‘Homicide: Life on the Street’ Might Start Streaming Soon, David Simon Says
For years now, Homicide: Life on the Street has ranked as one of the best TV shows unavailable for streaming, but that unavailability might change soon, according to David Simon.
Simon, the former Baltimore Sun reporter whose book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets inspired the NBC series, said in an X post on Saturday that Homicide: Life on the Street may soon be made available on a streaming service if the music rights can be worked out.
“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,” said Simon, who eventually became a writer and a producer on the series. “Lot of work to do [to] achieve that, however, I am also told.”
The TV producer also wrote that “Andre alone ought to rate such,” paying tribute to the late Andre Braugher, who earned an Emmy Award for his performance as Detective Frank Pembleton on Homicide.
Simon, who went on to create The Wire after working on Homicide, also honored Braugher in an X post on Tuesday, following the actor’s death at age 61. “Andre Braugher. God. I’ve worked with a lot of wonderful actors. I’ll never work with one better,” Simon wrote. “Stunned and thinking of Ami [Brabson, Braugher’s wife] and his sons and so many memories of this good man that are now a blessing. But too damn soon.”
Created by Paul Attanasio, Homicide: Life on the Street aired seven seasons and one TV movie between 1993 and 2000, with Richard Belzer, Yaphet Kotto, Melissa Leo, Clark Johnson, Kyle Secor, and others playing members of Baltimore Police Department’s Homicide Unit.
(Belzer, in fact, played Detective John Munch, the same character he played for 15 seasons on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.)
Homicide is also the most recognized dramatic series in the history of the Peabody Awards, with Peabody jurors praising its “sustained excellence” and its stars, “arguably the best ensemble cast in series television.”
