So I walk into Blockbuster the other day with my niece, she’s off looking for some movies to rent and I wander over to the DVD’s for sale section. Lo, what do my wandering eyes behold? The first 2 seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street !! I hug the sacred box to my breast and attempt to blink back my tears of joy.
As you may have guessed from my not so subtle prose, I am a huge fan of the show and I think it is the best thing that has ever been on TV. I have been trying to get copies of it on tape for years to no avail. So I will definitely be purchasing these DVD’s and the other seasons when they come out (although I may not get the ones after Frank leaves).
I did notice a strange thing about this DVD set though. It says on the box that it is the complete first two seasons but it also says that is only 13 episodes. What’s up with that? I understand that mid-season replacement shows are usually only 13 episodes for their first season (I believe that Buffy started off this way), but I thought that if the show got picked up the second season would be a regular full length season (26 episodes is the standard I think).
So what happened with Homicide? Was it a summer replacement show twice or something? I didn’t start watching the show until around season 3 or 4 when it had a regular length season so I have no idea what was going on with the first two seasons. I was just curious if any of the great Doper minds out there might know something about this.
Homicide: LotS had a bumpy history, especially in its first 2 seasons. The first season consisted of 9 episodes; it was indeed a mid-season replacement, premiering immediately after the Superbowl in 1993. The second season had only 4 episodes. The third season was the first full-length one, finally containing a full 22 episodes (the normal length of a TV season).
Thanks for the info ** cbawlmer ** , I didn’t know that the show had such a rocky start. I’m glad the network finally realized what they had with this baby!
I haven’t got the DVD’s yet (payday is soooo far away), but when I do I’ll let you know what the extras are like. Of course, with a show this good the extra stuff really isn’t that big a deal for me. It’s just, like… extra stuff.
Great news!!! This was one of the only shows I ever marked down on my calendar. What an awesome show. Even better, I didn’t pick up on this show until the 2nd or 3rd season, so I don’t think I’ve seen many of the early ones.
The first show I can definitely recall seeing, and all I (vaguely) remember about it, had the Counting Crows song Raining in Baltimore (don’t think that’s the actual title) playing while the redheaded, skinny lady pondered retirement. Anyone know which season this was?
If you’ve never seen this show, you have no idea what you missed. One of the best things ever on TV.
I knew I should have kept this to myself. I made the mistake of telling my so-called friend about this and he just went up and bought the last copy!
Now he will have to meet with an “accident” so I can claim his DVD collection to lessen my grief at his untimely passing… as long as they don’t bring Frank back for the case, I should be safe.
rexnervous I remember that episode where Kay Howard goes back home (mainly because of the song), I think that was in season 4.
I am enjoying season six here in the UK via the Hallmark channel. ( shown five nights a week) I would love to see the first two seasons because, like many people ,I only started to watch this in season four. BTW this link tells you all you want to know about the show. :-
