It was easy to mourn the “death,” in the winter of 1998, of Bobby Simone, the sweet-eyed detective who passed away prematurely of heart failure on NYPD Blue.

For those who watch this series regulary, Simone (played by Jimmy Smits) was the obvious hero: big, hunky, tender-hearted, caring, loving, miraculously uncompromised and uncontaminated by the […]