July 17, 1998
HOLLYWOOD -- Uber-producer Steven Bochco has a history of recycling actors, whether that means using them again on another show or giving them a job after they missed on their first try.

So he calls it "very possible, very possible" that he'll have future starring roles for Nicholas Lea (The X-Files) and Kevin Dillon, runners-up in auditions to replace Jimmy Smits on NYPD Blue this fall.

For now though, it's Rick Schroder signing on the line of NYPD's famous nudity clause. He'll join the drama in the new season's sixth episode as a former narcotics officer now working homicide cases.

"I got no problem signing it," Schroder says of promising to drop his drawers in the line of duty. "My wife says I've got a great one."

Easy for him to say. He's 28.

Co-star Dennis Franz is less anxious for a reappearance of his middle-aged rear.

"Average working-class guy with an average ass -- I think that's what I represent," he says.

"We don't need to go there too many times."

But Franz adds a butt but.

"It's also nice to see an average man have a sexual appetite and sexuality to him. Listen, we don't all look like Jimmy Smits. And the majority of us who don't, still have active sex lives and we do get naked once in a while. So we show that on the show, for better or worse."