It’s difficult to miss Bill Clark’s office in the Bochco Building on the 20th Century Fox lot. Just follow the sound of the squawking birds.
Inside the room are two African gray parrots and a black-masked lovebird, surrounded by plaques, photos, framed letters, emblems and other assorted mementos from 25 years spent with the New York City Police Department. There’s also an aquarium.
One has only to recall the lively debate between Andy Sipowicz and newcomer Bobby Simone at the start of the second season of “NYPD Blue” – pigeons (Simone’s passion) vs. tropical fish (Sipowicz’s) – to understand what role this retired homicide detective played in the development of the hit ABC drama.
After retiring from the force nearly three years ago, Clark moved to Hollywood to work as a consultant on the series, created by Steven Bochco and David Milch. That isn’t to say, however, that this longtime cop and Vietnam veteran has actually gone Hollywood.
In person, Clark radiates the kind of intensity and street savvy found in few places west of the Mississippi River. He still talks a bit too fast for L.A., peppering his side of the conversation with slang, and eschews Armani for a more lived-in look.
As a supervising producer on CBS’ new “Brooklyn South” and co-executive producer of “NYPD Blue,” Clark is the arbiter of accuracy on two of the most in-your-face shows on television. While he isn’t the guy who decides when Sipowicz will next fall off the wagon or Simone will flash some more skin — that’s up to head writer and Emmy-winner Milch — Clark’s there to make sure they make busts that will hold up in court.
“I do the cop stories, which are the vehicles for the emotional stuff that brings people back every week,” he says, deflecting as much credit for the success of “NYPD Blue” as possible. “All I do is make sure the investigations on the show are conducted the way a real investigation would be. But it’s really David who lays in the personal stories.”
Putting modesty aside for a moment, Clark does allow that the police work on display — “everything a cop would say, do, act, and everything a perpetrator would say, do and behave” — is right on the button.
“I hate cop shows where they show two guys being brought into the station house, kicking, screaming and yelling,” he stresses. “Anybody who’s been in handcuffs knows you ain’t going to do that — especially after a five-minute ride, with your hands behind your back. They come in very docile, moping. . . . I don’t care what they’re arrested for.”
“The verisimilitude you get with Bill exceeds the boundaries of most top technical assistants,” says Mark Tinker, executive producer of “NYPD Blue” and director of the “Brooklyn South” pilot episode. “It goes more to the soul of what being a cop is all about . . . the instinctive and instinctual reactions that a guy who’s been a cop for a while–like Sipowicz or Simone–would have.”
Clark was born in Newfoundland, but raised in Brooklyn. He joined the NYPD in 1969, after a stint in the U.S. Army, and was promoted to detective three years later.
Clark began working with executive producer Milch when “NYPD Blue” was still in its development stage. Milch, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Yale University, was steered to the homicide detective by New York newspaper reporter Michael Daly.
“Because of the problem they were having with the network relative to content–what they wanted to, versus what they were going to be allowed to do–they had an extra year to research the show,” said Clark. “The first year, while I was still on the homicide squad, I was a technical adviser. I retired once the (then-lead actor David) Caruso deal was resolved, then became a consulting producer, a co-producer, a supervising producer (of `Brooklyn South’) and now co-executive producer (of `NYPD Blue’).”
After the departure of Caruso and arrival of Smits in 1994, “NYPD Blue” became more of an ensemble drama. The series survived an early boycott by some ABC affiliates and advertisers, and now draws a healthy viewership for the network on an otherwise shaky Tuesday night schedule.
The jury’s still out for “Brooklyn South,” which replaced “Chicago Hope” on CBS’ Monday night lineup. If nothing else, its timeslot presents an inadvertent challenge to the crimefighters the show is trying to represent.
“We’re getting a positive response from the cops,” Clark observes. “But we’re up against `Monday Night Football,’ and that makes it difficult. That mystery will be over in January. I think we’ve got the right direction for that show and it will do pretty good.”
Many of the incidents described in the shows he supervises derive from actual cases to which he was assigned. Others are suggested to him by fellow police officers.
For further inspiration, he also has the New York Post delivered to his office.
Clark still knows the streets of New York like the back of his hand, and often returns home to scout locations. He also serves as a conduit between working cops and the shows’ writing staffs.
“Tomorrow, I have three people coming out here — one retired cop, a lieutenant and a detective,” he says, after taking a call from columnist Jimmy Breslin. “Before they come out, I ask them to make some notes on cases they’ve worked. We go out and have nice fancy dinners, they stay at my house, we go to the set and discuss cases. Sometimes I get good stuff from them and sometimes not.
“If nothing else, it’s good for me to be current with what’s going on.”
