With everything that's going on I thought it was time to create a newspage for my Homicide pages.  Seems like everything was getting posted to my Secor Sity or Johnson Junction sites and while it does involve both of those actors the news deserves it's own place when it's Homicide related. So from now on all news for all the actors and the show itself will be posted to this one site.  Easier that way. :-)

3-27-03  From a publicist with the Travel Channel...!!

I thought you'd be interested in a new Travel Channel series, ROAD TRIP,
which debuts this coming Sunday, March 30 from 10-11 PM ET/11 PM-Midnight
PT. The first episode, TV Road Trip, features a segment on Homicide and
travels through the Fells Point area with actor Peter Gerety "Detective Stu
Gharty" from the series.  Gerety visits several of the locations for the
series and provides interesting behind-the -scenes anecdotes about filming
such as the incident in which some real crooks who were shoplifting in the
area gave themselves up when they saw Richard Belzer holding a fake gun.

Here's a quick description of the series:

ROAD TRIP
Special sneak peek on Sunday, March 30, from 10-11pm et (TV Road Trip:
Ep. 4) Regular Time Slot:  Thursdays @ 10pm et/pt, beginning Thurs., April
3
Test drive the new ROAD TRIP, a series that comes on the heels of last
year's highly successful TV Road Trip special.  Travel Channel broadens the
genre with a series that maps out an entire season of memorable,
globe-hopping, nostalgic tours tailored especially for TV fans, movie
buffs, sports enthusiasts, magic mavens, ghost busters and much more.
These journeys are populated by a mix of unforgettable personalities who
breathe new life into each destination.  Visit Homicide's gritty Baltimore
precinct
with actor Peter Gerety who played "Detective Stu Gharty" on the series,
climb
aboard the Love Boat with Gavin "Capt. Stubing" MacLeod.  Visit the
beautiful
Austrian countryside with two original cast members from The Sound of Music
movie.
 Follow the Yellow Brick Road to the annual Wizard of Oz festival with some
of the
original munchkins.  Roam through Camden Yards with Orioles "Ironman" Cal
Ripken...and much more!

8-2-99

NBC wants a `Homicide' movie finale

By David Zurawik
Sun Television Critic
LOS ANGELES

LOS ANGELES -- NBC says it wants to make a movie finale for "Homicide:
Life on the Street" but is having problems lining up enough cast
members, such as Andre Braugher, to make it worth doing.

"There are plans for a final movie of `Homicide,' but we haven't
locked up enough of the cast to green-light it yet," Garth Ancier, the
president of NBC Entertainment, said yesterday in an interview.

"Part of what's happening is that Tom [executive producer Tom Fontana]
really feels that he does not want to do that movie unless he has
enough of a cast back to do it, including Andre Braugher and people
like that, who have played a role in the series over the past years.
And I understand that. That's his prerogative.

"We just felt that for loyal `Homicide' fans, this movie would provide
some closure that they didn't particularly get on the last episode,"
Ancier said, adding that he thinks the film is "still likely to
happen."

The movie would be filmed in Baltimore. But Ancier also said that
Fontana and partner Barry Levinson are creating a midseason
replacement series for NBC this January that will be filmed "in
another East Coast city -- not Baltimore or New York," the two cities
in which Fontana has previously made shows. When "Homicide" was
canceled in May, both Fontana and NBC indicated that the deal they had
for a midseason replacement would bring another series to Baltimore.

During a press conference earlier in the day, Ancier and Scott Sassa,
NBC's West Coast president, reiterated their "commitment to diversity"
and joined CBS and ABC in saying they will meet with NAACP president
Kweisi Mfume to discuss the lack of diversity in the fall schedule.

"We have contacted Mr. Mfume's office and look forward to talking to
him or anyone who has a good agenda. But we haven't heard back from
them," Sassa said.

When asked what he hoped to accomplish at the meeting, he said, "We
don't know what will be accomplished, because we don't know what their
agenda is."

Sassa announced a number of minority additions to series, including
Michael Michele of "Homicide" joining the hit series "ER." Also, Jesse
L. Martin, who played Ally McBeal's boyfriend on "Ally McBeal" last
season, will take over the co-starring role in "Law & Order" for the
departing Benjamin Bratt.

Originally published on Jul 30 1999

7-29-99

Homicide star joins the cast of Party of Five

http://partyoffive.tktv.net/

Former Homicide star Kyle Secor is joining the cast of
Fox's Party of Five, TV Guide reports. Secor debuts in the
first episode and plays book editor Evan Stilman. He works
with Julia on a non-fiction memoir which blossoms into
romance. He is scheduled for 8 episodes.

