Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police drama television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons and 122 episodes on NBC from January 31, 1993, to May 21, 1999, and was succeeded by Homicide: The Movie (2000), which served as the series finale. The series was created by Paul Attanasio and based on David Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991). Many of the characters and stories used throughout the show were based on events depicted in the book.
While Homicide featured an ensemble cast, Andre Braugher emerged as a breakout star through his portrayal of Detective Frank Pembleton. The show won TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama in 1996, 1997, and 1998. It also became the first drama ever to win three Peabody Awards for Drama, those being in 1993, 1995, and 1997. It received recognition from the Directors Guild of America Awards, Humanitas Prize, Q Awards, Writers Guild of America Awards and Primetime Emmy Awards. In 1997, the fifth-season episode "Prison Riot" was ranked No. 32 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
In 1996, TV Guide named the series "The Best Show You're Not Watching". The show placed #46 on Entertainment Weekly "New TV Classics" list. In 2007, it was listed as one of TIME magazine's "Best TV Shows of All-TIME." In 2013, TV Guide ranked it #55 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time.
Production
thumb|Homicide: Life on the Street sign at the City Recreation Pier in Fell's Point, Baltimore
Homicide: Life on the Street was adapted from Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, a non-fiction book by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon, based on his experience following a Baltimore Police Department homicide unit in 1988. Simon, who became a consultant and producer with the series, said he was particularly interested in the debunking of the American detective. While detectives are typically portrayed as noble characters who care deeply about their victims, Simon believed real detectives regarded violence as a normal aspect of their jobs.
Simon sent the book to film director and Baltimore native Barry Levinson with the hopes that it would be adapted into a film, but Levinson thought it would be more appropriate material for television because the stories and characters could be developed over a longer period of time. Levinson believed that a television adaptation would bring a fresh and original edge to the police drama genre because the book exploded many of the myths of the police drama genre by highlighting that cops did not always get along with each other and that criminals occasionally got away with their crimes.
Levinson approached screenwriter Paul Attanasio with the material, and Homicide became Attanasio's first foray into television writing. All episodes of Homicide display the credit, "Created by Paul Attanasio" at the end of their opening sequence, a credit which both Eric Overmyer and James Yoshimura dispute on the DVD audio commentary to the season 5 episode, "The Documentary", claiming instead the show was created by Tom Fontana and Yoshimura. The series title was originally Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, but NBC changed it so that viewers would not believe it was limited to a single year; the network also believed the use of the term "life" would be more reaffirming than the term "killing streets". Levinson was indifferent to the change, asserting that viewers would probably casually refer to the series as "Homicide" in either case. The opening theme music was composed by Baltimore native Lynn F. Kowal, a graduate of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
|
| align="center" |
|-
| rowspan="2" | Producers Guild of America Awards
| align="center" | 1997
| Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television
| Barry Levinson, Tom Fontana
|
| align="center" |
|-
| align="center" | 1998
| Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television
| Barry Levinson, Tom Fontana, Jim Finnerty, Anya Epstein, David Simon, Julie Martin, James Yoshimura, Eric Overmyer, Gail Mutrux
|
| align="center" |
|-
| rowspan="14" | Q Awards
| align="center" | 1994
| Best Quality Drama Series
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
| align="center" rowspan="14" |
|-
| align="center" rowspan="3" | 1995
| align="center" colspan="2" | Founder's Award
|
|-
| Best Quality Drama Series
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| Best Actor in a Quality Drama Series
| Andre Braugher
|
|-
| align="center" rowspan="2" | 1996
| Best Quality Drama Series
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| Best Actress in a Quality Drama Series
| Isabella Hoffman
|
|-
| align="center" rowspan="5" | 1997
| Best Quality Drama Series
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| Best Actor in a Quality Drama Series
| Andre Braugher
|
|-
| Best Supporting Actor in a Quality Drama Series
| Kyle Secor
|
|-
| Best Supporting Actress in a Quality Drama Series
| Michelle Forbes
|
|-
| Best Recurring Player
| Erik Dellums
|
|-
| align="center" | 1998
| Best Quality Drama Series
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| align="center" rowspan="2" | 1999
| Best Quality Drama Series
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| Best Supporting Actor in a Quality Drama Series
| Kyle Secor
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | Satellite Awards
| align="center" rowspan="2" | 1997
| Best Television Series, Drama
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
| align="center" rowspan="2" |
|-
| Best Actor in a Series, Drama
| Andre Braugher
|
|-
| align="center" | 1998
| Best Television Series, Drama
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
