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Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an 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 and then was followed by a 2000 TV-movie that served as a de facto series finale. The series was based on David Simon's nonfiction book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, and many characters and stories used throughout the show's seven seasons were based on individuals and events depicted in the book (Simon would also use them in his own series for HBO, The Wire).

The bulk of the show's first-run episodes aired on Fridays at 10 PM EST on NBC.

Overview

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's purpose was to provide its viewers with a no-nonsense, police procedural-type glimpse into the lives of a squad of inner-city detectives. As opposed to many television shows and movies involving cops, Homicide initially opted for a bleak sort of realism in its depiction of the job, portraying it as repetitive, spiritually draining, an existential threat to one's psyche, often glamor- and glory-free, but a social necessity nonetheless. In its attempt to do so, Homicide developed a trademark feel and look that distinguished itself from its contemporaries. For example, the series was filmed with hand-held 16mm cameras almost entirely on location in Baltimore (making the idiosyncratic city something of a character, itself) and was also notable for its regular use of music montages, jump-cut editing, and the three-times-in-a-row repetition of a shot when the moment on-screen was particularly crucial.

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

In its attempt to improve Homicide's ratings, NBC often insisted on changes, both cosmetic and thematic. For example, by the beginning of the third season, talented but unphotogenic veteran actor Jon Polito had been ordered dropped from the cast. At around this same time, the network also began clamoring for more on-screen romance and violence. In order to have episodes NBC considered more eye-catching air during "sweeps" periods, it sometimes aired them 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". (The detective, Polito's character, 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, Detective Meldrick Lewis, merely that Crosetti had died but not how or when.

Considered by critics to be one of television's most authentic police dramas, as well as an excellent dramatic series propelled by a talented ensemble cast, 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).

The reality of Homicide's negligible Nielsen ratings hovered over all things, however, and always left the show in a precarious position, cancellation-wise; it also had a harder time gaining a large audience because fewer viewers are at home watching TV on Friday nights. 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 television cable station Sleuth, and airing weekdays at 2 pm (EDT) on Superstation WGN. Also, all seven seasons are available on DVD. One DVD set combines the first two seasons. Additional sets contain the complete third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons. A boxed set shaped like a filing cabinet features an additional disc containing the Homicide TV movie and the relevant Law & Order crossover episodes - those without this disc had to rely on Law & Order recap clips on the season DVDs.

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 episodes which crossover with Law & Order. These were aired immediately following the relevant Law & Order episode.

Plot synopsis

Seasons 1 and 2

The series opens with Det. Tim Bayliss being assigned to Lt. Al Giardello's unit and partnered with Det. 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 where child murders were concerned and, in a fifth-season episode, reveals to Pembleton a series of traumas from his own childhood explaining why.

Episode 9 "Night of the Dead Living," the last 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 does not leave the squadroom until the final scene, where the detectives gather on the precinct rooftop at sunrise for a spraying from a garden hose wielded by Lt. Giardello.

The second season while 4 episodes long featured both a guest appearance from Robin Williams (ep. 10 "Bop Gun") and a police related murder dividing Giardello and Pembleton. The shooting of an unarmed African American drug dealer in East Baltimore leads to the suspicion of White uniformed police officers causing a backlash from the local community. Under pressure to solve the shooting from the politicians and community at large, Captain Barnfather and Colonel Granger allow Detective Pembleton to interrogate the uniformed officers much to the disdain of Lieutenant Giardello. Gee explains to Pembleton that it is more important to be on the same side as his fellow officers as opposed to the local Black community causing Pembleton to coerce a confession out of another drug dealer who was innocent of the murder. Pembleton however causes Gee to regret the coercion with the sense that Pembleton's interest in finding the shooter is based on justice not his loyalty to the Black community or fellow officers in Blue. The uniformed Lieutenant, James Tyron is then found to have shot the dealer on a tip from Detective Kay Howard and a search of the Lieutenant's residence.

Season 3

Homicide saw its cast rotate and it dealt with these changes with varying degrees of effectiveness. The first major cast member to leave was Jon Polito. His character, Det. Steve Crosetti, was 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 19 "Crosetti." [In seasons one and two, a frequent obsession of Det. Steve Crosetti was that there was much more involved in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln than had been reported. Det. Crosetti's infatuation with this bordered on a conspiracy theory obsession.]

Throughout the remainder of the series, Crosetti's partner, Meldrick Lewis, would occasionally refer to Crosetti with affection, as well as express regret that he hadn't been able to predict and prevent Crosetti's death.

The third season also featured a trilogy of episodes 25 to 27 ("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. When the likely suspect Gordon Pratt (Steve Buscemi) cannot be charged for the shootings, he leaves the station house and is later found shot to death, and Det. Bayliss, and the audience, are left to consider the possibility his murder was vigilante justice from the police.

Homicide often mixed its characters' personal lives with their professional ones, including several affairs among the department's officers (which tended to end badly).

Seasons 4 and 5

The fourth season saw the departure of two other cast members, Daniel Baldwin (who played Beau Felton) and Ned Beatty (who played Stan Bolander). These characters were said to be on long-term suspension due to some off-duty (and off-screen) carousing that had, in their superiors' opinions, put the Baltimore P.D. in a bad light. When the show's producers decided not to bring these characters back, their departures were retconned into Stan retiring and Beau disappearing -- a disappearance that was later revealed to be the result of Beau's working undercover.

A new addition to the cast was Reed Diamond as arson detective Mike Kellerman. After working with the Homicide unit in the two-part season premiere, Kellerman transfers to Homicide and becomes the central figure in a storyline that spans both the fifth and sixth seasons. This mammoth arc begins with Mike's questionable shooting death of prominent drug lord Luther Mahoney in episode 74 "Deception", season five (Mahoney first makes an appearance in episode 53 "The Damage Done" in Season 4), whom he'd cornered when Mahoney had lowered, but not dropped, his weapon. A gang war erupts in the aftermath of the death.

In addition, Giardello's less-than-stellar relationship with his superiors (who generally regarded him as a "renegade") cost him promotions. Among other things, they took issue with his tendency (albeit unproven) to leak information to the local media when he felt it necessary, as well as his willingness to ignore department protocols in order to get things done. His superiors included Deputy Commissioner for Operations James Harris and Colonel George Barnfather (both black), as well as Captain Roger Gaffney (white).

Gaffney was previously a detective, and had been transferred out of homicide (for incompetence) to missing persons by then-lieutenant Megan Russert. Despite his belligerence and ineptitude (not to mention the character's less than subtle racism), he was eventually promoted to shift commander, and soon thereafter to Captain (both positions which, ironically, were once held by Detective Russert before her double-demotion). He was chosen for promotion to Captain over Lieutenant Giardello by Commissioner Harris, in retaliation for Giardello's refusal to "play ball" over a previous case involving a Baltimore congressman. Harris, when he was a training officer in the 1960s, had once helped out a young Giardello when he was assigned a racist training officer that made him ride in the back of the squad car. Harris chose Gaffney for retaliatory promotion because he was a "fat Irish ass," very similar to Giardello's training officer. This was revealed in episode 65 "Blood Wedding".

In episode 75 "Narcissus" in season 5, written by Yaphet Kotto, Giardello gets the last word on Harris, whose name resurfaces when Burundi Robinson, a renegade retired African-American Baltimore cop turned local separatist leader, and his group are involved in a confrontation with the police. Giardello, who attempts to negotiate with Robinson, discovers the former cop, Harris's onetime partner, left the force after taking blame for heroin stolen by Harris. Harris then interferes in the current confrontation trying to protect Robinson, who along with the male members of his group, commits mass suicide at the end. Giardello later formally referred Robinson's accusations against Harris to the Mayor.

One notable change involved Pembleton (Andre Braugher's character); who was a high-strung chain smoker, when he suffers a severe stroke during an intense interrogation. It was at the request of Braugher that his brilliant, quick-minded character be hobbled to give him a greater dramatic context. While Pembleton returned the next season with a cane, his speech stammering and halting, with words not coming quickly, adverse audience feedback led to a quick and full recovery that would not have occurred with a real stroke patient. Soon Pembleton, who referenced the stroke from then on, was back to his pre-stroke intensity and drive.

Season 6

The sixth season is noted for its three-part opener, "Blood Ties" (ep. 78-80), 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" (ep. 84), which used real time (an actual 60 minute story timeline), 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 will die from his injuries the moment the car is pulled away from his body. The paramedics know this, but the victim himself does not. 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. The episode, which was inspired by an episode of the documentary series Taxicab Confessions, later became the subject of its own documentary, Anatomy of a Homicide.

Another notable episode from this season is the two-part finale, "Fallen Heroes" (ep. 99-100), which concludes the Kellerman/Mahoney storyline that began 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, Junior Bunk, is arrested in connection with a murder, and, left unwatched for a crucial few seconds, swipes a gun from an officer's unlocked desk drawer. After the smoke clears, three police officers and Bunk are dead, two Homicide detectives (Ballard and Gharty) are critically wounded, and a retaliatory attack is launched against the remnants of the Mahoney drug-cartel. Lives are left in shambles and careers are destroyed by episode's end.

Bayliss is critically wounded as he takes a bullet for a distracted Pembleton. Kellerman, interrogated by Pembleton and Falsone at Giardello's order, admits his poor judgment in shooting Mahoney and is forced to resign from the force in order to save Lewis and Stivers. Anguished over his inability to act in the heat of the moment, Bayliss taking the bullet for him, and being forced to use his interrogation skills against one of his own, Pembleton turns in his badge. This marked Braugher's departure from the series, though he did return for Homicide: The Movie.

Season 7

The seventh season is widely regarded as the weakest, partly due to the fact that Andre Braugher's Detective Frank Pembleton is no longer present on the show. Pembleton purportedly left the murder police to teach at an unnamed college. The leaving of the Frank Pembleton character is the point when many fans and television say the show "Jumped The Shark."

But the seventh season 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 is well regarded by his co-workers.) In one of the stand-out episodes called "HOMICIDE.com" (ep. 113), a serial killer is caught and in the series finale (ep. 122 "Forgive Us Our Trespasses") the case comes back to haunt Bayliss due to the killer, Luke Ryland, being set free. Ryland is later gunned down in a manner that leaves no evidence, and his killer is revealed in Homicide: The Movie.

The season also included the tense and bruising episode 120, "Lines of Fire", in which Agent Michael Giardello (Al's son) winds up his FBI career by negotiating with an armed father holding his children hostage. The episode reunited Giancarlo Esposito with his former Bakersfield, P.D. costar Ron Eldard.

Television movie

In the 2000 TV movie filmed after the series ended, Homicide: The Movie, the squad's former lieutenant, Al Giardello, is running for mayor (on a controversial pro-drug-legalization platform, a reference to Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke) and is close to victory when he is 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, which ends with the capture of the shooter, Giardello's death, and the mourning of his loyal subordinates past and present, as well as his netherworld reunion with Detectives Felton and Crosetti. In the final scene, the spirit of Giardello walks through the station, and finds the spirits of Felton and Crosetti playing cards at a table, much as they might have in life. Giardello takes a seat and notices that there is another empty chair, waiting for another squad member who will die. At first he is worried that it is his son Michael, but Felton and Crosetti say that while it could conceivably be Michael, it could just as equally be any of the other squad members, they do not know; such is life. In the world of the living, Pembleton is upset at Giardello's death and the deaths of other squad members over the years, and notes that "death goes on and on and on...", but Michael points out that "that is because life goes on and on"...

Crossover episodes

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:

  • In the pre-credit sequence of the episode "Law and Disorder" (H:LotS ep 3x15), Chris Noth appears as his Law & Order character, Mike Logan, handing of a prisoner (portrayed by Baltimore native John Waters in a cameo appearance) to Frank Pembleton, while they engage in friendly banter about which city, New York City or Baltimore, is better.
  • "Charm City" (L&O ep 6x13) /"For God and Country" (H:LotS ep 4x12)--A terrorist attack targeting African-Americans kills 20 people in New York, and the Baltimore cops connect it to an earlier racially-driven attack that killed six people. The cops team up to find a militia leader with vile plans before he gets away with murder.
  • "Baby, it's You" Part I (L&O ep 8x6) /"Baby, it's You" Part II (H:LotS ep 6x5)--A teenaged supermodel dies after being sexually assaulted. The dual-city investigation focuses at first on an obsessive fan and later on her father, before a stunning revelation closes the case.
  • "Sideshow" Part I (L&O ep 9x14) /"Sideshow" Part II (H:LotS ep 7x15)--A murder investigation in New York leads cops in a maze of intrigue that includes a lesbian hitwoman, gang members, and political machinations both for and against the current Administration.

Law & Order producer Dick Wolf is a good friend of Tom Fontana, and named the Law & Order character Joe Fontana after him. Detective John Munch would later move to New York and join the NYPD's SVU (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit).

"A Doll's Eyes" [ep 4x04] contains a cameo crossover with the CBS Series Chicago Hope. In the episode the organs of the murder victim, a young boy, are shipped to various hospitals across the country. The heart is placed in a cooler with the destination label "Chicago Hope Hospital", and during a montage is received in Chicago by a heart surgeon. This surgeon is played by Mandy Patinkin, who is unnamed in the story but appears in the closing credits as his Chicago Hope character, Dr. Jeffrey Geiger.

Homicide also references the show St. Elsewhere: The Homicide episode "Mercy" features Alfre Woodard reprising her St. Elsewhere character, Dr. Roxanne Turner, while Ed Begley, Jr. has a cameo as his St. Elsewhere character, Dr. Victor Ehrlich (again, unnamed in the story, but identified during the closing credits) in Homicide: The Movie.

Besides this, the Character John Munch, played by Richard Belzer, has appeared in several other shows, such as The Beat, The X-Files, Arrested Development, The Wire and Law & Order: Trial by Jury, and he is slated to appear on the French adaption of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Paris enquêtes criminelles.

Cast

Original cast

Joined in season 3

Joined in season 4

Joined in Season 5

Joined in Season 6

Joined in Season 7

Recurring characters

Character timeline

Actor Character Season
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Cast members
Daniel Baldwin Beau Felton    
Ned Beatty Stanley Bolander    
Richard Belzer John Munch  
Andre Braugher Frank Pembleton    
Clark Johnson Meldrick Lewis  
Yaphet Kotto Al Giardello  
Melissa Leo Kay Howard    
Jon Polito Steve Crosetti    
Kyle Secor Tim Bayliss  
Isabella Hofmann Megan Russert        
Reed Diamond Mike Kellerman      
Max Perlich J. H. Brodie        
Peter Gerety Stuart Gharty      
Michelle Forbes Julianna Cox      
Jon Seda Paul Falsone      
Toni Lewis Terri Stivers      
Callie Thorne Laura Ballard    
Giancarlo Esposito Michael Giardello    
Michael Michele Rene Sheppard    
Cast member Recurring/Guest
Recurring characters
Ami Brabson Mary Pembleton
Željko Ivanek Ed Danvers
Clayton LeBouef Col. George Barnfather
Ralph Tabakin Dr. Scheiner
Lee Tergesen Officer Chris Thormann
Sean Whitesell Dr. Eli Devilbiss
Michael Willis Darin Russom
Sharon Ziman Naomi
Judy Thornton Judy
Gary D'Addario Lt. Jasper
Walt MacPherson Capt. Roger Gaffney
Harlee McBride Alyssa Dyer
Rhonda Overby Dawn Daniels
Kristin Rohde Officer Sally Rogers
Mary B. Ward Beth Felton
Erik Dellums Luther Mahoney
Mekhi Phifer Junior Bunk
Hazelle Goodman Georgia Rae Mahoney
Ellen McElduff Billie Lou Hatfield
Austin Pendleton Dr. George Griscom

Notable guest appearances

A number of well-known actors and celebrities appeared on the show, including Neil Patrick Harris, Eric Stoltz, James Earl Jones, Moses Gunn, Robin Williams, Steve Buscemi, Alfre Woodard, Marcia Gay Harden, Lily Tomlin, Peter Gallagher, Chris Rock, Wilford Brimley, Steve Allen, Bruno Kirby, Edie Falco, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe, Christopher Meloni, Luis Guzmán, Steve Burns, Elijah Wood, Fisher Stevens, Jake Gyllenhaal, Lewis Black, Bruce Campbell, Paul Giamatti, Terry O'Quinn, David Morse, John Glover, and Jerry Stiller, among many others. Jason Priestley joined the cast in the climactic television movie, during which his character referred to Pembleton and Bayliss as "legends." Typically, well-known actors making guest appearances on Homicide were 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, some celebrities made essentially cameo appearances which were more lighthearted in nature. 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 Det. Mike Logan, played by Chris Noth). Out traveling on his motorcycle, Jay Leno stopped in at the Waterfront to have a beer, quickly departing after finding his bartenders strangely silent. In one particularly self-referential episode, journalist Tim Russert appeared as himself, bickering about Christmas presents with his "cousin," Lieutenant Megan Russert. Film director Barry Levinson, who also executive produced Homicide, acted as himself directing an episode for a show-within-a-show called Homicide in the episode, “The Documentary.”

Both the mayor of Baltimore (Kurt Schmoke) and the governor of Maryland (Parris Glendening) made brief appearances in the episode about the death of Beau Felton, appearing at the memorial press conference for Felton's death in the line of duty.

Episodes

For a list of the episodes, see List of Homicide: Life on the Street episodes

DVD releases

A&E Home Video has released all 7 Seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time.

The TV movie Homicide: The Movie (also known as Homicide: Life Everlasting) made after the regular series ended was released on DVD in Region 1 by Trimark Pictures on May 22, 2001.

Note: The UK DVD releases, by Fremantle, are a bit misleading in their numbering. "The Complete First Series" includes both the first and second seasons, "The Complete Second Series" is the third season, and the numbering continues off-by-one for the rest of the releases.

Title Episodes Originally aired Release date (all regions) Discs
The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons 13 1993-1994 May 27, 2003 4
The Complete 3rd Season 20 1994-1995 October 28, 2003 6
The Complete 4th Season 22 1995-1996 March 30, 2004 6
The Complete 5th Season 22 1996-1997 September 28, 2004 6
The Complete 6th Season 23 1997-1998 January 25, 2005 6
The Complete 7th Season 22 1998-1999 June 28, 2005 6
The Complete Series 122 (plus three Law & Order crossovers and Homicide: The Movie) 1993-2000 November 14, 2006 35

Internet spinoff

Homicide: Life on the Street featured an Internet-only spinoff, the web-show Homicide: Second Shift. It was an early Internet tie-in that featured a look at the other shift that worked Homicide after the television show characters went off shift. The show featured separate stories and ran for three seasons, from 1997 to 2000, at NBC.com. "Homicide.com”— the Homicide:Life on the Street season 7 episode—was the middle part of a crossover with Homicide: Second Shift. Though the television episode was self-contained, parts one and three (online only) provided expanded context for the story.

Impact on African American cinema

Homicide was noteworthy amongst network TV shows in its multi-dimensional depictions of various African Americans throughout the show. While not specifically an African American themed show, it was set in majority African American Baltimore, Maryland and would naturally display various issues and characteristics of the city's African American community. Homicide managed to cross several racial barriers that were not crossed on previous television series and portrayed by and large a more progressive depiction of African American characters than other previous television series. The show was commended at several award ceremonies themed to African American cinema such as the NAACP-sponsored Image Awards which would nominate both the show itself and its major cast members such as Yaphet Kotto, Andre Braugher, Clark Johnson, Toni Lewis, Michael Michele, and Giancarlo Esposito for various awards.

Trivia

  • Two of the four episodes from the second season contain characters named after popular Seattle-area grunge musicians. In "Black and Blue", actor Isaiah Washington plays a character named "Lane Staley" (Layne Staley), and in "A Many Splendored Thing", actor Dan Garrett plays a character named "Chris Novoselic" (Krist Novoselic). In the third season, actor Darryl Wharton plays a character called "Matt Cameron" (Matt Cameron). Several of the murder victims and suspects depicted on the show deliberately share names with members of Homicide: Life on the Street's crew.
  • Richard Belzer has played John Munch on eight different TV series: Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, The X-Files, The Beat, Arrested Development, and most recently The Wire.
  • In the fourth-season episode "The Wedding", Melissa Leo played not only her starring role of Det. Kay Howard, but also her sister, Carrie Howard, under the pseudonym Margaret May, who many believe in itself was a pun on the songtitle "Maggie 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 so they would be aired further away from the April 20, 1999 date of the tragedy.
  • Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Jane Smiley's only attempt at writing for television was "In Search of Crimes Past", a third season episode of Homicide.
  • Author Peter Maas appeared as himself in the episode "All is Bright." In the episode he attends the funeral of Gwen's mother (Gwen being one of Munch's ex-wives). He is virtually the only person to attend and proceeds to tell Munch how strongly he disdained the woman and that he showed up only to confirm that she was really, blessedly dead.
  • Meldrick Lewis was often found in the series telling a "bear in the woods" joke, where a hunter shoots at a bear and misses, causing the bear to catch the hunter and force sex on him. The scene repeats with slightly different circumstances, until the bear catches the hunter and asks, "You don't come here to hunt, do you?" Pieces of the joke can be heard throughout the series, and as a director Clark Johnson has thrown the joke into movies he has directed, including The Sentinel. Jay Landsman is heard telling the punchline in an episode of The Wire.
  • The dialogue that Meldrick Lewis says at the very end of the final regular episode is identical to the dialogue he is saying in the opening scene of the pilot episode.
  • HBO series The Wire is considered by many to be a 'spiritual follow-up' to Homicide: Life on the Street as it is set in Baltimore and based on other writings by David Simon.
  • Gary D'Addario (Lt. Jasper, head of QRT) is the real-life homicide shift commander whose detectives are featured in Simon's book.
  • Many of the characters in the show are based loosely on real life Baltimore Homicide detectives. Al "Gee" Giardello is based on Gary "Dee" D'Addario; quiet, Jesuit-educated Frank Pembleton is based on Harry Edgerton; comedic, long-serving Munch is based on Jay Landsman; etc.
  • The character of Tim Bayliss was originally based on Tom Pellegrini, a real Baltimore homicide detective. Both men were young idealists who were transferred to the Homicide unit from the mayor's security detail despite little investigative experience. Both men were assigned the murder of a young black girl, Adena Watson in the show, Latonya Wallace in real life (although, unlike on the show, the Wallace case was not Pellegrini's first as a homicide investigator). Both men were haunted by their inability to solve those cases despite marathon interrogation sessions with the principal suspect. After the first season Bayliss's behavior deviated more sharply from that of Pellegrini: he engaged in kinky sex with a local artist, he revealed that he had been sexually molested as a child, he drunkenly robbed a convenience store, and he came out as a bisexual. Pellegrini became increasingly disappointed at what he saw as "his" portrayal in the show, and made several references to how he disliked the development of the Bayliss character.
  • The show has spawned changes in the real life Baltimore homicide unit. As seen in the show the unit originally used a dry erase board in order to visually track detectives progress at solving crimes. After the show began to air the Baltimore Police Department discontinued the practice, believing the board, which concentrated on "clearance rates" for crimes, had a negative impact on publicity. It was later, at the insistance of the detectives, brought back.
  • In episode 85 (All is Bright) Lieutenant Al Giardello says "In Italy they live and let die" as a comment regarding an AIDS sick murderess. The actor Yaphet Kotto played Dr. Kananga in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die from 1973.

References

External links
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Last updated on Friday October 03, 2008 at 14:18:17 PDT (GMT -0700)
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