‘NYPD Blue’ Is The Next TV Classic Getting A Reboot (Without Dennis Franz)

Pretty much everything old has been made new again, but you know one staple of ’90s television that hasn’t gotten the reboot treatment NYPD Blue. Well, no more: The game-changing cop show is coming back to ABC, reports Deadline.

Sadly, the NYPD Blue revival won’t follow its main star, detective and later sergeant Andy Sipowicz, played by Dennis Franz. Franz — a character actor who rose to instant fame when the show premiered in 1993 — has essentially retired, having not been seen on screen since the show ended its 12 season run in 2005.

“I did receive a call, and I’m flattered bot nor interested,” Franz told Deadline. “NYPD Blue was a high point in my life and career, and I think of it so fondly. I wish them all well and much success.”

So sure are the producers that Franz will never change his mind that, when NYPD Blue returns, Andy Sipowicz will be dead. Instead, the show will follow Theo, his son, who was played by child actor Austin Majors from Seasons 6 to 12. His mother, Assistant D.A. Sylvia Costas (Sharon Lawrence), was killed in Season 6. The role has not yet been cast, nor has it been revealed which characters and actors will return.

When NYPD Blue bowed in the mid-’90s, it took the cop show next level. It was openly mature, which is to say it was gritty and violent and sweary, at least for network television circa the Clinton era. (Its no-longer-a-big-deal battles with network censors inspired a classic and truly batty South Park episode.) It also had lots and lots of very mild nudity, prompting backlash from conservative groups; the American Family Association semi-successfully campaigned to have a third of ABC affiliates not air the pilot episode.

It also launched the career of David Caruso, who, like Franz, became instantly famous for his role as detective John Kelly. Unlike Franz, Caruso infamously bailed four episodes into the second season to pursue a non-starter film career. (This was a time when TV was still considered a distant second in respectability to cinema. Now it’s the opposite, though the hours and pay still remain better in film.) Eventually, in 2002, Caruso returned to TV for CSI: Miami, whose most lasting cultural impact may be YouTube supercuts compiling the actor’s penchant for groaning pre-credits quips leading into Roger Daltrey screaming during The Who’s “Won’t Fooled Again.”

The original show dropped on Hulu over the summer; here’s our guide to which episodes to prioritize. Maybe next NBC can bring back The Single Guy.