Humor is always a very subjective issue, particularly when it comes
to SF, which in TV has either been non-existent/forced, or campy. So
a lot of times you get this knee-jerk reaction against it; they should
all be dry and serious and self-important.

I try and push just about everything on this show just a notch past
the proverbial envelope. Sometimes I fall down. That's the risk when
you take chances. I don't intend to stop taking chances, because what's
the point otherwise?

And sometimes the extremes work. And sometimes in humor you just
do something completely gonzo. My favorite scene from Hill Street Blues
in this regard was the one in which they spend (in a b story) the wholed
(whole) episode trying to rescue/find the mayor's dog. Finally, after
much angst, they find it. It's at the station. This little rat-dog
critter, a real creep. Lt. Howard Hunter is playing with it, bouncing a
ball. The ball bounces off the desk and out the 4th floor window...and
the dog sails after it, right through the window...and Hunter just sorta
stands there, and quietly, unobtrusively, hoping not to be noticed,
walks away.

I nearly killed myself laughing. And I thought, Damn, why can't we
do this kind of humor in SF? Just *go* for it.

And now we are.

jms