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - ``Homicide: Life on the Street'' trouper Michael Michele is trading in her badge for a stethoscope next season as she joins the parade of new faces checking into ``ER.''

Michele will play second-year resident Dr. Cleo Finch on the medical drama. Michele's TV credits include Fox's ``New York Undercover'' and CBS' ``Central Park West.'' Feature credits include 1991's ``New Jack City'' and the indie pic "The Substitute 2.''

7-19-99

The Clark Keepers Site is now open!!!! Join us today....!

In case anyone has missed it NBC has put up a 'Homicide Finale' Site.   It has some nice video clips on it from the finale.

7-3-99

Just added today to Highest Calling -- The H:LoTs Fanfic Webring. Yes I didn't think I had enough pages to do so I created another one.  Actually it's hard to remember where all the excellent sites of Homicide Fanfic are out there, much less keep them in your bookmarks.   This way hopefully one day all will be brought together, as well as the archives themselves, in one ring that you can navigate through.  Add your Homicide Fanfic page(s) today!!

June 30th, 1999 Yahoo News:

TV's Finest Discuss Their Work

By FRAZIER MOORE AP Television Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - During the question-and-answer period, an audience member hailed the six
men on stage as modern-day Shakespeares. Their predictable response: gracious scoffing all
around.

But maybe their admirer was on to something. The Globe Theatre of Shakespeare's time has
given way to the global theater of television, some of whose worthiest bards recently held
forth at Manhattan's Museum of Television & Radio to swap thoughts on TV dramaturgy.

``Television is a writer's medium,'' Steven Bochco began, ``and every single one of us has
gotten where we've gotten by virtue of being writers, not producers or directors.''

As writers accounting next season for 12 weekly dramas - and surely among the best - this
was a team of TV all-stars kicking it around.

Here were Bochco (``NYPD Blue'' and a new midseason medical series for CBS); partners
Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz (creators of the memorable ``thirtysomething''
returning with ABC's ``Once and Again''); Dick Wolf (``Law & Order'' and its upcoming NBC
spinoff ``Special Victims Unit'' as well as the WB midseason candidate ``D.C.''); and Tom
Fontana (the departing ``Homicide,'' with a midseason UPN entry in the works as well as
``Oz,'' which returns to cable's HBO in two weeks).

Plus the preternaturally prolific David E. Kelley (``The Practice,'' ``Chicago Hope,'' ``Ally
McBeal'' and ABC's upcoming ``Snoops''), to whom the burning question was inevitably posed:
How in blazes does he write so much good stuff so quickly?

``My acuity functions best, unfortunately, under the adrenaline of a deadline,'' he replied,
deadpan-impish. ``If I have seven days to write a script, that's fine. But it won't be as good
as if I only had four days.''

Asked and answered. Sort of.

This seminar was titled ``The Television Author: Shaping Character and Conscience,'' a
timely topic indeed when television is not just looked at, but increasingly looked at as
dangerous. Exactly what do these six fellows mean to accomplish with their dramas as they
keep pushing TV into new areas of violence, explicitness and navel-gazing candor?

For Wolf, the goal is ``a thought response on the part of the viewer, rather than a cheap
laugh or a horrified reaction.''

``I think my job is to get people to talk about things,'' Fontana said, explaining, ``I get
confused by so many things that I ask a lot of questions in my writing.''

Despite the tough social issues with which his shows have always wrestled, Bochco insisted
that story precedes message.

``I have never, ever sought to exploit a theme in anything I've ever done,'' he said. ``I have
always trusted that if we construct a good story, that in the story the theme will emerge.''

But how accountable do these television auteurs hold themselves for the impact of that
story, of that theme, on their viewers?

``I feel an overall sense of responsibility,'' Zwick declared. ``What I'm trying to do is
fundamentally humanistic - the issues of being a person. Sometimes it's violent, sometimes
it's scary, sometimes it's loving. But it's always interconnected and complicated. And that's
the only responsibility I assume.''

Anyway, Fontana chimed in, what responsibility does TV news assume? He recalled that the
``Homicide'' episode scheduled for the Friday after April's Columbine High School shootings
was abruptly deemed too violent by NBC, which postponed its airing.

Fine. But that same night's ``Dateline NBC'' was spared from such ideals, complained
Fontana.

``There was two minutes of news about what's going on in Colorado and 50 minutes of
graphics and music and - they might as well have had showgirls,'' he said. ``The news can get
away with exploiting a tragedy, whereas (for) drama guys: 'Ohhh, you've got to be
sensitive.'''

