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Homicide: Life on the Street was a highly acclaimed American television police procedural series chronicling the work of a fictional Baltimore Police Department homicide unit. It ran for seven seasons on the NBC network from 1993 to 1999, plus a 2000 TV-movie. The series was based on David Simon's nonfiction book A Year on the Killing Streets, and many characters and stories used throughout the series are directly based on individuals and events depicted in the book.

The show aired on Fridays at 9PM on NBC in the United States and in the United Kingdom on ITV4 on Fridays and Sundays at 9PM.

The series

Homicide was developed by Paul Attanasio and included film director Barry Levinson as an executive producer, but writer-director Tom Fontana is largely recognized as the guiding hand behind the series.

Homicide featured a no-nonsense police procedural-type look at the workings of a homicide unit. As perhaps the first cop show in television history to audaciously portray the life of an inner-city detective as it is--repetitive, spiritually draining, an existential threat to one's psyche, completely without glamor, but a social necessity--Homicide developed a trademark feel and look that distinguished itself from its contemporaries. For example, the series was filmed (using hand-held 16mm cameras) almost entirely on location in Baltimore. As such, the idiosyncratic city became something of a character, itself. Homicide was responsible for several television innovations, including being the first show to regularly use the technique of playing musical numbers over a montage of scenes.

Despite premiering in the coveted post-Super Bowl timeslot, the show opened to lackluster ratings, and cancellation was a near-constant threat. However, the show's winning of two Emmy Awards (for Levinson's direction and Fontana's writing) and the success of another police drama, the much soapier NYPD Blue, helped convince NBC to give it another chance beyond the truncated, nine-episode-long first season. (Homicide's four-episode second season renewal ties it with Seinfeld as the lowest number of episodes ordered in network history.)

Hoping to improve ratings, NBC insisted on a number of changes, both cosmetic and thematic. Talented but unphotogenic veteran actor Jon Polito was ordered dropped from the cast as the network clamored for more on-screen romance and violence. In order to have episodes the network considered more sensationalistic air during "sweeps" periods, NBC sometimes aired episodes out of order, often to the detriment of story arcs that had developed over several episodes or even entire seasons. Probably the most infamous of such gaffes was NBC's decision to broadcast an episode featuring the program's first sex scene ("A Model Citizen") prior to the airing of the much acclaimed episode, "Crosetti"; it was in this latter hour that the death of Detective Steve Crosetti, Jon Polito's character, was revealed and explained. (The detective had been in Atlantic City on vacation since the end of the second season's four episodes; for reasons never fully explained--but perhaps not difficult to surmise--he returns to Baltimore and drowns himself rather than return to his job.) As a result of this deviation from the producers' intended order, viewers of "A Model Citizen" found out from a comment made by his ex-partner, Dtc. Meldrick Lewis, merely that Crosetti had died but not how or when.

Hailed by many critics as the best, most authentic cop show of all time and one of the very finest dramas ever produced--propelled by perhaps the most talented emsemble cast in the history of the small screen--Homicide garnered three straight Television Critic's Awards for outstanding drama from 1996 to 1998 and was the first drama ever to win three of the prestigious Peabody Awards for best drama (1993, 1995, 1997).

Obviously, then, the critics loved Homicide, but the reality of its negligible Nielsen ratings hovered above all things. To NBC's credit, though, the network managed to keep what TV Guide referred to as "The Best Show You're Not Watching" on the air for five full seasons and seven seasons in all.

Homicide was at one time syndicated on Lifetime and Court TV. While these networks no longer air the program, it is now on the all crime televison cable station called Sleuth. Also, all seven seasons are now available on DVD. One DVD set combines the first two seasons, while additional sets contain the complete third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons. Significantly, the DVDs contain the episodes in the producers' intended order, not the order in which NBC aired them. TNT has aired some of the crossover episodes with Law & Order right after airing the relevant L&O episode.

