. After a run of TV series that have dealt with the law--"Hill Street Blues," "L.A. Law" and "NYPD Blue"--he is planning an as-yet-untitled feature film drama about another aspect of the justice system, the Supreme Court, MGM announced Monday. It is Bochco's first feature film as a producer and his second as a writer. He will write the screenplay with "NYPD Blue" co-creator David Milch.

The leading man is bald, a bit paunchy, middle-aged and not a household name. He plays a celebrity attorney who defends questionable clients. The format is a risk--23 episodes that follow a single murder case for an entire TV season. And, oh yes, it's a freshman show going up against the hottest series on the air, "ER." So why the buzz about this new, fall ABC drama, "Murder One"? Why did it sell to British TV for a reported $250,000 an episode even though only the pilot has been shot?

Auto mechanic or Hollywood producer, it always helps to have someone good show you the ropes. Ask Steven Bochco. As co-creator of "NYPD Blue," "Hill Street Blues" and "L.A. Law," he's a TV icon. But there were times, he says, when he just didn't think he was good enough for the job. Three people, he says, helped make the difference in his earlier professional life--producer William Sackheim, former MTM and NBC boss Grant Tinker, and Bochco's father, a violinist.

CBS, reeling from poor ratings, the loss of pro football and last week's departure of its Broadcast Group president, Howard Stringer, took the offensive Tuesday by announcing it has signed producer Steven Bochco to a multi-series deal. Peter Tortorici, president of CBS Entertainment, said the Bochco pact comes at "an exceptionally good time."

Steven Bochco, one of television's most successful producers but absent from prime time since the spring of 2006, will return this year with a new legal drama for TNT. The cable channel said Thursday it has ordered 10 episodes of "Raising the Bar," a series about lawyers who went to school together but now find themselves working on opposite sides of the aisle. It will star Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Gloria Reuben, Jane Kaczmarek, Teddy Sears and Melissa Sagemiller. Bochco, 64, who created the series with David Feige, previously produced "Hill Street Blues," "L.A.

As creator of "L.A. Law" and "Hill Street Blues," Steven Bochco packed lots of drama into 60 minutes. Now he's trying to entertain in closer to 60 seconds. Bochco is joining the masses of wannabe online video moguls with "Cafe Confidential," an Internet series that's all about brevity and punch. The 44-clip collection, which premieres today on video site Metacafe, features people in their teens or 20s telling lighthearted, semi-confessional stories.

The man sitting in the big comfy chair in the big comfy office in Santa Monica looks familiar and sounds familiar but -- in some hard-to-define way -- he is not familiar at all. He turns 64 this December yet remains youthful in a way that only California and good genes can confer. His hair is gray. His skin is unwrinkled. But what is so different about Steven Bochco may be this: He is reflective and even philosophical.

Kim LeMasters, vice president of programs at CBS for the past 19 months, was appointed president of the network's entertainment division Monday. LeMasters, who will turn 38 next week, replaces B. Donald (Bud) Grant, who resigned from the position Oct. 30 to go into independent production amid rumors that he had been forced out following several seasons of steadily declining prime-time ratings.

In a nondescript industrial warehouse in Chatsworth, something unprecedented, emotionally risky and potentially politically volatile is going on. A drama series is being produced for television about a war that is underway -- a war where the American death toll is mounting, American public support is eroding, and there is no end in sight.