``I've always felt that the most dangerous areas of TV are television news,'' Marshall
Herskovitz agreed, ``and commercials. Commercials are unindicted co-conspirators in this
whole question of what entertainment does to the psyche of the country.''

Let media-violence researchers tally the thousands of murders children see on TV. ``But
how many times have they seen a product that makes them feel bad about themselves and
their lives and how they look and what they have?'' asked Herskovitz.

Bochco voiced his own grievance about commercial breaks: They carve up his dramas. It's a
fact of life, he allowed, ``but as a purely personal matter, I hate it.''

No wonder he and the other TV Shakespeares opt to watch their creations in a screening
room, intact and unadulterated.

Kelley shared his dismay at rediscovering how the other half watches: Recently he had been
home visiting his parents.

``They're devoted to my shows,'' he said. ``But the phone was ringing. My father made a
sandwich and then fell asleep. My mother asked me, 'Why is this person so upset?' I said,
'Mom, because the other person died while you went to the bathroom.'''

Kelley sighed. ``You realize this is how most of America watches television,'' he said.

But he needn't fret. Four centuries ago, things got pretty rowdy at the Globe Theatre, too.

-=

New York Daily News Article from June 28, 1999

Time to Update Old Gold
Great series deserve sequel opportunity

It's great that NBC and Tom Fontana
are considering a telemovie
continuation of "Homicide: Life on the
Street," just as it's intriguing that ABC and
Mary Tyler Moore are teaming on a
telemovie revisiting her classic Mary
Richards character from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."

It makes perfect sense to present another chapter in the
"Homicide" saga, because the season finale provided a killer
of a cliffhanger: Kyle Secor's Detective Tim Bayliss
apparently committed murder to stop a serial killer about to
leave town and go on another deadly rampage.

Similarly, viewers who invested years in watching Moore's
Mary, and Valerie Harper's Rhoda, can't help but be curious
about what happened to those characters in the intervening
years.

But why stop there? These aren't the only series that ended
abruptly or created characters vivid enough to revisit. Here,
for my money, are other TV series begging for some sort of
sequel:

"Twin Peaks," ABC. When this TV series ended in 1991
(David Lynch's subsequent film was a prequel, not a
sequel), Kyle MacLachlan's Dale Cooper had been
replaced by a demonic Doppelganger who threateningly
asked about the health of his girlfriend, Annie.

Next year will mark a decade since "Twin Peaks"
premiered, and it would be the perfect time to
continue that hellish story line, perhaps most
effectively as a six-hour miniseries. And if
Heather Graham, now hot as the female star of
"Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,"
would reprise her role of Annie, "Twin Peaks 2"
would be too good to pass up.

"All in the Family," CBS. Here's a next-generation
telemovie idea with a real purpose: Show how Mike and
Gloria Stivic, played by Rob Reiner and Sally
Struthers, have turned from counterculture hippies to
relative conservatives. He's bald, she's overweight and
their grown son Joey has married a self-confident,
opinionated young woman and brought her home. Make
room for Granddaddy, with an appearance by Carroll
O'Connor as Archie, and you have a hit telemovie — or
even a strong series.
"The Larry Sanders Show," HBO. Just because Johnny
Carson retired and kept his word, that doesn't mean
Garry Shandling's Larry Sanders is the sort of
talk-show host who would follow suit. Morning chat?
Variety? News? Infomercials? Whatever path taken by
Larry and former cohorts Artie and Hank (Rip Torn,
Jeffrey Tambor), an HBO telemovie would be a
wonderful path to follow.
"My So-Called Life," ABC. This 1994-95 series,
starring Claire Danes and created by Marshall
Herskovitz and Ed Zwick, was the one that got away —
the pre-"Felicity," pre-"Dawson's Creek" coming-of-age
story with more intelligence than both those shows put
together.

Why create, from scratch, another new TV
series about a young single woman, if you can talk
Danes into reprising her role of Angela Chase in a
series of telemovies?

"Baretta," ABC. Television continues to present
telemovies starring vintage detectives from the '70s
— Peter Falk's Columbo, Jim Garner's Rockford — so
why not invent a telemovie plot requiring the services
of scrappy old Baretta, played by equally scrappy old
Robert Blake? I bet Baretta still would hit the
streets with style — and after all these years, still
would have the same cockatoo.
Finally, how about "Tanner '00," an election-year sequel
to HBO's brilliant Garry Trudeau-Robert Altman
political satire, "Tanner '88." Twelve years later, given
what's happened in the interim, Michael Murphy's
presidential aspirant Jack Tanner could be a real
winner.

