Babe, I agree with your post. Franz, a Chicagoan, was great...in fact, when Smits' character died (that episode made me cry like a baby) Franz tried to get his fellow Chicago buddy, Joe Mantegna to come on board but Joe was wrapped up in another project and could not commit. That would have been great! Mantegna is one of my favs - only behind De Niro. Instead we got Schroeder frown IMO, there has not been a cop show that touches "Blue" since.