The fifth season of Homicide: Life on the Street

Homicide: Life on the Street

Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...

 aired in the United States on the NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 television network from 1996-09-20 to 1997-05-16 and contained 22 episodes. A new opening sequence debuted with the start of this season, including elements of a police investigation (murder weapon, dusting for fingerprints, etc.) and a growing chatter of radio transmissions behind the theme music. In addition, pictures of the actors were displayed alongside their names for the first time. The sequence ends with the ringing of the squadroom phone and a voice answering, "Homicide."

Two new characters appeared during this season: Chief Medical Examiner Julianna Cox

Julianna Cox

Julianna Cox is a fictional chief medical examiner in the TV show Homicide: Life on the Street for seasons 5-6, played by actress Michelle Forbes....

 (portrayed by Michelle Forbes

Michelle Forbes

Michelle Renee Forbes Guajardo , known professionally as Michelle Forbes, is an American actress who has built a career of work in television and independent film and has acted in productions in both the United States and in the United Kingdom...

); and Detective Terri Stivers

Terri Stivers

Terri Stivers is a fictional police detective of the Baltimore Police Department on Homicide: Life on the Street. She was played by actress Toni Lewis....

 (portrayed by Toni Lewis

Toni Lewis

Toni Lewis is an actress best known for playing Terri Stivers on Homicide: Life on the Street. The role led to her receiving a nomination for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series...

), a Narcotics officer who works with Homicide to bring down local drug kingpin Luther Mahoney. The season finale introduced Detective Paul Falsone

Paul Falsone

Paul Falsone is a fictional police detective of the Baltimore Police Department on Homicide: Life on the Street. He was played by Jon Seda. Born on January 6, 1969, Falsone was introduced as a long-time member of the Auto Squad at the end of Season 5, where his natural talents proved useful in...

 (portrayed by Jon Seda

Jon Seda

Jonathan Seda is an American actor, possibly best known for his role as Detective Paul Falsone on NBC's: Homicide: Life on the Street....

), a member of the Auto Squad briefly on loan to Homicide, and re-introduced Stuart Gharty

Stuart Gharty

Stuart Gharty is a fictional character played by Peter Gerety in the television series Homicide: Life on the Street.He is introduced in the season four one-shot episode "Scene of the Crime", as a cowardly patrolman who allows two drug dealers to murder each other rather than venture into a housing...

 (portrayed by Peter Gerety

Peter Gerety

Peter Gerety is an American actor.Gerety began acting while a student at Boston University, participating in productions at the Charles Playhouse. In 1965, he joined the Trinity Square Repertory Company, a resident theater company in Providence, Rhode Island where he appeared in over 125...

), now a detective assigned to Internal Investigations.

The DVD box set of season 5 was released for Region 1 on 2004-09-28. The set includes all 22 season 5 episodes on six discs.

List of episodes

#	Episode	Director	Writer(s)	Original air date	Production code