June 26, 1999

Baltimore Sunspot
TV tidbits: 'Homicide' to Mary Tyler Moore

There are still rumblings about a "Homicide: Life on the
Street" TV movie, but nothing's definite yet. NBC and Tom
Fontana, executive producer of the canceled, Baltimore-based
show, are chatting about the idea. Fontana tells Daily Variety:
"I wouldn't want it to be like 'The Brady Bunch' reunion or
anything like that. But we're talking."

It looks like a "Mary Tyler Moore Show" update project is going
make it after all. Moore has committed to star in and
executive-produce a two-hour ABC TV movie based on
characters from the original sitcom.

Fox News anchor Paula Zahn will be the host of a new show,
format undecided, in the time slot left open by Catherine
Crier's departure. Zahn, 42, left CBS earlier this year to
anchor Fox's evening newscast, "The Fox Report." Crier said
Wednesday she that she was leaving Fox to anchor a midday
legal news show for Court TV beginning in October.

6-26-99

Court TV 4th of July Marathon...can you say YAY!?!

HOMICIDE MARATHON EPISODES

"A Ghost of A Chance"
Tim Bayliss has been assigned the most traumatic case the city has seen in years: the
vicious slaying of a young girl.

"A Shot In The Dark"
Eager to solve his friend's shooting, Steve Crosetti has narrowed his sights on one
suspect.

"Three Men and Adena"
Tim Bayliss is convinced that prime suspect Risley Tucker killed 11-year old Adena
Watson. If a confession is not given within twelve hours, any evidence they receive will
be inadmissible in court.

"Black and Blue"
Detective Pembleton becomes convinced that the well-liked Lieutenant Tyron shot
suspect C.C. Cox in the back. Lieutenant Giardello fumes at Frank's disloyalty to his
fellow officers.

"A Model Citizen"
Detectives Howard and Munch investigate a suspicious shooting, hoping to get a deadly
weapon out of the hands of some children before someone is killed.

"From Cradle to Grave"
Detectives Munch and Lewis find themselves caught in the world of a biker gang called
the `Deacons,' while investigating the murder of one of their members.

"Colors"
A Turkish exchange student is accidentally shot by Detective Bayliss' cousin, leaving the
department with a public relations nightmare and a potentially explosive international
incident.

"Gas Man"
After six years behind bars for installing a defective gas heater that killed an entire
family, Victor Helms is released form prison. However, Helms is still seething with rage at
Frank Pembleton for putting him away.

"Bad Medicine"
A string of heroin overdoses puts Lewis and Kellerman once again on the trail of drug
lord Luther Mahoney. However, Kellerman is taken off the case by an FBI probe into
accusations that the Arson unit was taking bribes.

"Saigon Rose"
When the Nguyen family is massacred at their Vietnamese restaurant in a well-planned
robbery, only their two surviving children can identify the killer.

"Something Sacred, Part 1 and Part 2"
The vicious slaying of two prominent Catholic priests ignites a ``red ball'' case for the
squad, with the prime suspects being two Guatemalan refugees that the Church
maintains are innocent. Detectives Ballard and Gharty, with the assistance of Detectives
Pembleton and Stivers, have to investigate accusations that one of the victims had been
sexually abusing altar boys.

"Just an Old-Fashioned Love Song"
Mike Giardello and Detective Ballard investigate the suspicious shooting of a prowler at
the home of a well-known Baltimore sports medicine doctor.

"Kellerman, Part 1"
A visitor from the past, Mike Kellerman, shows up at the Baltimore precinct flaunting his
new position as a private investigator and seeking information about a new case he is
handling.

"Kellerman, Part 2"
As the Staub baby case goes to trial, Falsone stuggles to uncover a missing piece before
it's too late. Kellerman finds that the tension he experiences with Falsone actually exists
throughout the entire squad.

"The Same Coin"
A graphic hit-and-run accident leaves Detectives Munch and Mike with just one piece of
evidence -- the victim's tattoo. Now the two must uncover the genesis of the crime.

"Truth Will Out"
A woman's past continues to haunt her and the only way to uncover the mystery and
resolve her issues is to reopen a case that was closed in the 70's.

