CENTURY CITY, Calif. - For the past 12 years, Studio 9 on the 20th Century Fox back lot has been home to New York's 15th Precinct, the "house" of ABC's "NYPD Blue."

Poke around the barn-like building and you would find the interrogation room, where Andy Sipowicz and his partners would turn sessions with suspects into small morality plays; the locker room, home to hundreds of emotional confrontations; and the squad room, the hub through which dozens of detectives, lawyers, victims, victims' relatives, witnesses and perps have passed.

Earlier this month, though, the lights went out for good on the 15th Precinct. After a few takes, director Mark Tinker called "cut" on the final moments of "Moving Day," the 262nd and final episode of "NYPD Blue" - one of the most influential dramas in television history.

"I think the show could go a 13th or 14th season, but I have no problem leaving the party an hour early. I'd rather leave an hour early than an hour late," says "Blue" executive producer Steven Bochco. "And knowing this was our last season gave us a kind of focus and made it as good as it is."

Over its 12 seasons on the air, "Blue" - co-created by Bochco and David Milch, now the executive producer of HBO's "Deadwood" - was nominated for 84 Emmys and won 20. (Star Dennis Franz was nominated eight times for his role as detective Andy Sipowicz and won four times.) In its first season, the show got 27 nominations, a record that still stands.

Though its audience has dropped by half in recent years, for much of its run "Blue" was one of the most-watched dramas on TV, with about 20 million viewers. More important, the show affected a generation of dramas with its jittery camera style, explosive use of language, adult themes and occasional glimpses of nudity.In fact, the adult way in which "NYPD Blue" approached its story lines almost ended the series before it really began.The debut episode in the fall of 1993 included Sipowicz grabbing his crotch and telling an assistant district attorney to "Ipso this, you pissy little ..." It also featured what was then a revolutionary love scene involving detective John Kelly (David Caruso) and officer Janice Licalsi (Amy Brenneman). Numerous ABC affiliates refused to carry the show's first few episodes, and the network had a hard time selling advertising.But, says Bochco, "I always felt that if we survived our first month, we would be fine. In the beginning, there was a storm, and if there had been any wobble in the audience reaction to us, I don't know if we would have survived. But we were virtually an instant hit."At the end of the first season, though, the show was hit by another "storm," this one created by actor Caruso.Caruso's departure opened the door for the development of Sipowicz as a character. Originally meant to be a counterpoint to Kelly, the aging, overweight detective was everything Kelly was not: racist, a drunk and a homophobe, mean and violent.The result was the evolution of Sipowicz, a modern-day Job who happened to wear a badge. From Season 2 on, he would become the fulcrum for "Blue."Then there was the arrival, in Season 2, of Caruso's replacement: Jimmy Smits as detective Bobby Simone. From 1994 to 1998, in what most critics view as the heyday of "NYPD Blue," the relationship of Sipowicz and Simone, and the chemistry between Franz and Smits, was the driving force of the series.To this day, those involved believe that the show's finest hours came in the Milch-written episodes leading up to Simone's death (and Smits' departure).Sipowicz would have other partners: Rick Schroder as the tortured detective Danny Sorenson (1998-2001) and, most recently, Mark-Paul Gosselaar as young detective John Clark. But there was never anyone like Bobby Simone."NYPD Blue" will leave the air on Tuesday with its place in television history assured. "To run 12 years is pretty phenomenal at the level of excellence we've maintained over those years," Franz says. "You can walk away with your head held high and say you've done something worthwhile."