Talk:Homicide: Life on the Street

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[edit] DVD Box Art

Is it really necessary to include box art pictures for every (hell, for ANY) Homicide DVD release? -Grammaticus Repairo 06:43, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Box art can be valuable for identifying official releases and what not. Xenon Zaleo 00:45, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] DVD Region Coding

The DVD release schedule lists them as "all regions" - I thought they were R1 only? Certainly the first R2 release of series 1 & 2 only came out on 26 January 2007, with none of the other series available yet.Greenpeas 20:38, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

I can't speak for the 'Complete Series' compilation, but the individual season sets (at least those released in the US) are indeed "region free" (apparently also known as "R0"). Unless the original season sets are out of print already, I can't imagine why they would re-release a special region-restricted version. Has been a sudden resurgence in the show's popularity in Europe to justify this? -Grammaticus Repairo 01:34, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Dubious claims

The summary of the show makes two claims I consider dubious.

  • "As perhaps the first cop show in television history to audaciously portray the life of an inner-city detective as it is—repetitive, spiritually draining, an existential threat to one's psyche, completely without glamor, but a social necessity"
It had ample predecessors in e.g. Hill Street Blues (and even Miami Vice, for that matter). The latter language is a bit overdone but could be introduced without claiming that this was an innovation. Perhaps the "completely without glamor" bit could be expanded on as a theme, but this should be sourced. H:LOTS was more notable, as I see it, for its style of storytelling than for the grittiness of its portrayal.
  • "Homicide was responsible for several television innovations, including being among the first shows, along with Miami Vice, to regularly use the technique of playing musical numbers over a montage of scenes."
C'mon. Vice was almost a decade earlier, and there's no way that H:LOTS was "first" in this broad genre of musical montages. A word about the style or how they are worked into the storylines might be worthwhile, but this isn't something that can realistically be claimed as an innovation.

In short, tone down the broad claims, and source the most provocative ones, if possible. Keep in mind that "first" isn't all it's cracked up to be, either (what's wrong with "best"?). -- Dhartung | Talk 20:45, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, "best" is subjective, first is not. But I agree that these claims seem kinda rediculous and over-the-top.Xenon Zaleo 00:47, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Just a question

It says "He was chosen for promotion to Captain over Lieutenant Giardello by Commissioner Harris, in retaliation for Giardello's refusal to "play ball" over a previous case involving a Baltimore congressman. Harris, when he was a training officer in the 1960's, had once helped out a young Giardello when he was assigned a racist partner that made him ride in the back of the squad car. Harris chose Gaffney for retaliatory promotion because he was a "fat, white cop," very similar to the patrolman Giardello was first partnered with." What episode or episodes mention this? I'm not sure this question helps the editing, but I've seen all the episodes I think and I don't remember this being given as the reason. I mean it sounds correct, and would fit what I saw of the show, but when did they set it out like this?--T. Anthony 04:45, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Giardello and Harris discuss this in the fifth season episode "Blood Wedding" (http://www.tv.com/homicide-life-on-the-street/blood-wedding/episode/36524/summary.html) -Grammaticus Repairo 16:02, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
I haven't seen that one since it was on Lifetime. (Sidenote Lifetime being the only channel to show Homicide, for a time, always struck me as a bit odd) However they're showing it later today so neat.--T. Anthony 09:11, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
LOL @ Lifetime! I suppose H:LOTS is more "soapy" than the majority of other police dramas...pity that some of the best shows get such scant replay on TV these days. Have you ever watched Da Vinci's Inquest? Its a Canadian drama that ran for 7 seasons and can be seen here and there (in syndication) in the US. Unfortunately, in the Dallas/Fort Worth market, it airs on our local NBC affiliate from 12:00-1:00AM on Monday morning (it used to air early Sunday morning immediately following Saturday Night Live). Also unfortunate is the fact that only the first season is currently available on DVD. -Grammaticus Repairo 17:03, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
They show it after Homicide on WGN. I've been meaning to check it out, but always end up having lunch or forgetting.--T. Anthony 18:42, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
Definitely worth checking out, IMHO. -Grammaticus Repairo 19:28, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Season groupings......

Season Four has its own heading, but references five and six quite a bit, it's a bit unclear. Seasons Five and Six are grouped together, but nothing in that heading talks about season five, only season six. Having only seen the episodes that tied into Law & Order, I'm not qualified to properly edit it, but someone probably should.Xenon Zaleo 00:50, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Trivia Clean-up

In the interest of doing a basic trivia clean-up (per Wikipedia's policies), could a "connections to other television shows & fiction" section be made, with references to Law & Order and The Wire put in there and a "real life references" section be made with notes on the Seattle music, people playing themselves and characters named after crew and the like be made? I am not sure if that would be appropriate but it would certainly clean up the random facts sections.--LKAdriaan 05:48, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Looking for help writing an article about the spin-offs and crossovers of this series

I am writing an article about all of the series which are in the same shared reality as this one through spin-offs and crossovers. I could use a little help expanding the article since it is currently extremely dense and a bit jumbled with some sentence structures being extremely repetitive. I would like to be able to put this article into article space soon. Any and all help in writing the article would be appreciated, even a comment or two on the talk page would help. Please give it a read through, also please do not comment here since I do not have all of the series on my watch list. - LA @ 16:53, 16 March 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Homicide: Life Everlasting vs. Homicide: The Movie

All of the Wikipedia articles on Homicide identify the TV movie as Homicide: Life Everlasting but I don't know where this comes from. It was advertised as just Homicide: The Movie, which is also how it's identified on the IMDb. Also, the title on the DVD cover and in the opening credits of the movie itself reads as Homicide: The Movie. I think the latter bit of evidence is the most compelling, because it's directly from the source and easily verifiable. I'm therefore going to start changing the mentions of this title. Minaker (talk) 19:12, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Tim Russert & David Simon

Russert & Simon were both journalists, and Megan Russert, introduced in 3rd season, was clearly named to support the guest appearance bringing together TR playing himself in a cameo and his fictional detective sister MR as a regular member of the cast. Is a friendship between TR & DS documented somewhere? My exam'n of search results for

"Megan Russert" "david simon" "tim Russert"

was discouraging, but not exhaustive. Anyone?
--Jerzy•t 01:54, 14 June 2008 (UTC)