| align="center" |
|-
| rowspan="15" | TCA Awards
| align="center" rowspan="2" | 1993
| Program of the Year
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
| align="center" rowspan="15" |
|-
| Outstanding Achievement in Drama
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| align="center" | 1994
| Outstanding Achievement in Drama
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| align="center" rowspan="2" | 1995
| Program of the Year
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| Outstanding Achievement in Drama
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| align="center" rowspan="2" | 1996
| Program of the Year
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| Outstanding Achievement in Drama
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| align="center" rowspan="3"| 1997
| Program of the Year
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| Outstanding Achievement in Drama
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| Individual Achievement in Drama
| Andre Braugher
|
|-
| align="center" rowspan="4" | 1998
| Program of the Year
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| Outstanding Achievement in Drama
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| Individual Achievement in Drama
| Andre Braugher
|
|-
| Individual Achievement in Drama
| Kyle Secor
|
|-
| align="center" | 1999
| Outstanding Achievement in Drama
| Homicide: Life on the Street
|
|-
| rowspan="8" | Writers Guild of America Awards
| align="center" rowspan="2" | 1994
| Television: Episodic Drama
| Paul Attanasio (for "Gone for Goode")
|
| align="center" rowspan="8" |
|-
| Television: Episodic Drama
| Tom Fontana, Frank Pugliese (for "Night of the Dead Living")
|
|-
| align="center" rowspan="2" | 1995
| Television: Episodic Drama
| Tom Fontana, David Simon, David Mills (for "Bop Gun")
|
|-
| Television: Episodic Drama
| Tom Fontana, Noel Behn (for "A Many Splendored Thing")
|
|-
| align="center" | 1996
| Television: Episodic Drama
| Tom Fontana, Julie Martin, Bonnie Mark (for "Fits Like a Glove")
|
|-
| align="center" rowspan="3" | 1999
| Television: Episodic Drama
| James Yoshimura (for "Subway")
|
|-
| Television: Episodic Drama
| Eric Overmyer (for "Saigon Rose")
|
|-
| Television: Episodic Drama
| James Yoshimura, David Simon, David Mills (for "Finnegan's Wake")
|
|-
| Young Artist Awards
| align="center" | 1997
| Best Performance in a Drama Series – Guest Starring Young Actor
| Elijah Wood
|
| align="center" |
|}
Home media
New Video (through A&E Home Video and NBC Home Entertainment) released all seven seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street on DVD in Region 1 between 2003 and 2005. The Television film Homicide: The Movie was released on DVD in Region 1 by Trimark Pictures on May 22, 2001. A&E Home Entertainment also released a complete series set in collectible 'file cabinet' packaging on November 14, 2006. The complete series was subsequently re-released in regular packaging on October 20, 2009. FremantleMedia handled distribution rights of all 7 seasons via International.
On April 5, 2017, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series in Region 1 and would re-release Homicide: Life on the Street - The Complete Series on DVD on July 4, 2017.
In Australia, Region 4, the releases were the same as the Region 2 release. These were distributed by Roadshow Entertainment. The Complete Series collection was distributed by Shock Entertainment and packaged as the Region 1 releases with Series 1 & 2 and Series 3 through to 7. Via Vision Entertainment obtained the rights to the series and released 'The Complete Series (Special Edition)' boxset in May 2021 in the same format of the shock releases.
On June 17, 2024, producer David Simon announced on Twitter that NBC have finally secured music rights, which will allow them to sell the show to a streaming service. On July 22, 2024, NBC announced the show and movie would be available on Peacock in 4K and it officially arrived the following month. As of March 2025, it is also available to stream on both Prime Video, iTunes and Tubi.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" |DVD Name !! rowspan="2" |Episodes !! colspan="3" |Release dates
|-
! Region 1 !! Region 2 !! Region 4
|-
| The Complete Seasons 1&2
| style="text-align:center;" | 13
| May 27, 2003
| February 26, 2007 (Series 1)
| June 30, 2009 (Series 1)
|-
| The Complete Season 3
| style="text-align:center;" | 20
| October 28, 2003
| July 16, 2007 (Series 2)
| September 30, 2009 (Series 2)
|-
| The Complete Season 4
| style="text-align:center;" | 22
| March 30, 2004
| September 24, 2007 (Series 3)
| December 2, 2009 (Series 3)
|-
| The Complete Season 5
| style="text-align:center;" | 22
| September 28, 2004
| February 4, 2008 (Series 4)
| February 2, 2010 (Series 4)
|-
| The Complete Season 6
| style="text-align:center;" | 23
| January 25, 2005
| May 5, 2007 (Series 5)
| May 5, 2011 (Series 5)
|-
| The Complete Season 7
| style="text-align:center;" | 22
| June 28, 2005
| June 2, 2007 (Series 6)
| TBA (Series 6)
|-
| Homicide: The Movie
| style="text-align:center;" | 1
| May 22, 2001
|
|
|-
| The Complete Series
| style="text-align:center;" | 122
| November 14, 2006<br /><small>July 4, 2017 (re-release)</small>
| March 29, 2010
|
|}
Spin-off series
The show inspired the spin-off Homicide: Second Shift, which was shown exclusively online and did not include the regular cast. It featured detectives of the homicide squad that worked the second shift, after the television detectives went home for the day.
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
- Homicide: Links on the Sites – News links, web sites, merchandise
- Review at BBC website
- Homicide: Life on the Street - Trending Cool News