10 Reasons Why Everyone Should Watch Homicide Life On The Street

Imagine a time before the Golden Age of Television. It might seem difficult at first, but it's easy if you try. I'm referring to the early 1990s.

Acclaimed director (and Baltimore native) Barry Levinson had read journalist David Simon's one year account of Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Unit, a book called Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets. Simon's depiction of the police officers he had met suggested that not every law enforcer was necessarily an entirely noble person. These individuals had to confront death on a daily basis as well as wrestle with ordinary problems in their lives outside of work.

Subsequently, Levinson approached screenwriter Paul Attanasio (writer of Donnie Brasco) and producer Tom Fontana (creator of Oz) to adapt the memoirs for television. Homicide: Life On The Street premiered on NBC in 1993 to critical acclaim, but endured weak ratings. Why? Perhaps the general public expected the same clichés they were treated with in other cop-shows?

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to claim that the police officers in Homicide fired their guns no more than a dozen times throughout the show's entire run. Not until the final season (at which point it might have lost some of its steam) did the writers decide to present us with a car chase.

In spite of this, Homicide lasted seven seasons and one made-for-TV movie, and its effect on modern television cannot be overstated. It cleared the way for David Simon's own masterwork The Wire and greatly influenced both the way the medium would tell its stories, but also the way the life of a police officer could be depicted.

The breakout star of Homicide was arguably André Braugher. With great skill and an immediate command of the screen from his first scene onwards, Braugher quickly made us realize that Frank Pembleton was unlike any detective we'd seen before on TV.

Tim Bayliss (Pembleton's partner) was portrayed with understated effect by Kyle Secor. Melissa Leo's Kay Howard was the detective with the greatest clearance rate. Her first partner was Beau Felton (portrayed by the oft derided Daniel Baldwin). Fret not: Baldwin's natural performance is probably the best ever given by any Baldwin sibling.

The great Yaphet Kotto basically anchored the entire show in the role of Lt. Al Giardello. Physically imposing and sometimes quite threatening, but at the same time deeply moral, 'Gee' cared not only for his detectives but for every citizen of Baltimore. In the role, Kotto ensured a constant dignity to the proceedings.

For the first time, Richard Belzer presented us with his signature role of the ever-cynical Det. John Munch: a type which he would reprise in no less than eight other TV-shows. Clark Johnson provided comic relief and an occasional dramatic flavour in the part of wisecracking and street-smart Det. Meldrick Lewis.

Other notable actors who were part of the show's main lineup included Ned Beatty, Jon Polito, Giancarlo Esposito, Zeljko Ivanek, and Michelle Forbes.