‘Homicide: Life on the Street‘ was a police procedural drama that used to air on NBC from 1993 to 1999. The series was developed and created by Paul Attanasio. The series basically revolved around the work of a fictional Baltimore Police Department homicide unit, which used to solve crime cases, the way it was never done on American television, at least till that point of time.

The basic premise of the series was based on a book called “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets,” by David Simon. The writer of the book had actually spent a year with the members of Baltimore’s homicide unit and then written about the unit and its work in the book. Most of the characters and incidents that were shown in the series were inspired from the book.

This no-nonsense police procedural drama was only one of its own kinds. It was the most real show to air on television during the 90’s. Never before an effort like that was made to attract audience. The aim of the creators in producing this series was to introduce the audience to a different kind of genre of drama. With ‘Homicide: Life on the street‘ a glimpse into the lives of a squad of inner-city detectives was given to the audience. The creators decided to be as close to reality as they could and they did that by portraying it as a spiritually draining and an existential threat to one’s psyche. The series generally did not present glamour and glory to the job of police detectives. The series was first to offered gun shots and car chases, which was not very common during those days. The series was shot with handheld cameras on location in the Fells Point Community of Baltimore, MD.

With all this and completely new technique and way of entertaining people it was a bit difficult to attract audiences, during its first year run. During its first year, the series did not have great ratings and cancellation was a continuous threat. But still a second chance was given after the success of Steven Bochco’s ‘NYPD Blue’. The series picked up in the second season which led to the picking up of the subsequent seasons.

Another significant feature of the series was music. All varieties of music featured through out the series, but generally it was featured in a combination of the detectives conducting their investigation.

Despite all that the series had to go through, it was able to win hearts of people and also a number of awards including a few Emmy Awards, Writer’s Guild Awards and George Foster Peabody Awards. After the series got cancelled in 1999, a TV movie was made in 2000 that actually served the purpose as a de facto series finale.