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"Night of the Dead Living" is the ninth episode and first season finale of the American police drama television series ''Homicide: Life on the Street''. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on March 31, 1993. In the episode, the homicide squad works the night shift on a summer evening, but no calls come in, leaving the detectives to brood over their personal matters. The teleplay was written by Frank Pugliese based on a story he wrote along with executive producer Tom Fontana. It was directed by Michael Lehmann. "Night of the Dead Living" was originally intended to be the third episode of the season, but NBC programmers moved it to the end of the season because they felt its slow pace and lack of traditional action was inappropriate early in the series, when the show was trying to woo viewers. The broadcast schedule change led to some consistency and time-line errors, which ''Homicide'' producers addressed by adding the words "One hot night, last September..." to the beginning of the episode. Actress N'Bushe Wright makes a guest appearance as a cleaning woman who loses her baby in the police station. Since ratings for ''Homicide'' had gradually declined throughout the season, NBC announced a decision about whether the series would be renewed would depend on the Nielsen ratings of the final four episodes, including "Night of the Dead Living". Nevertheless, it was seen by 6.7 million household viewers, marking one of the lowest viewerships of the season. It received generally positive reviews upon its original broadcast, although some mainstream television audiences were turned off by its minimalist approach. It marked the last original episode of ''Homicide'' for nine months until the second season premiere, "Bop Gun". The episode's teleplay won a Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Achievement in Television Writing for Episodic Drama. ==Plot summary== The episode begins with an unknown person lighting a candle in the homicide squadroom. One by one, the detectives arrive for the night shift on an unusually hot September evening. A furious Gee (Yaphet Kotto) calls maintenance to complain about the non-working air conditioner and learns it has been shut off for the night. Felton (Daniel Baldwin) and Lewis (Clark Johnson) try to find out who secretly lights the candle every night; they blow it out a number of times, but it always ends up lit again without anyone noticing. Munch (Richard Belzer) loudly complains about his ex-girlfriend breaking up with him. While the other detectives sweat and complain about the heat, a calm and comfortable Pembleton (Andre Braugher) wears a tie and drinks hot tea without sweating. Bayliss (Kyle Secor), who acts uncooperative with his partner Pembleton, says he has found the fingerprints of a man named James Hill who he believes is the murderer in the Adena Watson case. Officer Thormann (Lee Tergesen) brings in Hill, who turns out to be a 12-year-old boy (Kenny Blank), much to the amusement of the other detectives. The detectives are shocked at the lack of homicide-related calls they are receiving throughout the night. Bolander (Ned Beatty) tries several times throughout the night to call Medical Examiner Blythe (Wendy Hughes) and ask her out on a date, but he cannot build up the courage. With encouragement from Howard (Melissa Leo), he finally asks Blythe out and is shocked when she accepts. Crosetti (Jon Polito) gets agitated when his daughter calls and wants her boyfriend to sleep over. Gee comforts Crosetti and lets him go home to take care of her. Gee finds a baby boy in a small animal carrier-like cage on the bottom floor of the police department. The baby is very popular with the detectives, who take care of him while they wait for social services to arrive. After the social services worker takes the baby, the cleaning lady Loretta Kenyatta (N'Bushe Wright) hysterically screams somebody kidnapped her baby. The detectives get the baby back for her while Bayliss, infatuated with Loretta, listens to her talk about her life. Howard gets a call from her sister, who has recently found a tumor on her breast. The sister has just learned her husband has been having an affair. Although Howard is initially hesitant to confide in Felton, he eventually surprises her by offering genuine words of comfort. A drunken man dressed as Santa Claus (Cleve Wall) is arrested for threatening his wife and a crowd of people with a water pistol. Later, the detectives get a call that Santa Claus has escaped from custody in the department, and he is found after falling through the ceiling and landing on Munch's desk. Meanwhile, Pembleton and Bayliss discuss the Watson murder scene. Bayliss insists he has already gone over the information repeatedly, but Pembleton tells him he needs to think outside the box and approach it with from the mind-frame of a criminal. Later, Bayliss reexamines the information and realizes the killer brought Watson down a fire escape, offering a new lead in the case. As the new day dawns, Gee has the detectives assemble on the roof so he can spray them with a garden hose to cool them off. The episode ends with Munch revealing to Thormann that he lights the candle each night "for all the ones who have been killed," while Thormann admits that he re-lit it in Munch's absence because he knew it meant something to him. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Night of the Dead Living」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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