Notable storylines and episodes

The series opens with Detective Tim Bayliss being assigned to Lt. Al Giardello's unit and partnered with Detective Frank Pembleton. Pembleton resents having his style cramped with a partner, and Tim, nervous and obviously intimidated, isn't sure he's up to the job. As (bad) luck would have it, his first case is the murder of a young girl, Adena Watson, an 11-year-old whose slaying is given full "red ball" treatment (the term "red ball" being Baltimore police slang for a case designated as top-priority by the unit's brass, usually because of the heavy media coverage it garners). The Adena arc culminates with the first-season episode, "Three Men and Adena", in which Detectives Bayliss and Pembleton interrogate their prime suspect for hours on end within the confines of the unit's claustrophobic interview room, "The Box." Bayliss' character would go on to demonstrate a particular sensitivity whereas child murders were concerned and, in a fifth-season episode, reveal to Pembleton a series of traumas from his own childhood explaining why.

"Night of the Dead Living", also from season one, has the unit working the graveyard shift on a hot summer evening. Meanwhile, the squadroom's air-conditioning has broken down and tempers are running as high as the temperature. Remarkably, the episode is little more than characters sitting around talking, complaining, musing. No murders are investigated, and the camera never leaves the squadroom.

Homicide saw its cast rotate, as most TV series do, and it dealt with these changes with varying degrees of effectiveness. The first major cast member to leave, Det. Steve Crosetti (Jon Polito), had his character killed off, and the exploration of how his death occurred and how the unit reacted to it is the focus of the above-mentioned season-three episode "Crosetti".

The third season also featured a trilogy of episodes ("The City That Bleeds," "Dead End," and "End Game") in which three detectives are seriously wounded as a result of a gunman's ambush, two of them almost fatally; meanwhile, the rest of the unit grapples with this reminder of their own mortality as they hunt for the perpetrator.

Homicide often mixed its characters' personal lives with their professional ones, including several affairs among the department's officers. Despite (or perhaps, as a result of) Homicide's uncompromising approach, the series always seemed slightly uncomfortable dealing with romance, and, predictably, the affairs tended to end badly.

The fourth season saw the departure of two other cast members but the addition of arson investigator Mike Kellerman (played by Reed Diamond). By the end of the fourth season's two-part season-premiere, Kellerman leaves arson for the murder police and become the central figure in a storyline that spans both the fifth and sixth seasons. This mammoth arc begins with Mike's questionable shooting of prominent drug lord Luther Mahoney and the gang war which erupts in its aftermath.

The sixth season is noted for its three-part opener, "Blood Ties", guest-starring James Earl Jones as a local philanthropist and pillar of the African-American community whose family becomes the focus of a highly sensitive investigation. The sixth also features the plainly titled episode, "The Subway," about a man who has fallen between a subway car and the edge of the platform and becomes crushed in-between the two. Although still alive and without pain due to the spinal severance, he knows he will die from his injuries the moment the car is lifted from his body. Because it's a death literally waiting to happen, the homicide unit is called in to investigate whether the man fell by accident or was deliberately pushed from the platform; at the same time, two detectives attempt to find the victim's girlfriend so they can exchange farewells. Andre Braugher as Detective Frank Pembleton and Vincent D'Onofrio as the doomed victim John Lange would earn Emmy nominations for their performances in this episode. (A similar scenario occurred in the comic book Top 10, which itself is a parody of cop shows like Homicide, but uses superheroes, as well as cop show cliches like montages set to music.)

Another notable episode from this season is the two-part finale, "Fallen Heroes", which concludes the Kellerman/Mahoney storyline begun in season five. Perhaps the program's bloodiest episode, "Fallen"'s focus is a violent firefight that takes place inside the walls of the squadroom itself. The late Luther Mahoney's nephew, Nathaniel "Junior Bunk" Mahoney, is arrested in connection to a murder and, left unwatched for a crucial few seconds, swipes a gun from an officer's unlocked desk drawer. After the smoke clears, four are dead (including Junior Bunk), two are wounded, and a retaliatory attack is launched by the remaining detectives against the remnants of the Mahoney drug-cartel. Lives are left in shambles and careers destroyed by episode's end.

The seventh season is widely regarded as the weakest, but stands out for its treatment of Kyle Secor's emotionally fragile Bayliss character. The detective whose arrival made for the subject of the very first episode finally begins to unravel under the stress of the job and the effects it has on his unorthodox personal life. (Near the end of the sixth season, Bayliss had begun experimenting with long-simmering bisexual urges and, after a brush with death, spends part of the seventh as a convert to Buddhism; as one might expect, neither are well regarded by his co-workers.)

