"Night of the Dead Living" is the ninth episode and
first season finale of the American police drama television series ''
Homicide: Life on the Street''. It originally aired on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
in the United States on March 31, 1993. In the episode, the homicide squad works the night shift on a summer evening, but no calls come in, leaving the detectives to brood over their personal matters. The teleplay was written by
Frank Pugliese based on a story he wrote along with executive producer
Tom Fontana
Tom Fontana (born September 12, 1951) is an American screenwriter, writer, and television producer. Fontana worked on NBC's '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' and created HBO's ''Oz.''
Early life and education
Fontana was born on the west si ...
. It was directed by
Michael Lehmann
Michael Stephen Lehmann (born March 30, 1957) is an American film and television director known for directing the dark comedy ''Heathers''.
Early life and education
In 1978, Lehmann graduated from Columbia University. .
"Night of the Dead Living" was originally intended to be the third episode of the season, but NBC programmers moved it to the end of the season because they felt its slow pace and lack of traditional action was inappropriate early in the series, when the show was trying to woo viewers. The broadcast schedule change led to some consistency and time-line errors, which ''Homicide'' producers addressed by adding the words "One hot night, last September..." to the beginning of the episode. Actress
N'Bushe Wright
N'Bushe Wright ( ; born September 7, 1969) is an American actress and dancer. She attended and trained as a dancer at the Alvin Ailey Dance Center and the Martha Graham School of Dance. She is known mainly for her role as Dr. Karen Jenson in the ...
makes a guest appearance as a cleaning woman who loses her baby in the police station.
Since ratings for ''Homicide'' had gradually declined throughout the season, NBC announced a decision about whether the series would be renewed would depend on the
Nielsen ratings of the final four episodes, including "Night of the Dead Living". Nevertheless, it was seen by 6.7 million household viewers, marking one of the lowest viewerships of the season. It received generally positive reviews upon its original broadcast, although some mainstream television audiences were turned off by its minimalist approach. It marked the last original episode of ''Homicide'' for nine months until the
second season premiere, "
Bop Gun". The episode's teleplay won a
Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Achievement in Television Writing for Episodic Drama.
Plot summary
The episode begins with an unknown person lighting a candle in the homicide squadroom. One by one, the detectives arrive for the night shift on an unusually hot September evening. A furious
Gee (
Yaphet Kotto
Yaphet Frederick Kotto (born Frederick Samuel Kotto; November 15, 1939 – March 15, 2021) was an American actor known for numerous film roles, as well as starring in the NBC television series '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' (1993–1999) as ...
) calls maintenance to complain about the non-working air conditioner and learns it has been shut off for the night.
Felton (
Daniel Baldwin
Daniel Leroy Baldwin (born October 5, 1960) is an American actor. He is the second oldest of the four Baldwin brothers, all of whom are actors. Baldwin played the role of Detective Beau Felton in the NBC TV series '' Homicide: Life on the Str ...
) and
Lewis
Lewis may refer to:
Names
* Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name
* Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname
Music
* Lewis (musician), Canadian singer
* "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...
(
Clark Johnson
Clark Johnson (born September 10, 1954), is an American-Canadian actor and director who has worked in both television and film. He is best known for his roles as David Jefferson in ''Night Heat'' (1985–1988), Clark Roberts in '' E.N.G.'' (1989 ...
) try to find out who secretly lights the candle every night; they blow it out a number of times, but it always ends up lit again without anyone noticing.
Munch (
Richard Belzer
Richard Jay Belzer (born August 4, 1944) is a retired American actor, stand-up comedian, and author. He is best known for his role as BPD Detective, NYPD Detective/Sergeant, and DA Investigator John Munch, whom he has portrayed as a regular cas ...
) loudly complains about his ex-girlfriend breaking up with him. While the other detectives sweat and complain about the heat, a calm and comfortable
Pembleton (
Andre Braugher
Andre Keith Braugher (; born July 1, 1962) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Detective Frank Pembleton in the police drama series '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' (1993–1999), used car salesman Owen Thoreau Jr. in the com ...
) wears a tie and drinks hot tea without sweating.
Bayliss (
Kyle Secor
Kyle Ivan Secor (born May 31, 1957) is an American television and film actor. He is known for portraying Detective Tim Bayliss on the crime drama series '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' (1993–1999).
Early years
Secor was born in Tacoma, Wash ...
