Bluey is an Australian Cop Show, made by Crawford Productions for the Seven Network, which ran for 39 episodes between July 1976 and December 1977.
The series revolved around Cowboy Cop Detective Sergeant "Bluey" Hills, played by former comedian Leo "Lucky" Grills, who has been put in charge of his own (very small) department because no one else wants to work with him. The supporting cast included Gerda Nicholson as Sgt. Monica Rourke, John Diedrich as Detective Gary Dawson and Terry Gill as undercover officer Det. Sgt. Reg Truscott. Victoria Quilter appeared in early episodes as Jo Goldman, Dawson's girlfriend.
Nowadays, the series is better remembered for being parodied by The Late Show (1992), in a recurring Gag Dub sketch called Bargearse.
Not to be confused with another Australian series called Bluey.
Bluey provides examples of:
- Chain-Link Fence: A scene in the first episode has Bluey chasing a criminal up to an out-of-focus chain link fence.
- Da Chief: The unnamed Assistant Commissioner, played by Ken Goodlet.
- Cop Killer: "The First Bloody Day" has Bluey investigating a young police officer killed by a car bomb, the son of an old friend and fellow detective.
- Cowboy Cop: Bluey, in a manner fairly typical of the 1970s.
- Crossover: The final episode features Don Barker as his Homicide character Det. Sgt. Harry White.
- Deadly Dodging: A criminal tries to punch Bluey, who ducks out of the way and causes him to punch the telephone pole behind him.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Dawson and Bluey respectively.
- Married to the Job: Dawson, especially since he became a detective, which eventually causes Jo to leave him after a dangerous undercover assignment in "End of the Line".
- Mistaken for Gay: Dawson is set up like this when a male friend calls him at work, introducing himself as Joe and asks to speak to Dawson in a camp voice before giving the phone to Jo. Rourke and Bluey listen as he calls her "darling" and get the wrong idea, at least until Bluey is introduced to Jo later in the episode.
- No Name Given: The Assistant Commissioner is never credited by name.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: "Bluey" Hills.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Bluey, established when he calls Dawson a poof (see above), though doesn't seem to show any objection to working with him before he's corrected.
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Retroactive Recognition: The theme music became far better known as the Channel 9 Cricket theme. - Turn in Your Badge: Bluey is suspended in the second episode after a criminal he's after makes him look dangerously obsessed to the point of delusion, not helped by him explicitly saying that It's Personal.
- Ultimate Job Security: Bluey is too good a detective to fire, but no department wants to work with him, at least not on a regular basis.
