Reed Diamond and I just finished recording the third episode of Homicide: Life on Repeat. It’s going to be a good one! Lots of tasty, funny, behind the scenes tales. So much so that we didn’t get into the meat of the episode itself.
So afterward I still have more to say about Episode 103 - Night of the Dead Living! Then, I remembered: Hold on, I’m a damn Substack writer! So, dear readers and Homicide lovers, who know more about this show than I could ever know, here’s a bit more of my notes and musings on this wonderfully odd, yet scrumptious cocktail.
The first episode I watched of the newly spiffed-up Peacock version of Homicide: LOTS was Episode 103: Night of the Dead Living. Which plays in its original order instead of being kicked to the end of the season, to #109…
Oh dear. As I’m writing this I feel like a TV critic. As fond as I am of some TV critics, I’m not that. Good to know. I shall continue:
I had no control, as an actor, of where they put the episodes. I don’t think I had an opinion back then, nor did any of my cohorts as I recall. “Moving on”, was our mindset, “We got business to do.”
It doesn’t bug me now, either. But, holy crap, how audacious was it of Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson to position Night of the Dead Living as the third episode of a brand new series. NBC hyperventilated because it wasn’t right for Sweeps Week, or for a murder show where “nothing happens'“. With no murder cases to solve (there’s a bit of one), and no action (who needs action?) - it was a snorer to the suits.