), who acts uncooperative with his partner Pembleton, says he has found the fingerprints of a man named James Hill who he believes is the murderer in the Adena Watson case. Officer Thormann (
Lee Tergesen
Lee Allen Tergesen (; born July 8, 1965) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in '' Weird Science'', as Tobias Beecher in HBO's prison drama '' Oz'', and as Evan Wright in '' Generation Kill,'' as well as guest starring in many othe ...
) brings in Hill, who turns out to be a 12-year-old boy (
Kenny Blank
Kenny Blank (born September 15, 1977), also known as Kenn Michael, is an American actor, musician and director. Blank is best known for his role as Michael Peterson in the television series ''The Parent 'Hood'' from 1995 to 1997 for which he al ...
), much to the amusement of the other detectives.
The detectives are shocked at the lack of homicide-related calls they are receiving throughout the night.
Bolander (
Ned Beatty) tries several times throughout the night to call Medical Examiner
Blythe (
Wendy Hughes) and ask her out on a date, but he cannot build up the courage. With encouragement from
Howard (
Melissa Leo
Melissa Chessington Leo (born September 14, 1960) is an American actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Critics' Choice A ...
), he finally asks Blythe out and is shocked when she accepts.
Crosetti (
Jon Polito
Jon Raymond Polito (December 29, 1950 – September 1, 2016) was an American character actor. In a film and television career spanning 35 years, he amassed over 220 credits. Notable television roles included Detective Steve Crosetti in the fi ...
) gets agitated when his daughter calls and wants her boyfriend to sleep over. Gee comforts Crosetti and lets him go home to take care of her. Gee finds a baby boy in a small animal carrier-like cage on the bottom floor of the police department. The baby is very popular with the detectives, who take care of him while they wait for social services to arrive. After the social services worker takes the baby, the cleaning lady Loretta Kenyatta (
N'Bushe Wright
N'Bushe Wright ( ; born September 7, 1969) is an American actress and dancer. She attended and trained as a dancer at the Alvin Ailey Dance Center and the Martha Graham School of Dance. She is known mainly for her role as Dr. Karen Jenson in the ...
) hysterically screams somebody kidnapped her baby. The detectives get the baby back for her while Bayliss, infatuated with Loretta, listens to her talk about her life.
Howard gets a call from her sister, who has recently found a tumor on her breast. The sister has just learned her husband has been having an affair. Although Howard is initially hesitant to confide in Felton, he eventually surprises her by offering genuine words of comfort. A drunken man dressed as
Santa Claus (Cleve Wall) is arrested for threatening his wife and a crowd of people with a water pistol. Later, the detectives get a call that Santa Claus has escaped from custody in the department, and he is found after falling through the ceiling and landing on Munch's desk. Meanwhile, Pembleton and Bayliss discuss the Watson murder scene. Bayliss insists he has already gone over the information repeatedly, but Pembleton tells him he needs to think outside the box and approach it with from the mind-frame of a criminal. Later, Bayliss reexamines the information and realizes the killer brought Watson down a fire escape, offering a new lead in the case. As the new day dawns, Gee has the detectives assemble on the roof so he can spray them with a garden hose to cool them off.
The episode ends with Munch revealing to Thormann that he lights the candle each night "for all the ones who have been killed," while Thormann admits that he re-lit it in Munch's absence because he knew it meant something to him.
Production
"Night of the Dead Living" was directed by
Michael Lehmann
Michael Stephen Lehmann (born March 30, 1957) is an American film and television director known for directing the dark comedy ''Heathers''.
Early life and education
In 1978, Lehmann graduated from Columbia University. . The teleplay was written by
Frank Pugliese based on a story he wrote along with executive director
Tom Fontana
Tom Fontana (born September 12, 1951) is an American screenwriter, writer, and television producer. Fontana worked on NBC's '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' and created HBO's ''Oz.''
Early life and education
Fontana was born on the west si ...
. It was originally intended to be the third episode of the
first season, but
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
programmers felt it was too slow-paced to run so early in the season. The episode takes place entirely within the squad room and lacks the traditional action of a typical police series, which NBC executives felt was not appropriate for an early stage when the series was still trying to woo viewers.
The programmers also preferred to end the series on the upbeat note of the final scenes in "Night of the Dead Living", which includes the detectives happily smiling and laughing on the roof of the police department building as Gee sprays them with a hose to relieve the summer heat. In contrast, the originally-planned season finale, "
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is a show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for the 1933 musical '' Roberta''. The song was sung in the Broadway show by Tamara Drasin. Its first recorded performance was by Ge ...