From Variety:

'Homicide' life on the net
may rise
Fontana, Peacock in talks for
possible telefilm

By CYNTHIA LITTLETON, June 24, 1999

Take heart, "Homicide" fans: Baltimore’s crack
homicide squad may yet be back to crack new
cases for an NBC telefilm. Tom Fontana, exec
producer of the just-canceled but much-loved
police drama, is in talks with the Peacock about a
possible "Homicide: Life on the Street" TV movie.
But Fontana cautions that he’s not entirely sold on
the idea.

"I wouldn’t want it to be like ‘The Brady Bunch’
reunion or anything like that. But we’re talking,"
he said. In the meantime, "Homicide" will have a
living legacy next season on NBC’s "Law &
Order," as thesp Richard Belzer transplants his
"Homicide" character, the cynical Det. John
Munch, to new stomping grounds in Gotham. In
fact, "Law & Order" boss Dick Wolf recently
called Fontana to ask about purchasing Belzer’s
wardrobe from "Homicide." Fontana responded,
"What, you mean his one black suit?"

6-5-99

Richard Belzer...aka our Munchie...has signed on for a spin off of L&O reprising his role of John Munch.  From the Ultimate TV Site

Belzer Wants Munch on
"Law & Order"
Thu, Jun 3, 1999 08:19 AM PDT


Richard Belzer, stand up comedian
turned crime buster as Detective
John Munch on NBC's recently
departed drama series "Homicide:
Life on the Street," may be
resurrecting the role for NBC's "Law
& Order" and its upcoming spin-off
"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."

Belzer appeared Wednesday on NBC's "Today," and
divulged that he has been talking with Dick Wolf,
creator and producer of NBC's "Law & Order," about a
storyline in which Munch would move from Baltimore
to New York City where he would become a detective
and appear as a regular on the two crime series.

Belzer's character has already done cross over
episodes on "Law & Order" as well as an episode on
last season's "The X-Files."

5-26-99

Don't forget!! Monday Memorial Day on Court TV...15 HOURS of Homicide starting at 8am EST.  The winning episodes were voted on by the fans at the Court TV website.

Trying to keep up with all the happening is getting to be a headache...but we can still
hope! From the Baltimore Sun Spot

Headline: Series finale is news to them
Subhead: TV: Levinson and Co. say city's jumping the gun with
`Homicide' movie announcement.

By Edward Gunts and David Zurawik
SUN STAFF

At a housing department news conference yesterday, Baltimore
City officials announced that the cast and crew of "Homicide:
Life on the Street" may be returning to Baltimore to make
a two-hour series finale movie.



But don't stop the wake.



Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana, the producers who own the
rights to the recently canceled TV drama and whose involvement
is crucial for any such film to be made, said they had not heard
anything about it.



"There is no `Homicide' film. Barry Levinson knows
nothing about it," Simon Hall, Levinson's spokesman
in California, said yesterday.



Fontana said through a spokesman in New York that he "hasn't
got a clue" as to what the city officials were talking about
and that he has "not been in contact with anyone about a
`Homicide' movie."



Joanna Giddon, a spokeswoman for NBC, which also owns rights
to the show, said she knew nothing about a telemovie of "Homicide."
As of late yesterday, she said she was unable to find anyone
at NBC programming who had any information about such a film.




Daniel P. Henson III, city housing commissioner, and Rose Greene,
executive secretary of the Baltimore Film Commission, characterized
the film as a near-certainty during a morning news conference
on the future of Recreation Pier, the Fells Point soundstage
used by "Homicide."



But later in the day, informed that Levinson and Fontana
had denied knowing anything about such a deal, Greene acknowledged
that the movie had hurdles to overcome. Still, she said she was
optimistic it would happen.



The two-hour movie would attempt to provide closure for
the series, which was filmed in Baltimore for seven seasons and
based on a book by former Sun reporter David Simon, "Homicide:
A Year on the Killing Streets." The final show, which aired
Friday, was written and filmed before NBC announced that it would
not renew the series for next year.



Such a film would be one of several projects that might
use the city-owned Recreation Pier, which has served as the main
production facility for "Homicide."



Because the Rec Pier has proven to be a good place for the
"Homicide" crew to work and the Fells Point community
has been "so accepting" of filmmaking activity, said
Henson at the news conference, the housing department will continue
to make the building on Thames Street available for other film
projects. He suggested that it could become an "incubator"
for television pilots and other productions.



Greene said she did not know when filming on a "Homicide"
movie might begin or when the program might be broadcast. She
noted that an NBC entity called Northern Entertainment has a
lease to use the Rec Pier until the end of the year and said
it would be less expensive for NBC to use the Rec Pier while
the "Homicide" sets are still in place.



