The Wire - Show News, Reviews, Recaps and Photos - TV.com EDIT In chronicling a multi-generational family business dealing illegal drugs and the efforts of the Baltimore police to curb their trade, this series draws parallels between these organizations and the men and women on either side of the battle. The words of Gary W. Potter, Professor of Criminal Justice and Police Studies at Eastern Kentucky University, in writing about the savings and loan scandals of the 1980s, can also be used to illuminate some of the central premises of the show: "There is precious little difference between those people who society designates as respectable and law abiding and those people society castigates as hoodlums and thugs. The world of corporate finance and corporate capital is as criminogenic and probably more criminogenic than any poverty-wracked slum neighborhood. The distinctions drawn between business, politics, and organized crime are at best artificial and in reality irrelevant.

Rather than being dysfunctions, corporate crime, white-collar crime, organized crime, and political corruption are mainstays of American political-economic life." Tim Goodman, the television critic for The San Francisco Chronicle, summed the show up perfectly when he wrote: "This show is precisely the reason you pay for HBO." In New York's Newsday, Diane Werts says: "Most TV crime series aspire to John Grisham's level. 'The Wire' aspires to Dostoevsky's." Season Themes Season One centers around a family of drug dealers and the innerworkings of their empire. It also follows the detectives who are trying to catch the high members of the empire. Season Two steps away from the drug trade (while still mentioning characters from the previous season) to a case of dead prostitutes which turns into a look at the corruption surrounding the Port. Season Three investigates politics and finishes the main stories that were left open in season one. Season Four focuses on four middle school students and their journeys through the public school system and continues to address the politics of an inner-city and the issues of an election. Season Five is rumored to be about the media's role in Baltimore. Season Five will be the show's final season.

Theme Music In the Season One opening credits, the Blind Boys of Alabama did Tom Waits's "Way Down in the Hole". The Season Two opening credits feature Waits's version of the song. According to creator David Simon, "It was our way of saying: This is the same show (song) but this year, the tale itself (singer, tonality) will be different." The Neville Brothers's version of the song opens Season Three. The theme which plays over the end credits was composed by the show's music supervisor, Blake Leyh. International Airings Australia -- Monday at 12:00 p.m. on Ch.9. Currently airing Season 3. New Zealand -- Wednesday at 11:40 p.m. on TV2, beginning December 15, 2004.

moreless By fish1413 Aug 16, 2013 Story By Kaitlin Thomas Oct 10, 2013 Story The Wire Community - TV.com Show Summary In chronicling a multi-generational family business dealing illegal drugs and the efforts of the Baltimore police to curb their trade, this series draws parallels between these organizations and the men and women on either side of the battle. The words of Gary W. Potter, Professor of Criminal Justice and Police Studies at Eastern Kentucky University, in writing about the savings and loan scandals of the 1980s, can also be used to illuminate some of the central premises of the show: "There is precious little difference between those people who society designates as respectable and law abiding and those people society castigates as hoodlums and thugs. The world of corporate finance and corporate capital is as criminogenic and probably more criminogenic than any poverty-wracked slum neighborhood. The distinctions drawn between business, politics, and organized crime are at best artificial and in reality irrelevant.

Rather than being dysfunctions, corporate crime, white-collar crime, organized crime, and political corruption are mainstays of American political-economic life." Tim Goodman, the television critic for The San Francisco Chronicle, summed the show up perfectly when he wrote: "This show is precisely the reason you pay for HBO." In New York's Newsday, Diane Werts says: "Most TV crime series aspire to John Grisham's level. 'The Wire' aspires to Dostoevsky's." Season Themes Season One centers around a family of drug dealers and the innerworkings of their empire. It also follows the detectives who are trying to catch the high members of the empire. Season Two steps away from the drug trade (while still mentioning characters from the previous season) to a case of dead prostitutes which turns into a look at the corruption surrounding the Port. Season Three investigates politics and finishes the main stories that were left open in season one. Season Four focuses on four middle school students and their journeys through the public school system and continues to address the politics of an inner-city and the issues of an election. Season Five is rumored to be about the media's role in Baltimore. Season Five will be the show's final season.

