Homicide: Life on the Street Might Stream After All, Following Andre Braugher’s Passing
There arises a small glimmer of hope for those wishing they could stream Homicide: Life on the Street, in the wake of Andre Braugher’s death on Dec. 11.
The most sought-after, non-streaming show of all in a July TVLine poll, the NBC cop drama was the recipient of 17 Emmy nominations and four wins — including Outstanding Lead Actor for future Brooklyn Nine-Nine scene stealer Braugher, who first made a name for himself as Baltimore detective Frank Pembleton.
The police procedural, which was developed for television by Paul Attanasio, also introduced audiences to Det. John Munch (played by the late Richard Belzer), who made the move to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit following Homicide‘s conclusion in 1999.
Alas, music rights issues/clearance costs have famously kept the drama from being available for streaming, for first-time samplers or longtime fans wanting to revisit its excellence.
That, though, may — may — change. Eventually.
“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,” David Simon, author of the 1991 novel Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, shared on X Saturday night. “Lot of work to do achieve that, however, I am also told.”
“There is a lot of licensed music in the show from a vast array of artists,” Simon affirmed. And at the time of the drama’s 1993-’99 run, and even when it landed on DVD, “They didn’t pay for future platforms. And do you know what? Artists deserve to be paid for their work earning money for corporations on various platforms.”
When asked why the music originally used in the show can’t simply be dubbed out or replaced with other music — as is sometimes done, with varying success (WKRP, shudder) — Simon explained to an X follower, “Film is carefully cut to tempo, melody and theme of music especially in montage sequences. You can sub anything for anything. And f–k it up.”
TVLine has emailed NBCU and Fremantle for comment.
After years stuck in a similar limbo, Moonlighting recently finally found its own way onto a streaming platform after nailing down rights to (most) music from its original ABC run. The beloved dramedy starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd is now available to stream on Hulu.
How many fingers are you crossing, hoping that NBCU and Fremantle can get Homicide: Life on the Street onto a streaming platform?
FINALLY! This greatness has been gone from the public consciousness for too long.
I have search numerous times to stream that show. It was probably my all time favorite police procedure. Love Pembleton. I’ll be watching for it.
Why not just pay the artists for the music and stream the show? Is there more to it than that?
If it were that straightforward as “just” paying, then this show, Moonlighting, and a lot more would have been available for streaming many years ago. It can be very expensive to make deals with artists. And not all artists want to do it.
Not even necessarily artists, we’ve seen a big trend in large companies and even hedge funds buying up music rights as streaming has made them worth even more than they were previously.
Correct. Note Taylor Swift rerecording what most people would see as her own stuff. Doesn’t Michael Jackson’s estate own stuff related to the Beatles?
Not anymore. Jackson started selling his shares of the Lennon/McCartney Beatles music in 1990 to Sony. When Jackson passed his estate sold the rest to Sony. I believe Paul McCartney made a deal with Sony to get a better deal on writers royalties.
If you ‘have to have’ a particular track, then the owner gets leverage compared to looking for new tracks.
Well, sure. But who’s going to pay…? And with what promise of any kind of recompense? The songs are already in the episodes, so the artists hold all the leverage. There will be no bargains to be had. And remember, we live in a time where streamers are canceling stuff that’s already been produced, just to save a dollar.
This was one of the best shows on television ever! I really hope we can rewatch this great show.
I agree, Frank Pembleton was the best. I remember when he was standing in front of the station house alone watching the funeral procession alone.
Thanks for bringing that memory back, it was a great scene. Pretty sure that was when Detective Crosetti was murdered.
He committed suicide. Because he would not go to the church, he stood as an honor guard. I just looked it up on Wiki.
(Gulp)
I just bought the series on DVD, not to expensive.
How much was it?? I’ve wanted to rewatch it for SO long! I actually never saw the first few seasons and would love to watch it in order.
Amazon has it for 40.00 new, or used in very good condition for only 10.00. I bought a used set a few years ago and binged it.
sounds good!!
I have always wished for this. One of the best shows on TV, at the time.
Replace the problematic songs with newer fresh songs from the new generation. Use some young Baltimore hip hop talent mixed with some big names. Not only do you do you solve the music rights problem but you may attract younger fans, too. They can custom make the new songs according to the same tempo and beat. Would be the first time the put new style music on an old show – would get a lot of attention and viewers, methinks.
Nope. That would ruin the character and emotional impact of so many scenes. If you’d seen the original run of the show, the music used was a huge part of it. The composers and musical directors on the show used artists from many different genres to set a mood for a scene. Swapping things out would be an insult to them and their creative vision, not to mention the intent of the writers and directors. I would love to stream HLotS again, but only with the original music intact. Hoping they can finally make this happen. It’s unfortunate that so much of Andre Braugher’s amazing work isn’t available for people to see and enjoy. People that saw him on Brooklyn 99 would be amazed at his range and the intensity he brought to Frank Pembleton. It was an amazing show with a great cast (Melissa Leo, Yaphett Koto, Ned Beatty and Richard Belzer for starters) and amazing writing that got the appreciation it deserved.
