Making some blue

But one high-ranking commander said Thursday that the brass has been "less than thrilled" with the bleep-happy series, which shows detectives cursing and smoking cigars while investigating a nonfatal stabbing.

Firefighters have focused their ire on a former police lieutenant, Venton "Vic" Hollifield. With the cameras rolling at the scene of a car crash two years ago, the now-retired Hollifield referred to firefighters there as "amateurs." Once the show aired, the union paid more than $100,000 for full-page ads in newspapers alleging that the comment "demeaned, slandered, and belittled" firefighters before a national audience, and demanded an apology from Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly for sanctioning the show.

A spokesman for Kelly, Paul Browne, called Hollifield's comments "regrettable." But he added that the department had no say in what ABC aired.

At City Hall, Bloomberg called Hollifield's comments about firefighters "wrong," and suggested Hollifield -- not Kelly -- needed to apologize. Hollifield hasn't.

Nor has ABC, which considers the show a commercial and critical success. The show had 6.9 million viewers last week, No. 27 in Nielsen Media Research's prime-time rankings. Only two other ABC shows did better.

The series' point "was to go in and explore a closed culture, the NYPD police culture, and see life as it happens," said producer Terrence Wrong. "If you have faith in your institution, you have no problem with that."

Reality show on Amish proceeds

LOS ANGELES -- A reality-TV series about Amish teenagers exploring the world beyond their community and faith will debut this month despite protests by members of Congress.

"Amish in the City" begins with a special two-hour episode July 28, the UPN network has announced. The series will offer a "unique look at the Amish journey of discovery" in which young adults leave their devout rural communities to sample urban life, UPN said.

The network's foremost concern was to treat the teenagers "with the highest respect," UPN entertainment's president, Dawn Ostroff, said in a statement.