WELCOME TO THE MINI-FAQ FOR ALT.TV.HOMICIDE

Portions which are new since it was last posted are marked with a ! ; modified sections are marked with a + ***

CONTENTS

 

1.0.....Introduction, History, and Definitions  2.0.....Rules of the newsgroup  3.0.....FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)  3.1.....Homicide: Life on the Street (and what's a red-ball?)  3.2.....I heard it was based on a book?  3.3.....What is "the Board," and how do you read it?  3.4.....The Command Structure of the Baltimore PD  3.5.....Who's who (Actors, characters, and real people)  3.6.....How to tell the main characters apart.

3.7.....Major points/characters from previous seasons.  3.8.....H:LotS resources on the Web and Internet.  3.9.....Upcoming episodes and why the promo titles are different! +  3.10.....The Music.  3.11.....alt.tv.homicide in-jokes and secrets. + 3.12.....An unadorned episode list for all four seasons.  3.13.....What the #@$%# is the deal with H:LotS getting no Emmy?  3.14.....So you want to be an extra on Homicide... + 4.0.....Suggestions (a few words to the wise)

 

3.6..Who's who, or how to tell the characters apart.

Det. Laura Ballard; white, female, black hair.  Unkown quantity, being added in beginning of sixth season.  Old-timers very suspicious.  Played by Callie Thorne.

Det. John Munch; Black hair, white, skinny, divorced multiple times, been on the Homicide squad for a loong time.  Co-owns a bar with detectives Meldrick Lewis and Tim Bayliss.  Is an unrepentant child of the drug-culture sixties and appears to be a "lapsed Jew".  Played by Richard Belzer.

Det. Frank Pembleton; Short hair (and has been shaved bald in seasons past), black, recently seperated (from wife, Mary), one daughter (Olivia, born  May 1996).  He's been with Homicide a long time and is very intense about work.  Suffered a stroke in the fourth season finale'.  Recently reconciled with his again-pregnant wife, Mary Whelan-Pembleton.  Partners with Tim Bayliss. Played by Andre Braugher.

Det. Mike Kellerman; blonde curly hair, white, divorced, transferred to Homicide in episode two of season four from Arson. Witty, smart, kind of a wise-guy, comes from working-class background.  Killed murder suspect Luther Mahoney in cold blood near end of season five.  On and off-again drunk and lover of Dr. Cox.  Lives on a boat.  Partners with Det. Meldrick Lewis. Played by Reed Diamond.

Dr. Julianna Cox; white, female, black hair.  She's the Chief Medical Examiner (CME) for Baltimore.  Her father died in Season Five, she has shown rash judgement in her personal life, a tendency towards excess in alcohol, and cool professionalism in her work.  Played by Michelle Forbes.

Det. Stuart Gharty; white, older guy.  Transferred in from Internal Affairs beginning of Season six.  Was formerly a patrolman who was investigated by Det. Russert for responding slowly to a shooting in a high-rise, low-income housing project.  Played by Peter Gerety.

Det. Meldrick Lewis; light-skinned black man with short hair, often wears a hat (rakishly), been in Homicide unit for more than five years.  Born and raised in a Baltimore tenement, he has an older brother who is a permanant resident of a mental ward.  Co-owns _The Waterfront_ (the bar) with Munch and Bayliss.  Played by Clark Johnson.

Lieutenant Al Giardello; large, very dark black man, three children (all grown and moved away), is the Lieutenant for the squad of detectives the series focuses on.  Has been passed over for a deserved promotion at least three times we know of.  Often refers to his Sicilian ancestors.  Played by Yaphet Kotto.

Det. Tim Bayliss; white guy, single, brown hair.  Used to be on the QRT (the Quick Response Team; very like SWAT) and the Mayor's Security Detail.  Has taken to caring for a very sick Uncle, who had also abused Bayliss as a child. Co-owns the bar  with Munch and Lewis. Partners with Pembleton.  Played by Kyle Secor.

Det. Paul Falsone; appears Latino and single.  Transferring into Homicide at the beginning of season six from auto.  Played by Jon Seda.

3.7..Synopsis of major story elements and characters from former seasons.

Three detectives have left the squad since the first episode, and one has come and then gone. Steve Crosetti was a character for only the first two seasons, was played by Jon Polito, and partnered with Meldrick Lewis. He was a short, semi-bald, divorced man who pursued a number of conspiracy theories in his spare time. The character committed suicide between the second and third seasons, and Lewis was without a partner for over a year.

Two other characters, Beau Felton and Stanley Bolander, were both suspended immediately before the beginning of the fourth season, for lewd and drunken behavior at a convention (Nudity and guns was alluded to). The reason for their departure rests in decisions made by the actors playing them.

Beau was partners with Kay Howard, and had a rocky marriage. At one point, his wife threw him out, and he commenced an affair with the (then) Lieutenant of the other shift, Megan Russert (see below for more info on Russert's character) Beau's wife finally took him back, but ended up leaving him, taking the kids, and disappearing. There has been no mention of what has befallen Beau's character since then. He was played by Daniel Baldwin.