Both hands…..PLEASE!!!! PLEASE!!!!!
One of the best tv series to ever be aired!!!!!
I’ve been wanting homicide life on street to be aired for years. I loved that show. I would watch it again in a heart beat.
What a fantastic show! It’s such a crime that it’s been kept from the public for so long.
Charmed’s eighth and final season lost the rights to the theme for the DVDs. so now it sounds very strange.
I have wanted Homicide: LOTS to stream for what feels like forever. However, I don’t want them to do it BC of Andre Braugher’s death. I wanted it bc of AB’s acting skills. I would have preferred they not announce it this way. It takes away from the true agonizing loss of his value as an actor & makes gaining the show as if it were the cost of his life. Maybe it’s just the wording of the announcement but I feel it took away so much of my excitement by placing it togething w his passing. It as if they’re saying: “hey, so you lost your toy but here’s part of the toy you were looking for in exchange. Okay now?!”
Best cop show ever. Have been waiting far too long..
Agreed. The rest pa!e in comparison. Homicide: Life on the Street was serious drama and had my favorite two detectives in Pembleton and Bayliss. I would say it was even better than The Wire, which was superb.
I worked 2 years off and on on Hack as a background actor. Andre Braugher was one of the leads and we became friends. He was kind fun talented and I will miss him.
Barbara Sigel
I liked that show! I thought it deserved more episodes. Lucky you to work with him. He was clearly a consummate actor but he also seemed like a stellar human being…I hope he was.
I’d like to see it. I never watched Homicide during its original run, but now it occupies such a place in the history of TV that I think I should watch it.
It’s a great show that should have been streaming already. Now they try so they can make money off a good man’s death? That’s gross.
Why is it his death that moves Universal? Why wasn’t it Bruce’s brilliance ghat got Moonlighting aired and not his illness? I am happy for their families but it is cynical to wait until after death/illness strikes to give them their just do. It should have happened long ago.
The work on getting Moonlighting to streaming started well before Bruce Willis’ diagnosis was made public. Trying to get the streaming rights to hundreds of songs is a long, difficult and often expensive process. Murphy Brown wasn’t on streaming for years for the same reason Homicide and Moonlighting weren’t. Maybe Andre Braugher’s passing gives them the impetus to try harder to get this project done.
I hate it when music rights preclude a good show from being aired again either in reruns or streaming. That was the reason given for the Soap Opera “Santa Barbara” not being put in reruns on Soapnet because of the music rights.
There are a few music montages that are classic on Homicide: Life on the Streets. One is the song “Native Son” by John Hiatt that plays at the beginning of the last episode of season 6. That was the episode where Bayliss is shot.
I really loved that series. I have it on DVD.
Thanks from everybody for the spoiler.
It was H-LOTS that first introduced me to Andre Braugher and his performance along with excellent scripting kept me there. I don’t know about streaming it. There is something to be said for timing. Right time, right place, you know.
Also, take a look at the cast picture above. Notice how many younger faces you see from faces that are now commonplace on your screens. Amazing!
When the casting rep told the kids at the Bmore School for the Arts they didn’t talk street enough we(my other child in sports media) refused to watch this show. Like talented Andre my other child is a Juilliard alum. RIP Andre..
Can someone explain to me if this is the case, how did New York Undercover get put on streaming networks so fast
I desperately want to watch all of Homicide again; I watched it when it first aired, and then watched it in syndication, and then laboriously went through all of the DVDs on Netflix.
But I last finished going through the series in 2009, so it’s time.
RIP Detective Pembleton.
Seriously the music is the absolute last thing I care in a tv show. If this is such a deal breaker, replace it and get it over with.
That would definitely be an amazing tribute to Andre Braugher. It was such a good show!
Bought the DVD series boxed set during the pandemic and binged it, so don’t understand why so many people couldn’t do the same in the past, or now, rather than wait on streaming availability.
A shame they didn’t bother to attempt this while he was ALIVE. HLoTS has been ignored and disrespected for too long! That said…The whole “pay for rights” issue is such a huge problem. I wish the companies buying up these rights weren’t so darn greedy. I still remember when I was watching an episode of Life (Damian Lewis, Sarah Shahi) on the DVDs I bought some years later because I’d lost my original VHS tapes that I’d taped from the TV (yeah, I’m an old)…and instead of Liz Phair’s “Ride” that I distinctly remembered in the scene, was some music I’d never heard before. It was jarring. It didn’t fit at all. There’s an art to pairing music with TV and not everyone does it skillfully. Grey’s Anatomy (at least the first 12 seasons I saw) and The Wire were excellent at this.
Please put homicide on streaming