In addition, she and Henson said, possibilities for use
of the Rec Pier include a six-hour HBO mini-series based on "The
Corner," a 1997 account of addicts' lives by Simon and
Edward Burns, and another HBO special.



Greene said the producers of "Homicide" invested
more than $1 million over the years to improve the Rec Pier,
including the addition of a new roof and exterior lighting and
upgrading of plumbing and mechanical systems.



Greene said an episode of a television series such as "Homicide"
typically costs $800,000 to $1 million a week to produce and
estimated that a two-hour movie could require four to six weeks
filming time. The commission estimates that the total economic
impact on the region is 2.5 times the actual dollars spent on
production.

APB Online

HOMICIDE CANCELLATION BLUES HIT
BALTIMORE
The City Says Goodbye to Its Most Popular Tourist Attraction

May 21, 1999

By Caelie M. Haines

Baltimore (APBNews.com) -- Homicide: Life
on the Street has been murdered. The
suspects are low ratings and high
production costs, which led NBC to kill the
quality drama after seven seasons. Other
victims include the viewers of the show and
the city of Baltimore, the locale for Homicide
both on- and off-screen.

According to TV station WBAL in Baltimore,
90 percent of Homicide's crew was
Baltimore based. The loss of these jobs
and of Homicide-related tourism in the Fells
Point area will keep millions of dollars out of
the city's economy.

Bad news for businesses

The recreation pier that has served as Homicide's station house on-screen
and its sound stage off-screen will continue as a production facility, but as
of yet there are no plans for another series to take up residence in the
building.

That's bad news for area businesses, which not only gained exposure and
tourist attention from their frequent appearances on the show, but also fed
the cast and crew. "We're losing a couple hundred dollars a week in
carry-out," admits Keith French, co-owner of the eclectic Italian restaurant
Mangia Mangia.

"We'd be having a slow day, and then a big
order would come in from Homicide," adds
Mangia Mangia's manager, Melissa
Morrisette. "I'll miss it."

And not only from a business standpoint:
"I've been watching the show since the
beginning," she explains. "I was really
surprised they canceled it because it's been
almost canceled before and it came back.
And it's always been critically acclaimed."

Morrisette's favorite aspect of the show was
"the way it touched on unexpected issues.
And it's been such a pride to Baltimore," she
adds. "Everyone I've talked to is upset about
it being canceled. I've never heard anyone
say a bad thing about the show being here."

Real-life fans

Even the television detectives' real-life
counterparts were fans, despite the extra
attention the show brought them. "People call up and ask us questions
about the show," says Don Bradshaw, a detective in Baltimore City's
Homicide/Violent Crimes Unit, which handles murders as well as nonfatal
shootings.

"They want to know if we have a board like
they do on TV where we put the names of
people who are murdered, what the different
colors on the board mean and why we have
that."

The series was inspired by the 1991
nonfiction book Homicide: A Year on the
Killing Streets, for which Baltimore Sun
reporter David Simon observed the city's
real-life detectives in action. But Bradshaw
says some elements were embellished for
dramatic purposes.

"They built it up, made it more exciting," he
reports. "They got right to the down and dirty
stuff on TV. The sarcasm part, though, that
definitely goes on."

Even if the show wasn't entirely true to his job, Bradshaw enjoyed it. "The
Police Department here sometimes gets a bad rap. Homicide showed it in
a good light," he says. "It was also positive exposure for Baltimore."

Will they still come?

Kate Finn, a Fells Point resident, agrees. "My friends used to want to go see
the Orioles when they came down to visit," she says. "Now they want to see
where Homicide is filmed."

Finn, who grew up playing on the pier, doesn't mind being an unofficial tour
guide. "I like the way it got people interested in Baltimore. There are a lot of
great things here that people don't know about," she explains. "Fans of the
show come around here because of Homicide, but then they find other
things they like about the city, too."

She doesn't think this flow of tourist traffic will change with the show's
demise. "People like to go places they see on TV," she reasons. Bradshaw,
however, has his doubts. "I think the tourist-attraction part will die down in a
year or so. You know, out of sight, out of mind."

Morrisette is hoping the show won't be out of sight for long. "Maybe it's not
definite," she says of the cancellation. "Other shows have been canceled
and gotten picked up by other networks. Or maybe they could show
Homicide movies once in a while."

BALTIMORE MOURNS THE DEATH OF
HOMICIDE
Cancellation Attributed to Economics, Says Exec Producer

May 14, 1999

By Keith Loria and Diane Snyder

Baltimore (APBNews.com) -- The demise of
Homicide: Life on the Street appears to
have been more a matter of economics
than ratings.

