of conceiving his own material. Bochco said: I don't think it's a knock-off. It was conceived as its own show. I wish Homicide the best – and they should be so lucky as to do as well as we're doing right now." Pete Schulberg of The Oregonian wrote, "Forget all the commotion about NYPD Blue. Homicide delivers without the lewd language and skin shots. It depicts violence in a most compelling way: You don't see it. You just feel it." Bob Wisehart of The Sacramento Bee said, "The bottom line is that while NYPD Blue is a fine show—it was on my 10-best list for 1993–Homicide is better. There's been nothing like it since the heyday of Hill Street Blues." Elaine Liner, television critic with the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, who called Homicide "as rewarding an hour of serious, quality television as you could ask for", praised it for highlighting quality writing rather than gimmicks like the nudity from NYPD Blue, and praised it for fleshing out not only the detectives and victims, but the suspects too, like in "Bop Gun". Ed Siegel of The Boston Globe wrote, "If [the nudity] is what it took to get you to watch NYPD Blue and you decided to stay because it was grittier, better written, directed and acted than any other drama on TV, be advised that Homicide is so far superior to NYPD Blue in all those categories that if you're not [watching it], you're missing the best hour of episodic television since Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere left the air." Ratings NBC heavily advertised the second season, especially the guest appearance by Williams in the season premiere, "Bop Gun". Levinson, Baldwin, Belzer and Fontana all participated in multiple media interviews about the show. "Bop Gun" was seen by 16.3 million viewers, a higher-than-usual Homicide: Life on the Street rating in large part to interest in Williams' appearance. It received a 17.3 Nielsen rating and a 28 share, the highest rating for a 10 p.m. drama series since January 1992. The rating placed Homicide among the top ten network television Nielsen ratings for the week, and outperformed the ratings of L.A. Law, which normally filled the 10 p.m. Thursday timeslot. Warren Littlefield said the ratings "far exceeded expectations", and said he expected the series to return for a third season if the viewership remained strong. Littlefield said of the Homicide ratings: