"Homicide: Life on the Street" The Complete Series Oct. 20th

[JamesG]

It never quite got the ratings it deserved over its seven-year run, probably because Homicide: Life on the Street was one of the first police procedurals not to put a romantic spin on what it meant to be a homicide detective.

Developed by Paul Attanasio and brought to life by writer-producer Tom Fontana (Oz, St. Elsewhere) and director-producer Barry Levinson, the show was honest -- often brutally so -- and never shied away from the ugliness real cops faced.

Based on the non-fiction account Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon of his year spent with a Baltimore City homicide unit, 1993-99's Homicide was filmed entirely in the gritty urban location of Baltimore itself, lending a sense of realism to the show.


Indeed, it remains to this day one of the most realistic police dramas ever put to film, aside from its Simon-produced descendant, The Wire. The cast changed from season to season, but its main players included unit leader Lt. Al Giardello (Yaphet Kotto); detectives Frank Pembleton (Andre Braugher, an Emmy winner for his role); Tim Bayliss (Kyle Secor); John Munch (Richard Belzer, later reprising his role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit); and Meldrick Lewis (Clark Johnson).

Other detectives included Sgt. Kay Howard (Melissa Leo); Steve Crosetti (Jon Polito); Stan Bolander (Ned Beatty); Beau Felton (Daniel Baldwin); Mike Kellerman (Reed Diamond); Paul Falsone (Jon Seda); Capt. Megan Russert (Isabella Hofmann); Laura Ballard (Callie Thorne); and Terri Stivers (Toni Lewis).



With such a stellar cast, it's no surprise Homicide became a darling of the critics, despite its low ratings. With this impressive collection, though, fans can discover what they've been missing with all seven seasons; all three crossover episodes with Law and Order; the 2000 Homicide reunion movie; commentaries; featurettes; and more...




Special Features:

- Commentaries on Episodes:
"Gone For Goode"
"Gas Man"
"The Hat"
"The Documentary"
"The Subway"
"Forgive Us Our Trespasses"


- Interviews with Barry Levinson, Tom Fontana, Henry Bromell, David Simon, and James Yoshimura

- "To Catch A Killer: Homicide Detectives" Episode of A&E's Signature Series American Justice

- Superbowl XXVII Commercials for Season One premiere

- Cast Biographies

- Homicide: Life on the Street song listings



Featurettes:

- "The Board"

- "Inside Homicide" with David Somin and James Yoshimura

- Feature-length documentary "Anatomy of a Homicide"

- VSDA Panel and Live DVD Commentary with Tom Fontana, Barry Levinson, James Yoshimura, and David Simon

- Barry Levinson's acceptance speech for the 2004 VSDA Career Achievement Award

[TMC]

It's the perfect time for Disney to bring 'Homicide: Life on the Streets' to streaming

The influential crime drama debuted 30 years ago. Here, the creators and stars reflect on its legacy and on an early episode that served notice that it was a different sort of cop show.

By Saul Austerlitz
May 11, 2023

For television historians amateur and professional, the easiest place to begin the story of the contemporary Golden Age of Television is on Jan. 10, 1999, when Tony Soprano first paid a toll on the New Jersey Turnpike. But perhaps we might be better served to rewind the clock approximately six years, to Jan. 31, 1993, the night of Super Bowl XXVII. The Dallas Cowboys demolished the Buffalo Bills, 52-17, and the broadcast was followed by the premiere of a new NBC drama, set in Baltimore, studying the work of the city’s homicide detectives.

The series was called “Homicide: Life on the Street,” and it was based on a book by David Simon, then a Baltimore Sun reporter who had spent a year tagging along with the police department’s homicide squad. Post-Super Bowl premiere notwithstanding, “Homicide” was never a ratings success, but it stayed on the air for seven seasons, winning four Emmys and three Peabody Awards. The show was prickly, funny, morally forceful, endlessly discursive and filled with a murderers’ row of actors, including the future stars Andre Braugher (who won an Emmy for his performance as Frank Pembleton), Melissa Leo and Giancarlo Esposito, along with veterans like Ned Beatty, Yaphet Kotto and Richard Belzer, known primarily then as a stand-up comedian.

The show’s fifth episode, “Three Men and Adena,” which first aired in March, was a stark, dramatic example of what made “Homicide” different from other cop shows. (In the DVD release, the episode is sixth.) It takes place almost entirely within the confines of an interrogation room, with the detectives Pembleton and Bayliss (Kyle Secor) attempting to wring a confession out of Risley Tucker (Moses Gunn), an itinerant fruit-and-vegetable man, after the murder of a little girl named Adena Watson. Pembleton and Bayliss prod, provoke and rage, but “Homicide” refuses to grant the audience the resolution they crave. Tucker doesn’t crack. Adena’s case is never solved. (The showrunner, Tom Fontana, won an Emmy for writing the episode)

Thirty years later, Fontana, the executive producers Barry Levinson and Paul Attanasio and the actors Andre Braugher and Kyle Secor reflected on “Three Men and Adena,” in particular, and on the broader legacy of the series and their frustration at its still not being available to stream. These are edited excerpts from conversations with them.