Tom Fontana

‘Homicide: Life on the Street’ Commentary on ‘A Shot in the Dark’

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

Recently, “Homicide: Life on the Street” has undergone a major renaissance of sorts. The show is now finally available to stream on Peacock, and we have two new podcasts dedicated to the acclaimed series. First, there is “Homicide: Life on the Set” which is hosted by filmmaker and podcaster Chris Carr and Susan C. Ingram who worked as a union camera assistant on “Homicide,” and they have interviewed actors, writers, directors and technicians who worked behind the scenes and have made unforgettable stories to tell. Then there is “Homicide: Life on Repeat” which has actors Reed Diamond and Kyle Secor reviewing each episode of the show from start to finish, and that’s regardless of whether they are in said episode or not. With all this going on, “Homicide” looks to be gaining a new generation of fans and may even become a bigger hit with viewers than ever before.

With this “Homicide” commentary, I focus on the fifth episode of the first season entitled “A Shot in the Dark.” Directed by Bruce Paltrow and written by Jorge Zamacona, it follows multiple plot threads back when the show could get away with that. Stanley Bolander (Ned Beatty) and John Munch investigate the double shooting of a drug dealer, Frank Pembleton (Andre Braugher) and Beau Felton (Daniel Baldwin) join forces reluctantly to look into a theory regarding Adena Watson’s murder, Tim Bayliss remains convinced that the arabber Risley Tucker murdered Adena and wants to bring him in for questioning, and Steve Crosetti (Jon Polito) and Clark Johnson continue to look into the shooting of Chris Thormann (Lee Tergesen) who has miraculously survived his nearly fatal wounds. It’s amazing just how much the writers got into one single episode!

In the midst of all this, Bolander seems unable to deal with the aftermath of his date with Dr. Blythe (Wendy Hughes), Felton and Pembleton battle with one another over how they see things, and Bayliss gets revenge at Captain Barnfather for releasing information he shouldn’t have released. Of course, Bayliss still pays a price for going after a superior officer. And Munch? Well, let’s just say he steals the show at the very end.

Please check out the commentary below. “Homicide: Life on the Street” is now available to stream on Peacock, and the entire show is still available on DVD through Shout Factory.

‘OZ’ Audio Commentary on ‘The Routine’

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

Continuing on with my series of audio commentaries, I have decided to take a break from “Homicide: Life on the Street” and do one on another show, the infamous HBO prison drama “OZ.” I became aware of this show when I found out that, like “Homicide,” it was executive produced by Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson. It was created by Fontana who originally sought to create a show about a minimum-security prison which he would have called “Club Med,” but he opted instead to do one on a maximum-security penitentiary once he got permission to do so from the head of HBO Original Programming.

It needs to be noted that “OZ” was the first hour-long drama ever produced by HBO. Most people forget this as “The Sopranos” came on a year or two later and quickly upstaged this groundbreaking show. Like “Homicide,” “OZ” never got much love from the Emmys or other major awards show, but it laid a solid path for the hour-long drama to exist on HBO. Shows like “The Sopranos” and “Game of Thrones” would possibly never have existed without the success of this show.

This commentary is on the premiere episode of “OZ” which is entitled “The Routine.” Written by Fontana and directed by Darnell Martin (“I Like It Like That”), it perfectly sets up the visual style which would quickly define the show and introduced us to a plethora of actors and actresses including Edie Falco, J.K. Simmons, Eamonn Walker, Harold Perrineau, and Kirk Acevedo. This episode also demonstrates quite dramatically how not a single character we see here will ever be safe. Anyone could die at any time, and this continually filled me with endless anxiety as a viewer.

Please check out the audio commentary below. “OZ” is available to stream on Max (formerly HBO Max) and to own and rent on DVD.

‘Homicide: Life on the Street’ Commentary on ‘Ghost of a Chance’

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

So here I am with another commentary track for an episode of “Homicide: Life on the Street.” This one is titled “Ghost of a Chance,” and it is the second episode of the first season. The story is by Tom Fontana, the teleplay was written by Noel Behn, and the episode was directed by Martin Campbell. Campbell would later go on to direct to James Bond films, “Goldeneye” and “Casino Royale.” After the brilliance of “Gone for Goode,” I wasn’t sure the next episode would be anywhere as good. Thankfully, it was.

“Ghost of a Chance” starts off with the murder of Adena Watson, the first case for rookie detective Tim Bayliss (Kyle Secor), and the one case which would haunt him the most throughout this series. There are also some other plotlines explored here. John Munch (Richard Belzer) and Stanley Bolander (Ned Beatty) investigate the death of Thomas Doohen whose widow, Jessie (Gwen Verdon), cannot wait to be rid of him, Kay Howard (Melissa Leo) and Beau Felton (Daniel Baldwin) work to find much-needed evidence in a murder case, and Bolander develops a crush on Carol Blythe (Wendy Hughes) which has him acting rather awkwardly.

We are also introduced to Officer Chris Thormann (Lee Tergesen), a character who will become especially important in later episodes.

Please check out the commentary below.

‘Homicide: Life on the Street’ Commentary on ‘Gone For Goode’

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

So here I am with another commentary track after the one I did for “Pump Up The Volume.” But this time, it is for an episode of one of my favorite television shows of all time, let alone of the 1990’s, “Homicide: Life on the Street.” Specifically, the commentary is on this show’s very first episode, “Gone For Goode,” which did a brilliant job of introducing us to various Homicide detectives, and also showed how it was not going to be your usual cop show. Instead, it was initially designed to be one without onscreen violence, something which executive producer and showrunner Tom Fontana thought was crazy, and he quickly signed up with the show as a result.

What hooked me onto this show was the fact it was being developed by Barry Levinson, the Oscar winning filmmaker of “Rain Man.” He also directed the “Gone For Goode” episode and introduced its cinematic style which no other director could direct their way out of.

With this commentary track, I express my thoughts on this episode and the show at large. Upon watching “Gone For Goode,” I was immediately hooked into what this groundbreaking series had to offer, and I did my best to provide as much trivia about its making as I could. I’m not sure there will ever be a perfect commentary track to anything unless it is done by Martin Scorsese or Bruce Campbell, but I would like to think this one comes close. If you say it does, it will do wonders for my fragile ego.

Please feel free to listen to the commentary track below as you watch this episode on your DVD player. At this time, “Homicide: Life on the Street” is not available to stream, most likely due to music rights, but you can purchase the complete series on DVD from Shout Factory. It was previously available in a box set from A&E Home Video, but it has long since gone out of print.