NBC told executive producer Tom Fontana
that his show would have cost the network
about $200,000 more per episode than a
new drama series, Fontana told The New
York Times. The network confirmed
Thursday that it had canceled the critically
acclaimed crime series after seven
seasons and 122 episodes.

Baltimore mourns

Yaphet Kotto, who has played Lt. Al Giardello for Homicide's entire
seven-year run, was both angry and grief-stricken about the cancellation.

"They've ripped apart our family," he told APBNews.com. "My feelings are
that when shows such as Jenny Jones and Jerry Springer can stay on the
air and Homicide has to go, it only shows you a decline in Western
morality."

Kotto, who lives in Baltimore, where the show was shot, says that locals are
especially distressed about the loss.

"There is big-time depression going on in Fells Point [the neighborhood
where Homicide was shot] right now. The city of Baltimore is taking it
unbelievably, unimaginatively hard. I ran into a man in the supermarket who
was actually standing there in tears. People are crying; one guy kicked the
side of his car in, completely furious with NBC. I'm house bound now
because when I go out I have to face such emotion."

Even though Homicide is no more, Kotto says he
will remain in Baltimore, where some citizens
would like to see him run for mayor. The impact the
show had on the community, he says, went beyond
economic benefits: "During the seven years that we
were here, we became a part of the community. We
were in the high schools, we were in the
organizations, we helped with the outreach
programs every year.

"We were not just actors going home with our
sunglasses on; we helped the community," he
said. "The show has been a great source of
income and stabilization for the city. I've watched
two gangs dissipate just due to the presence of the Homicide company."

The only prime-time series to shoot in Baltimore, Homicide will air its final
first-run episode on Friday, May 21.

Ratings went south

Homicide finished 49th in the Nielsen
ratings out of 114 prime-time shows last
week -- behind CBS' Nash Bridges and
ABC's 20/20. This season the show was
averaging 10.4 million viewers, down from
10.6 million a year ago. During the 1995-96
season, Homicide averaged 12.4 million
viewers.

The series, which chronicled the
professional and personal lives of
Baltimore homicide detectives, was never a
ratings winner. But it had an extremely
devout fan following and was frequently
cited by critics as one of the best shows on
television. Homicide won three Peabody
Awards, most recently for an episode about
a commuter who was pushed onto a
subway track and run over by a train.

A groundbreaking series

In the beginning, Homicide garnered
attention for its herky-jerky camera shots and frequent jump-cuts. At a recent
Museum of Television & Radio seminar that focused on the recent
crossover episodes between Homicide and Law & Order, Law & Order
executive producer Ed Sherin called Homicide "an utterly wonderful
cinematic invention. ... [It] combines what people have done in avant-garde
films and goes way beyond. "

It also broke bold new ground in its storytelling. For the last two seasons,
Detective Tim Bayliss, played by Kyle Secor, has been gradually coming to
terms with his bisexuality and with the reaction of his fellow cops.

Since its premiere in January 1993 after the Super Bowl, the show has
never had its neck far from the cutting block. But gradual erosion in recent
years of core cast members -- many of whom were replaced with actors
who never became as popular with fans -- contributed to its ratings decline.

Many cast changes

The series had a total of 19 regular cast members over the course of its run.
Only four actors, Secor (who was leaving at the end of this season), Kotto,
Richard Belzer and Clark Johnson -- remain from the original cast.

The worst blow came at the end of last season, when Andre Braugher,
whom many considered to be the center of the ensemble show, departed.
Braugher won an Emmy for best actor in a drama series for his
performance as Detective Frank Pembleton last year -- an award many
critics felt was long overdue.

Angry fans on the Internet are calling for a boycott of NBC. Some viewers,
though, felt the show was past its prime and that it was time for the series to
end.

5-25-99

GO SIGN THE PETITION TO SAVE OUR SHOW!!

SAVEHOMICIDE.COM

Just felt the need to post this everywhere...!! From news.excite.com and various other
resources:

One Last Breath For 'Homicide'

Updated 3:02 PM ET May 25, 1999

(BALTIMORE) -- The Baltimore-based television series

"Homicide" is not quite dead after all. The Baltimore City
Film Commission says N-B-C has told it there will be a two-
hour "Homicide" movie to conclude the series. No word on
when the movie will be shot or aired. The show's creator
and producer, Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson, say they
hope to do an H-B-O project at the Baltimore pier where
"Homicide" was filmed.

