Homicide: Life on the Street Confirmed for Streaming Debut
The series, which starred Andre Braugher, is one of the most celebrated police dramas of all time.
Homicide: Life on the Street, one of the most significant police dramas still "missing" from streaming platforms, will debut on Peacock this fall. Based on the book Homicide: A Year On the Killing Streets by David Simon -- now a graphic novel, as well -- has long been available on disc, but has never made its way to digital, in large part due to issues with the music rights and international distribution rights. A precursor to Law & Order, Homicide got seven seasons and a movie, and John Munch, the character played by Richard Belzer, would go on to be featured on the first fifteen seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Munch also appeared in numerous other shows, ranging from Law & Order, The X-Files, and The Wire, to Arrested Development, American Dad!, and 30 Rock. To say Homicide cast a long shadow over the future of cop shows is a huge understatement.
"I have been informed by a reliable source that NBC/Universal is at last attempting, along with Fremantle on the overseas rights, to clear music rights on Homicide for eventual streaming," Simon wrote back in December, following the death of star Andre Braugher. "Lot of work to achieve that, however, I am also told."
The series was created by Paul Attanasio based on Simon's book. In addition to Braugher, the series starred Daniel Baldwin, Richard Belzer (who would later move with his character John Munch over to Law & Order: SVU), Clark Johnson, Yaphet Kotto, Melissa Leo, Giancarlo Esposito, Kyle Secor and more.
Homicide is the latest in a series of long-awaited shows finally making its streaming debut, including Moonlighting (the show that launched Bruce Willis's career) and Northern Exposure. Common obstacles to getting shows up on streaming are music rights issues and problems getting a suitable transfer, especially in the case of shows that were shot on video in the 1980s and 1990s. The method looked fine on CRT televisions, and was much cheaper than shooting on film, but they look terrible when you blow them up for contemporary resolutions.
