As confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, TV writer and producer Steven Bochco—one of the creators of Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, Doogie Howser, and NYPD Blue—has died. Bochco was diagnosed with leukemia several years ago, but a then-anonymous stem cell donation in 2014 did manage to prolong his life. Bochco was 74.

This week’s query is our annual first question of the year:

Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.

Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.

Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.

Orange Is The New Black arrived out of nowhere last season as a fully formed alternative to the diminishing returns of the generic male antihero archetype. (Sorry fans of Ray Donovan. And Low Winter Sun. And House Of Cards.) The Netflix show, helmed by Jenji Kohan, based on the memoir of Piper Kerman, and populated…

1. Will Lee, Sesame Street
With Sesame Street since its beginning in 1969, Will Lee used Mr. Hooper’s bow tie and glasses to cement his place in children’s television history, becoming easily one of the most beloved characters in the show’s early years. When Lee died of a heart attack in 1982, Sesame Street producers…

All TV shows age. It’s the nature of the medium’s production process that shows will be marked heavily by the time in which they are made. Even shows that aren’t about contemporary society are changed by the times they’re made in, by the prevailing production attitudes and fads. A show hits big, whether with audiences…