", which ''Homicide'' producers felt had a sense of resolving season storylines, was a somber episode which ended with a sad image of Bolander quietly singing to himself at a bar over a beer.
[Kalat, p. 121]
Running the episode out of sequence produced several notable continuity errors. For example, Bayliss and Pembleton are still working on the Adena Watson murder, which they had stopped investigating in the earlier episode "
Three Men and Adena". Additionally, Officer Thormann is seen onscreen working and healthy, although he was blinded in the earlier episode "
Son of a Gun" as a result of a gunshot wound to the head that forced him to leave the police department. These consistency errors were addressed by ''Homicide'' producers by adding the words "One hot night, last September..." to the beginning of the episode, thus establishing the events of the episode took place within the correct timeline of the series, even though the episodes are shown out of order.
The Watson case depicted in the episode was based on the real-life 1988 Baltimore slaying of Latonya Kim Wallace,
which is chronicled in ''
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets'', the 1991
David Simon
David Judah Simon (born February 9, 1960) is an American author, journalist, screenwriter, and producer best known for his work on '' The Wire'' (2002–08).
He worked for '' The Baltimore Sun'' City Desk for twelve years (1982–95), wrote '' H ...
non-fiction book about a
Baltimore Police Department, which was adapted into the ''Homicide'' series.
During "Night of the Dead Living", Crosetti displays an overriding concern for the safety and welfare of his daughter Beatrice. After Crosetti was revealed to have killed himself in the
third season episode "Crosetti", many viewers claimed suicide was unrealistic for his character based on his feelings about his daughter displayed in this episode. Beatrice is referred to only by name in "Night of the Dead Living", and would not appear onscreen until she grieved over her father's death in "Crosetti".
[Kalat, p. 123] While discussing the mysterious candle with Lewis in the episode, Felton said he generally solves cases with physical evidence, witnesses and confessions, not by investigating motives. This insight into detective work is consistent with the conclusions Simon drew in ''Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets'', and reviewers have praised ''Homicide'' for its realism in portraying detective work from this perspective, which is in stark contrast to other typical police dramas.
N'Bushe Wright
N'Bushe Wright ( ; born September 7, 1969) is an American actress and dancer. She attended and trained as a dancer at the Alvin Ailey Dance Center and the Martha Graham School of Dance. She is known mainly for her role as Dr. Karen Jenson in the ...
, best known to this point for playing the student activist Claudia Bishop in the
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
drama series ''
I'll Fly Away
"I'll Fly Away" is a hymn written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley and published in 1932 by the Hartford Music company in a collection titled ''Wonderful Message''.Richard Matteson, Jr.''The Bluegrass Picker's Tune Book'' Mel Bay Publications, 2006 ...
'', made a guest appearance in "Night of the Dead Living" as the cleaning woman Loretta Kenyatta.
Wright was cast in the role based on her performance in ''
Zebrahead'' (1992), a drama film about an interracial romance. A number of songs play on radios in the squad room throughout "Night of the Dead Living". Among the music featured in the episode were the songs "Lay Down My Life" by
Carole King, "Texas Slide" by
Jean-Jacques Milteau, "N.Y.C (Can You Believe This City?)" by
Charles & Eddie
Charles & Eddie were an American soul music duo composed of Charles Pettigrew and Eddie Chacon. Their single " Would I Lie to You?", taken from their 1992 debut album, ''Duophonic'', won Ivor Novello Awards in 1993 in the Best Contemporary Song, ...
, "Little Boy Blues" and "Break Up" b
Gary Fitzgerald and "Tropic Call" by Mitchell Coodley and Andrew Snitzer.
Ratings
Ratings for ''Homicide: Life on the Street'' gradually declined since the series first premiered. In response, NBC announced to fans that a decision about whether ''Homicide'' would be renewed or canceled would depend on how the last four episodes of the season fared in the ratings, including "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes".
In its original American broadcast on March 31, 1993, the episode was watched by 6.7 million households, according to
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...
, earning the episode a 7.2 rating.
It was one of the lowest ratings of the first season of ''Homicide: Life on the Street'', continuing the downward trend of the season.
By comparison, the previous episode, "
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is a show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for the 1933 musical '' Roberta''. The song was sung in the Broadway show by Tamara Drasin. Its first recorded performance was by Ge ...