In the 2000 TV movie, Homicide: Life Everlasting, the squad's former lieutenant, Al Giardello, is running for mayor (on a controversial pro-drug-legalization platform) and is close to victory when he's shot during a campaign speech. The assassination attempt inspires the arrival of the entire unit, past and present, in a joint effort to bring down the gunman. Every regular from the series—including two dead characters who make their appearance in a startling, non-flashback scene near the film's end—returns for this final chapter in the series' seven-year-long story.

Homicide crossed-over four times with Law & Order; in three of these episodes, a case would begin with L&O (the higher-rated show) in New York City for Part One before moving the action to Baltimore for Part Two:

  • "Charm City" (L&O ep 6-13) /"For God and Country" (H:LotS ep 4-12)
  • "Baby, it's You" Part I (L&O ep 8-6) /"Baby, it's You" Part II (H:LotS ep 6-5)
  • "Sideshow" Part I (L&O ep 9-14) /"Sideshow" Part II (H:LotS ep 7-15)
L&O producer Dick Wolf is a good friend of Tom Fontana, and later named the L&O character Joe Fontana after him.

Cast

Original cast

Other regulars

Recurring characters

Cameos

A number of well-known actors and celebrities appeared on the show, including James Earl Jones, Robin Williams, Steve Buscemi, Peter Gallagher, Chris Rock, Wilford Brimley, Steve Allen, Jay Leno, and Jerry Stiller among many others. Actors making guest appearances on Homicide were typically cast in fully-developed roles central to the episode in which they appeared. Robin Williams's sensitive portrayal of a grieving widower and father in the early episode "Bop Gun" is a notable example, as is Steve Buscemi's role as a suspected gunman in the third-season "End Game." However, cameo appearances on Homicide could also be lighthearted. Director (and Baltimore native) John Waters appeared twice, once as a nameless bartender listening to a disconsolate Detective Bolander, and another time as a talkative prisoner awaiting transfer from New York to Baltimore (escorted by Detective Mike Logan). In one particularly self-referential case, political talk-show host Tim Russert appeared as himself, bickering about Christmas presents with his "cousin," Lt. Megan Russert.

Episodes

For a list of the episodes, see Life on the Street episodes

DVD releases

The DVD series box sets are actually region free.
DVD Name
Release dates
Region 1
Region 2
Region 4
The Complete 1st and 2nd Season May 27 2003 N/A N/A
The Complete 3rd Season October 28 2003 N/A N/A
The Complete 4th Season March 30 2004 N/A N/A
The Complete 5th Season September 28 2004 N/A N/A
The Complete 6th Season January 25 2005 N/A N/A
The Complete 7th Season June 28 2005 N/A N/A
The Complete Collection (Including Law & Order crossovers) November 14 2006 N/A N/A

Second Shift

Homicide:LotS was one of the first shows to have a major Internet tie-in, a spin-off series called Homicide: Second Shift.

Trivia

  • Richard Belzer has played John Munch on seven different TV series: Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order, Special Victims Unit, The X-Files, The Beat, Trial by Jury, and Arrested Development.
  • In the fourth-season episode "The Wedding", Melissa Leo played not only her starring role of Sgt. Kay Howard, but also her sister, Carrie Howard, under the pseudonym Margaret May.
  • One of Homicide: Life on the Street's quirkier scenes involved Detectives Lewis and Kellerman's encounter with the film crew for a television show called Homicide, a show-within-a-show complete with Barry Levinson at its helm. "Hey, guys," a broadly grinning Levinson shouts to his crew, "It's the real homicide unit!" This was a reference to an actual incident in which a shoplifter on his way from a theft, thinking himself surrounded by actual police, surrendered to the show's actors.
  • In deference to the sensitive climate that existed following the Columbine massacre, a number of seventh-season episodes that featured gun violence had their order shuffled.

External links

NBC network shows | Crime television series | Drama television series | Homicide: Life on the Street | 1990s TV shows in the United States | NBC Universal Television shows

Homicide | Homicide (série télévisée) | ホミサイド/殺人捜査課 | Homicide: Drapsavsnittet | Uppdrag: mord

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Homicide: Life on the Street".

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