Homicide: Life on the Street (season 1)

The first season of Homicide: Life on the Street, an American police procedural drama television series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between January 31 and March 31, 1993. The show was created by Paul Attanasio, with film director Barry Levinson and television writer and producer Tom Fontana serving as executive producers. Adapted from David Simon’s 1991 non-fiction book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, the season followed the fictional detectives of Baltimore Police Department homicide unit and the murder cases they investigate. The show was broadcast on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST, with the exception of the series premiere, which aired immediately after Super Bowl XXVII.

The season introduced regular cast members Daniel Baldwin, Ned Beatty, Richard Belzer, Andre Braugher, Clark Johnson, Yaphet Kotto, Melissa Leo, Jon Polito and Kyle Secor. Most of the primary characters were based on real-life Baltimore detectives from Simon’s book, including Gary D’Addario, Terrence McLarney, Harry Edgerton, Donald Worden and Jay Landsman. Many of the first season story arcs were also adapted from the book, most notably the 1988 Baltimore slaying of 11-year-old Latonya Kim Wallace, which was the basis for the murder case of Adena Watson in Homicide. “Night of the Dead Living”, originally written as the third episode, was moved to become the season finale at the insistence of NBC executives, which led to several notable continuity errors.

The first season received consistently positive reviews, with several commentators declaring it one of the best shows on television at the time. The episode “Three Men and Adena”, which consists almost entirely of one police interrogation with three actors, received particularly positive reviews and was declared one of the 100 greatest television moments by Entertainment Weekly. The series premiere, “Gone for Goode”, opened to a season-high viewership of 18.2 million households due to a lead-in from the Super Bowl. The Nielsen ratings declined throughout the season, which Homicide producers attributed to a poor time-slot and heavy competition from the ABC comedies Home Improvement and Coach. The ratings led NBC executives to demand changes to the show before renewing Homicide for a second season.

Homicide: Life on the Street received four Emmy Award nominations during its first season and won two, and also received a Writers Guild of America award and a Directors Guild of America Award. The first and second seasons of Homicide were released together in a 4-DVD box-set on May 27, 2003.