It’s not that Clark doesn’t trust his bosses to get things right. After all, Bochco and Milch aren’t the kind of producers who pay for the services of consultants then ignore everything they suggest.
“I defy any detective to sit down with David — who was a Yale professor — and not feel this guy was on the job for 20 years,” he says. “He knows the job, the jargon and knows how investigations would be conducted. He could walk into a squadroom with me now and catch a homicide and he would know what to do. That’s the truth.”
One way in which shows such as “Brooklyn South,” “NYPD Blue,” “Homicide” and “Law & Order” are more convincing than most other Hollywood police dramas is in the degree of professional control demonstrated by the actors who play cops.
“If the guys really look and act like real detectives — not the way Hollywood thinks they act, where there’s usually a lot of pushing, shoving and over-the-top stuff — the audience will stay with the story,” argues Clark. “If I tell two actors to place a guy under arrest, invariably they’re going to grab him, throw him on the floor and start yelling. Whereas, a couple of detectives would go over there, nice and easy, `Hey, pal, get up on your feet’ . . . `Just relax.’
“You look like you’re in control. You’re a threat, without doing anything really menacing. It looks professional.”
Real cops, he adds, often will go out of their way to give someone a second chance.
`I broke a lot of big cases and I’ve put a lot of people away for the rest of their lives,” he points out. “Those cases don’t mean half as much to me as when I’ve been able to give a break to someone who’s done something stupid — someone whose whole life would change if I locked them up.”
This doesn’t happen much in Clark’s adopted home of Los Angeles, however. He doesn’t think Sipowicz and Simone would fit in very well in the LAPD.
“These guys are merciless out here,” he declares. “It’s like the Marines vs. the Army. Maybe the uniforms worn by New York cops aren’t as sharp, and maybe their posture isn’t as good, but they get the job done in a much more humane fashion.
“If you get stopped by an L.A. cop, you’d think you just stuck up a bank . . . the way they approach the car, the way they talk to you . . . they’re like Robocop.”
Also merciless, especially on television, are the officers assigned to the Internal Affairs Bureau. They’re often made to seem as dastardly as the suspects in the holding cells, setting up numerous Us-vs.-Them confrontations.
“The problem comes when these lowlifes, in the course of an argument, file a complaint to Internal Affairs,” Clark says, sounding very unretired. “IAB might take their side of it, and, the next thing you know, you’re brought in like a criminal and you’re fighting for your life. You kind of resent it.
“You need an Internal Affairs Bureau. Just as long as they don’t bother the good cops who are out there really doing a tough job.”
One current case being investigated by New York’s IAB, among others, is the recent incident in which a Haitian man was taken into custody and tortured with a toilet plunger. Not surprisingly, it already aired as the subject of an episode of “Brooklyn South,” which is to uniformed cops what “NYPD Blue” is to detectives.
“I got calls even before the press heard about it,” Clark says. “The incident took place in one of the precincts of Brooklyn South, so that brought it home for us. We thought this is something we should address, because we do show a certain amount of force used against people.
“But in no way do we condone brutality. This was a horrible thing that was done.”
While Clark can give you chapter and verse on much of the police work on display in his shows, he is at a loss to explain the one thing that might live on long after “Brooklyn South” and “NYPD Blue” go to rerun heaven. That is, of course, having officers refer to perpetrators as “Skels.”
“I always get asked what that means,” he said. “I was a New York cop for 25 years and I always said `Skel. It just means `Skel.’
“I don’t know where it originally came from and I don’t know anyone who does.”
INTERROGATING A COP
Tribune–What about most TV cop shows drives you crazy?
Bill Clark–The way they get search warrants. You can’t just get one because you feel like getting one. You can’t just say you think it’s Bill Clark because Bill Clark wasn’t home that night. You have to have probable cause.
Q–What about the interrogation scenes?
A–(The suspects don’t confess) that fast. Sometimes it can take 6-8 hours. This is TV. But the way it happens is real; usually the guy thinks he going to help himself.
Q–What about how lawyers are portrayed?
A–From my experience I have no respect for attorneys that do criminal work. At all. It’s a game to them. Cops are out for justice.
Q–Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits) wears awfully nice suits for a cop, don’t you think?
A–We (The New York Police Department) have guys that dress really well. We wear suits every day. And it’s part of the job. If you’re going to try to get a guy to confess to a crime that can get him 25 to life, you’ve got to use every thing you can. If you look polished and sophisticated, it helps. It can intimidate. On the other hand, someone like Sipowitz (who doesn’t wear slick suits) uses physical force.
Q–What character is most like you?
A–There’s a little of Sipowicz and a little of Simone. It depends on the mood. I’m either one or the other.