And from the 11Cents Onelist:

It was just announced on WBAL radio in Baltimore
that NBC has informed the Maryland Film Commission they will make a 2-hour
Homicide movie wrapping up the series. A spokesperson for the MD Film
Commission said it came as a complete and pleasant surprise to them. No details
on when.

The radio station also reported that the rec pier
will be used by Barry Levinson for an HBO project. No details on that
either.

I read in the Washington Post this morning that
Garth Ancier's mom is a big fan of Homicide and she was mad at him for canceling
the show. Way to go Mom !!

Kathy

5-20-99

This was on one of the newslists about the poll that NBC did earlier this month.

Click of death?

NBC polls 'Homicide' viewers on-line

Could NBC destroy "Homicide: Life on the
Street" to save it?

Viewers who responded to the on-line survey NBC advertised
during Friday night's episode might well be wondering. They were
asked to rate individual characters, and even individual plot lines,
in a format that suggested a Chinese menu (and hinted that
everything from soup to nuts was up for discussion).

While it's no surprise that the critically adored, chronically
underachieving "Homicide" is yet again in danger of cancellation -
hey, it's April, isn't it? - the Web-based focus group approach
appears to be a new one.

So new, in fact, that "Homicide" executive producer Tom Fontana
hadn't seen it himself until yesterday.

"I just looked at it. It made me laugh," said Fontana after an
assistant showed him a copy of the Harris Poll survey she'd
printed from the the nbcsurvey.com Web site.

Fontana, not exactly a Web kind of guy, acknowledged that NBC
executives had mentioned some time ago that they might conduct
a survey, but said it never occurred to him it would be done this
way.

"I don't fault them for doing this," Fontana said. "I don't think
it's about them looking to change the show" so much as it is about
figuring out who the audience is for the show. (The good news:
Friday's episode did well enough in the overnight Nielsens to beat
CBS's "Nash Bridges" and was just a hair behind "20/20.")

How does Fontana know that NBC suits aren't looking to change
the show?

Because they've already asked.

When Fontana last met with NBC's new entertainment chief,
Scott Sassa, and outgoing West Coast president Don Ohlmeyer,
"they broached the idea of a completely reconfigured 'Homicide,'
and I said no to it," he said.

"This is the show and I'm not going to change the show drastically
just to get it renewed," said Fontana.

Not that he's totally inflexible.

"The show has a lot of room to bend. It's such an incredibly,
continuously opening-up universe, which is why it's still exciting to
me to be a part of it," he said.

And even if NBC isn't sure about an eighth season for "Homicide,"
Fontana already has ideas.

Next season, he said, the show would pattern itself after a
program already under way in the Baltimore police department, in
which pairs of detectives are assigned to specific sections of the
city and handle all sorts of crimes. Thus "Homicide" detectives
wouldn't necessarily be investigating only homicides.

"The attitude is that a shooting is just a homicide that didn't
happen," Fontana said.

None of Fontana's ideas, however, would likely lead to the
wholesale overhaul of the show the survey questions seemed to
suggest might be possible.

Besides queries about time-slot preferences apparently aimed at
gauging the effects of moving the show an hour earlier, making
"Providence" its lead-in, the survey keyed in on individual
characters.

Yaphet Kotto's Lt. Al Giardello, came in for special scrutiny, with
viewers being asked whether they'd describe him as intelligent,
compassionate, tough, enthusiastic and charming.

(Throw in "sheds on the furniture" and you've got Lassie.)

Fontana, who's also HBO's wizard of "Oz," refuses to get
paranoid, but he's prepared for the worst, having written and shot
a season finale that could serve as a series ender, too.

"I told them definitely that I wasn't going to change the show
radically. . .that I'd rather let it go and move on," he said.

"At which point they said, 'Well, we'll get back to you.' "

A second front

As difficult as it is for some of us to focus on more than one
foreign story at a time, there's good reason to try tonight, as
PBS's "Frontline" (Channel 12, 9 p.m.) airs "The Terrorist and the
Superpower."

The result of a six-month investigation by "Frontline" and the
New York Times, the show looks at exiled Saudi millionaire Osama
bin Laden and his role in the bombing of two U.S. embassies in
Africa last summer, a role some believe U.S. authorities have
exaggerated.

More importantly, it looks at some of the ways U.S. actions are
perceived by Muslims around the world, perceptions that are
probably at least contributing to the continuing threat of
terrorism against us.


You can reach Ellen Gray by e-mail at elgray@ phillynews.com, by
fax at 215-854-5852 or by mail at the Philadelphia Daily News,
Box 7788, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101.

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