Michael Kozoll

Writer Michael Kozoll is well known for his work on the police drama series "Hill Street Blues," alongside famed writer and producer Steven Bochco. The series was critically acclaimed for its writing and production innovations, which featured a more documentary-style form in both camera style and dialogue, in which overheard, off-screen dialogue and slang were used strategically and noticeably. Its subject matter emphasis, the hard realities of impoverished lives in an inner-city area, was considered ground-breaking for its time. Kozoll started his writing career on another television series, the criminal/medical drama "Quincy, M.E.," created by Glen A. Larson, about a Los Angeles County medical examiner who works to uncover additional evidence in mysterious crimes. Most of the conclusions were written to push a social agenda about the dangers of social issues that were particularly popular at the time. Kozoll also worked on the original film stories and scripts for action films "First Blood" and "The Hard Way." "First Blood" was the first in the "Rambo" franchise, starring Sylvester Stallone, who also contributed to the writing of the original story, about an angry Vietnam veteran who plays by his own rules. Unlike the subsequent "Rambo" sequels, there is not much gore or extreme violence, though this film is more widely and frequently parodied and recognized for being the first in the saga. "The Hard Way" was more of a straightforward action comedy film starring Michael J. Fox as a spoiled action film actor who researches a role by shadowing a police officer played by James Woods. Though they at first clash and resent one another, the characters eventually become friends.