Stanley Bolander ("Big Man") was Munch's partner, and was broadly considered to be the most experienced, and certainly one of the best, Homicide detectives in Baltimore. Munch has been fixated on Stan's date of return, but the character of Bolander has been avoiding the Homicide crew, even his ex-partner, and has apparently retired. Played by Ned Beatty.

The character of Megan Russert was introduced in the beginning of season three as the Lieutenant of the other shift. After having an affair with Beau, she was promoted to the position of Captain (a promotion it is widely held which should have gone to G). She was later demoted a record three levels, back to detective, and back in G's Homicide squad. The actress which played Russert, Isabella Hofmann, became pregnant by real-life beau (heh) Daniel Baldwin, and is being written out of the fifth season.

3.8..H:LotS resources on the Web and Internet.

How's this for one-stop convenience?  Go to this site, and Dave will spin you off into the ether to all the latest and greatest Homicide-themed sites out there:
https://members.tripod.com/~DaveLocke

3.9..What's the deal with the episode titles? They're listed one way in the TV Guide, and then another way on the promos! And a list of the upcoming episodes.

It's like this: Baltimore Pictures makes an episode of H:LotS, and names it. This name is the "official" episode title, the one that shows up in your TV Guide or newspaper, and is the title it is appropriate to refer to a specific episode by.

Once the episode is finished, it is for all intents and purposes given to NBC. They decide when to air it (which has lead to a plethora of "out-of-order" episodes, but that's another issue entirely). When the episode is close to airing, the NBC promotions department puts together a promotional package for it, including the 20- or 30-second commercials for it that you see during ER or Law and Order. As part of the promotional effort, a "promo title" is often concocted to make the upcoming epsiode more attractive to viewers unfamiliar with H:LotS. It has nothing to do with the "episode title."

3.10.Who picks the songs? Is there a CD out, or in the works?

As for the CD/soundtrack, no and no. And I doubt it's forthcoming, ever. Yes, it'd be really cool, but be realistic; H:LotS is not the determined pop-culture vehicle that Miami Vice was, and doesn't have the camp/hipness of The X-Files (though there have been some pretty lame TV shows with their own soundtrack albums lately, so you never know...Homicide certainly deserves it far more than most). There have been rumors to the effect that a soundtrack is being considered, and it's an accepted past-time on a.t.h. to pine for it, but I wouldn't hold my breath. But be creative (like schlock) and put together your own "fantasy soundtrack", then offer it to the rest of us.

The songs are variously picked by the producers, the editors, and even the writers. It's an eclectic thing. There's a list of the songs on the web, but for the life of me, I haven't been able to get the address I have to work.

3.11.A list of alt.tv.homicide in-jokes, or "how to appear instantly cool on a.t.h."

3.11.A list of alt.tv.homicide in-jokes, or "how to appear instantly cool on a.t.h."

"The best damn ________." Whenever offering a compliment, especially one directed at the show itself, that's the superlative to use. For example, "H:LotS is really cool.": pleasant compliment, but not how it's done by the long-tooths. "H:LotS is the best damn show on television!": I don't know where it started, but believe me, it's an a.t.h. tradition.

"My $.11" This is as opposed to the "my two cents" or "my $.02" phrases which indicate someone is just offering a non-professional opinion. The eleven cents figure comes from an H:LotS episode wherein Bayliss holds up a conveniance store clerk because Bayliss is 11 cents short, and the clerk won't cut him a break.

"_______(Insert other police-themed show) really sucks!" For some reason, many H:LotS fans feel compelled to deride and lambaste all the other "cop" shows currently airing, especially NYPD Blue ("the Butt show" as it is know with affection). While this is a mystery to me, the practice of denigrating other police series is none-the-less common; though it seems to be more prevalent among the less-mature fans.

"Faffamem?" This is NBC insider-speak for words or phrases spoken by actors that are muddled and unintelligible. It is an accepted sport on a.t.h. to list the faffamems that occur during a given episode, and then provide guesses as to what was really said. The phrase has it's linguistic roots in an experience that happened to at the NBC promotions department many moons ago. (Thanks to Bug, our resident promotions department insider dude.) A promo was introduced to Bug's boss for some dreadful Danielle Shields mini-series ("Lucky______" something; it's irrelevant). A male antagonist makes some kind of speech to Lucky (played by the great actress Nicolette Sheridan) along the lines of, "You're not going to be able to just walk into this business. You're going to have to fight and claw your way to the top!" There's a big dramatic pause, the music swells, and the camera does a push into Nicolette, who says..... "Faffamem." Or at least the boss thought that's what she said. He says, "What'd she say? Faffamem?" And the term stuck to refer to any sound bite that was unintelligable. What Nicolette was really saying was, "Bet on it."

"I miss __________", or "I wish they'd bring back/have more of ______". Insert the phrase lumpy characters (people who have a less than model-perfect physique, like Daniel Baldwin, Jon Polito, or the appropriately nick-named Ned "Big Man" Beatty). Or conversation episodes (like Night of the Dead Living, wherein there is no action, just talking). These phrases bespeak a general longing for how H:LotS was in the first two seasons.

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