Dennis Franz

Question: I've been thinking of Hill Street Blues lately and it is driving me nuts that I can't remember the name of my favorite character. He was played by Bruce Weitz and I think his first name was Mick, but they always called him by his last name. He was a wonderfully eccentric policeman — scruffy and tough, with a heart of gold — and received frequent phone calls from his mother. Can you help me out? I know this will continue to bother me till I find out!

Answer: That would be Det. Mick Belker, who was quick with a growl, just as willing to bite a perp as book him, and, by the looks of him, not on friendly terms with showers or razors. I'd imagine Weitz would consider it a compliment that you remember his name rather than his character's, but he did memorable work on the series. During Hill Street's January 1981 to May 1987 run read more

That was my initial response after sitting through — or should I say enduring? — Tuesday night's punishingly sad episode of FX's Rescue Me, with its expert blend of comedy-laced tragedy culminating in the worst-case scenario, the death of firefighter Tommy Gavin's only son, Connor. (I'm only sorry that FX felt the need to telegraph this shocking event in its promos.)

What a senseless death: a little boy riding his new bike, struck and killed by a drunk driver in broad daylight, just out of his parents' sight. The ghastly irony of this happening to the kid of a substance-abusing, commitment-phobic jerk of a "hero" is not lost on Tommy. And as his shattered wife whales on him at the hospital, both covered in their boy's blood, Tommy suffers this latest gut-punch with a quiet grimace of grief and guilt. Denis Leary has simply never been better.

When this seaso read more