HILL STREET BLUE

TV creator Bochco dead at74

Steven Bochco, the creator of television dramas such as “NYPD Blue” and “Hill Street Blues,” died on Sunday, a family spokesman said.

The 10-time Emmy winner, who made an indelible mark on the small screen with his blunt writing style and downto-earth characters, lost his battle with leukemia at the age of 74.

“Steven fought cancer with strength, courage, grace and his unsurpassed sense of humor,” spokesman Phillip Arnold said. “He died peacefully in his sleep with his family close by.”

Tributes poured in for Bochco on Sunday night, with many citing him as one of television’s most prominent pioneers and inspirations.

“Absolutely one of the biggest influences on Buffy (and me) was HILL STREET BLUES,” director/writer Joss Whedon tweeted.

“Complex, unpredictable and unfailingly humane,” Whedon said. “Steven Bochco changed television, more than once. He’s a legend.”

The New York-born Bochco, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2014, spent years bringing realistic street crime and law-enforcement work to television screens — nabbing Emmys for “Hill Street Blues,” “L.A. Law” and “NYPD Blue.”

He even managed to churn out episodes for TNT’s nowcancelled cop drama “Murder in the First” not long after learning he had leukemia — and penned an autobiography, “Truth Is a Total Defense: My Fifty Years in Television.”

“When I was sick I thought, geez, I might not come out on the other side of this,” Bochco told The Post in August 2016.

“It doesn’t care how many Emmys you’ve got: Surprise! You’ve got leukemia!”

The TV producer had been suffering from a rare form of leukemia known as blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm. He received a stemcell transplant in 2014 from an anonymous 23-year-old donor, which he credited with prolonging his life.

“There is a reason now why I go to strip clubs every night, because I have this 25-yearold man’s DNA,” Bochco reportedly joked during City of Hope’s 40th annual Bone Marrow Transplant Reunion in May 2016, which reunites patients with the donors who saved their lives.

For Bochco, it was a chance to meet his new “relative.”

“You know, I’m carrying his DNA. We are related,” he told The Hollywood Reporter of donor Jon Kayne.

“I am eternally grateful,” Bochco said at the time.

LEGEND: Steven Bochco, flanked by “NYPD Blue” co-stars Jimmy Smits (left) and Dennis Franz in 1994, once dominated the airwaves with shows like that, “Hill Street Blues,” “L.A. Law” and “Doogie Howser.”