", was seen by 7.08 million households, while the season premiere, "
Gone for Goode", was watched by more than 18 million households due to a lead-in from
Super Bowl XXVII. ''Homicide'' ranked low in the Nielsen ratings compared to other shows the week of "Night of the Dead Living", while its time-slot competitor, the
ABC comedy ''
Home Improvement
The concept of home improvement, home renovation, or remodeling is the process of renovating or making additions to one's home. Home improvement can consist of projects that upgrade an existing home interior (such as electrical and plumbing), ...
'', ranked second for the week with 20.39 million household viewers.
At the time that the season finale aired, ''Homicide'' producers still did not know whether their show would be renewed for a
second season.
After the season finale, ''Homicide: Life on the Street'' went on a hiatus while the network decided whether the series would be renewed.
That hiatus ultimately lasted nine months until the premiere of the
second season premiere, "
Bop Gun".
Reception
The episode received generally positive reviews from commentators, although David P. Kalat, author of ''Homicide: Life on the Street: The Unofficial Companion'', said mainstream television audiences were "somewhat turned off by the minimalist approach".
''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
'' writer Matt Roush gave the episode four out of four stars, comparing it to
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, filmmaker, and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and '' Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first gained cri ...
's ''
Glengarry Glen Ross'' and calling it "minimalist drama (with) maximum impact". Roush wrote, "Imagine a crime show during which no crime occurs. Next to nothing happens. Yet every second counts."
Lon Grahnke of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...
'' also gave it four out of four stars. He wrote, "If ''Life on the Street'' winds up dead after tonight's episode – the victim of low Nielsen ratings – at least the nine superb actors in the squad will know they made a grand exit."
''
The Salt Lake Tribune'' writer Harold Schindler praised the episode, particularly the "excellent writing, great acting
ndsuper atmosphere".
''
Rocky Mountain News
The ''Rocky Mountain News'' (nicknamed the ''Rocky'') was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, United States, from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. As ...
'' writer Dusty Saunders called the series "superb" and described ''Night of the Dead Living'' as "fascinating character studies of police officers in the squad room". In a 2007 article, ''
Star Tribune'' writer Neal Justin included "Night of the Dead Living" in a list of 10 excellent network television episodes dating back 40 years. Justin said the episode proved it was not acting that made for good television, but rather strong writing and acting.
Not all reviews were positive. John J. O'Connor of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' praised the series in general, but said the various overlapping subplots in "Night of the Dead Living" – like the Santa Claus suspect, the pre-teen murder suspect and the cleaning woman's missing baby – felt like gratuitous "oddball routines". O'Connor added, "Too much cleverness can be grating."
Frank Pugliese and Tom Fontana won a
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers:
* The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO
* The Writers Gu ...
award for Outstanding Achievement in Television Writing for Episodic Drama for the "Night of the Dead Living" teleplay. The script competed in that category against another ''Homicide'' episode, the first season premiere "
Gone for Goode". The "Night of the Dead Living" teleplay also defeated scripts for the shows ''
I'll Fly Away
"I'll Fly Away" is a hymn written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley and published in 1932 by the Hartford Music company in a collection titled ''Wonderful Message''.Richard Matteson, Jr.''The Bluegrass Picker's Tune Book'' Mel Bay Publications, 2006 ...
'', ''
Life Goes On'', ''
Picket Fences
''Picket Fences'' is an American family drama television series about the residents of the town of Rome, Wisconsin, created and produced by David E. Kelley. The show initially ran from September 18, 1992, to June 26, 1996, on the CBS televis ...
'', ''
TriBeCa
Tribeca (), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Stree ...
'' and ''
Reasonable Doubts
''Reasonable Doubts'' is an American police drama television series created by Robert Singer, which broadcast in the United States by NBC that ran from September 26, 1991 to April 27, 1993.
Synopsis
''Reasonable Doubts'' is primarily about ...
''.
Home media
The first and second season episodes were included in the four-DVD box-set "Homicide: Life on the Street: The Complete Seasons 1 & 2", which was released by
A&E Home Video
A&E Networks (stylized as A+E NETWORKS) is an American multinational broadcasting company that is a 50–50 joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company through its General Entertainment Content division. The company o ...
on May 27, 2003.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Night Of The Dead Living
1993 American television episodes
Homicide: Life on the Street (season 1) episodes