"Heart of the City" was a first rate show, and it was rather controversial in its day. I think that the reason it was first rate was that it was made by people who were willing to *let it* provoke controversy.
One talking point I still remember to this day was the double-standard the father (Robert Desiderio) used when his son had sex for the first time and when his daughter wanted to give up her virginity, too. He would sit on his son's bed, as I recall, and explain the facts of life to him and say how proud he was that his son was being so mature about this monumental decision, etc., etc. When it came to his daughter, however, it was more like, "You're grounded until your 21 for even *thinking* about sex!"
Jonathan Ward and Christina Applegate were very good as the two kids, and they had a good on-screen chemistry with Robert Desiderio. It was a family situation which was realistic, unlike some of the contrived garbage TeeVee tries to foist on us most of the time.
The police procedures were done very realistically. I still remember that (unlike most shows!) the writers managed to get the police unit designations right for radio chatter. The father, for example, was a "King" unit -- the designation for an LAPD detective.
This was a very good series and deserves to be on DVD. I have the whole series on tape, but I would *still* buy a DVD of it. BTW, as I say on the message board, sorry -- I won't make copies of the tapes for anyone. :(
