10 Reasons Why Everyone Should Watch Homicide Life On The Street

Homicide was not shot in some studio backlot. The exteriors were filmed on the real mean streets of Baltimore. More often than not, murders were depicted in the same places as the real life murders that had inspired them. Clark Johnson (who played Det. Meldrick Lewis) claims an old lady came up to him during the shooting of Three Men And Adena, and pointed him out to the exact spot where the real murder had taken place.

Every scene was covered by two or three handheld 16mm cameras. The crew operated with relative freedom, and could pan from a close up on one actor to another at any time. This technique not only enabled them to work faster than what would otherwise have been possible, but also gave the actors the freedom to act through an entire scene in one go and react to one another instantly.

Another choice of style was to make the viewers get to know the characters through their interactions with one another. The detectives repeatedly found themselves discussing topics that were not related to the investigations in any way.

An early example of this was Det. Steve Crosetti's (Jon Polito of Coen Brothers-fame) constant questioning of the true identity of Abraham Lincoln's murderer. Another recurring mystery was the identity of the "lunch bandit" (responsible for stealing food from the office refridgerator).