Earlier this week I talk to you about The Wire. Possibly the greatest show to hit television screens. But this show wasn’t an innovative, ground breaking series. It was a fine tuned machine. David Simon actually started out on another great series and it is this series I bring to you today. Ladies and gentlemen I present you with Homicide: Life on the Street.
This was a Barry Levinson project and David Simon was one of the writers and producers. Also set in Baltimore this show was far too ahead of its time. After almost being cancelled the first couple of seasons, this show went on for seven seasons total. Much like The Wire, this show will leave you hungering for more. Although the last season was without the show’s star (in my opinion) Det. Frank Pembleton. Andre Braugher gave this character life and created one of television greatest characters….ever. It also finally culminated in an Emmy for the role in 1999. If you want to know how to be a good actor, you need to study great performances. For television, you start here. The enigmatic and often polarizing Pembleton is a master of his craft. If you are the suspect in a murder, you are interrogated in “The Boxâ€. If the detective investigating the murder just happens to be Frank Pembleton, then write home and say you will be gone for a few years because even if you didn’t do it, Frank will convince you that you did. Just ask his Lieutenant Al Giardello (Yaphet Kotto). He’ll tell you that nobody can beat Frank in the box. I do not know how many of you have seen Kotto in films but he has a huge presence. You can feel his intensity and he draws your attention whenever on screen.
Already I have introduced you to two great actors. Have you seen The Fighter? Remember his mom who went on to win an Academy Award? Yeah, Melissa Leo cut her teeth on the road to stardom in Baltimore. Do any of you watch Law and Order Special Victims Unit? If you do then you might be used to seeing Richard Belzer playing Det. John Munch (who is rightfully not Motel Williams, very memorable scene on Homicide). Well guess what folks, he has been playing John Munch for 18 years. The character originated on Homicide and had a couple of crossover episodes with the original Law and Order and then the character moved to New York once Homicide was cancelled. You also have Clark Johnson who was on The Wire as well. Kyle Secor as Det. Tim Bayliss, Callie Thorn who also ended up on The Wire as well as Rescue Me, Zeljko Ivanek who seems like he is in everything, Daniel Baldwin as Det. Beau Felton and a host of others.
The writing on this show was incredible. There were also some very memorable guest appearances by actors such as Lily Tomlin, Mekhi Phifer, James Earl Jones, Bruce Campbell, Joe Morton, Julianna Margulies, Charles Durning, Vincent D’Onofrio and probably the most highly acclaimed Robin Williams pre-Dead Poets Society. He plays the grieving husband to a murdered wife. It is a very powerful episode.
Homicide changed the playing field for police dramas. Bringing you into the policemen’s lives and showing you the hard politics in police work as well and showing you the dark side of the job. Not all the glitz and big arrests from the campy shows. This was the next evolution of police drama taking the reins from the 80’s classic Hill Street Blues. People could not get used to the drama and violence or depression the show portrayed. This was still the age of the surreal. Nobody wanted to see the dark side or realism associated with being a policeman. Hell you know all those expensive cars you see cops driving around in on shows. Like Nash Bridges and his barracuda. This squad drove around in white Chevrolet Cavaliers. And I am talking about the ugly box ones. I actually owned a red one. This show displayed the life of a homicide detective.
So many shows on television these days try to capture what it is like being a cop. Go talk to some real cops and ask them what they think. It’s 2011. The Wire started showing the realistic life of a cop in 2002. Shows still can’t get it right. Homicide got it right on the first try and that was in 1993. Catch up people.