Theme Music In the Season One opening credits, the Blind Boys of Alabama did Tom Waits's "Way Down in the Hole". The Season Two opening credits feature Waits's version of the song. According to creator David Simon, "It was our way of saying: This is the same show (song) but this year, the tale itself (singer, tonality) will be different." The Neville Brothers's version of the song opens Season Three. The theme which plays over the end credits was composed by the show's music supervisor, Blake Leyh. International Airings Australia -- Monday at 12:00 p.m. on Ch.9. Currently airing Season 3. New Zealand -- Wednesday at 11:40 p.m. on TV2, beginning December 15, 2004. moreless David Simon | The Wire | Fandom powered by Wikia Simon graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park. While at college he wrote for the campus paper and became friends with his contemporary David Mills . [1] Journalism Edit Upon leaving college he worked as a police reporter at The Baltimore Sun from 1983 to 1995.

[2] He spent most of his career covering the crime beat. [2] [3] A colleague has said that Simon loved journalism and felt it was "God's work". [3] Simon claims that he was initially altruistic and was inspired to enter journalism by the Washington Post's coverage of Watergate but became increasingly pragmatic as he gained experience. [3] His main aim later in his career was to tell the best possible story without cheating it. [3] He was a Union Captain when the writing staff went on strike in 1987 over cuts in their benefits. [4] When the strike ended he remained angry and began to feel uncomfortable in the writing room. [4] He searched for a reason to justify a leave of absence and settled on the idea of writing a novel. [4] Homicide:A Year on the Killing Streets Main article: Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets The leave of absence resulted in Simon's first book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991). The book was based on his experiences shadowing the members of the Baltimore Police Department homicide unit for the year of 1988.

[2] The idea came from a conversation on Christmas Eve 1985 in the unit office where an associate named Brian Landry told him that he would read a book chronicling their activities for a year. [4] Simon approached the editors of the paper and the police department and received their approval. He initially faced negative reactions from the detectives but he persevered in "seeming like part of the furniture" going as far as cutting his long hair and they slowly accepted him. [3] The book won the 1992 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime book. [5] Simon credits his time researching the book as altering his writing style and informing later work. He learned to be more patient both in research and in his writing. [3] He also says a key lesson was not promoting himself but concentrating on his subjects. [3] Homicide: Life on the Street Main article: Homicide: Life on the Street The publishers of Homicide:A Year on the Killing Streets were eager for a screen adaptation and submitted it to numerous directors but there was little interest. [4] Simon suggested that they send the book to Baltimore native and film director Barry Levinson.

Levinson's assistant Gail Mutrix enjoyed the book and both she and Levinson became attached as producers. [4] The project became the award-winning TV series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-1999), on which Simon worked as a writer and producer. [2] Simon was asked to write the show's pilot episode by Mutrix but declined as he felt he did not have the necessary expertise. [6] He collaborated with his old college friend David Mills to write the season two premiere "Bop Gun". [3] [7] The episode was based on a story by executive producer Tom Fontana and featured Robin Williams in a guest starring role that garnered the actor an emmy nomination. Simon and Mills won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Writing in a Drama for "Bop Gun". [3] Simon left his job with the Baltimore Sun in 1995 to work full time on Homicide: Life on the Street during the production of the show's fourth season. Simon wrote the teleplay for the season four episodes "Justice: Part 2" [8] and "Scene of the Crime".

[9] For season five he was the show's story editor and continued to contribute teleplays writing the episodes "Bad Medicine" [10] and "Wu's on First?" [11] He was credited as a producer on the shows sixth and seventh series. He wrote the teleplays for parts two and three of the sixth season premiere "Blood Ties" [12] [13] and provided the story for the later sixth season episodes "Full Court Press" [14] and "Finnegan's Wake". [15] He provided the story for the seventh season episodes "Shades of Gray" (with Julie Martin), [16] "The Same Coin" (with James Yoshimura) [17] and "Self Defense" (with Eric Overmyer). [18] Simon wrote the story and teleplay for the seventh season episodes "The Twenty Percent Solution" [19] and "Sideshow: Part 2". [20] Simon, Martin and teleplay writer TJ English won the Humanitas Prize for the episode "Shades of Gray".

[21] Simon was nominated for a second WGA Award for Best Writing in a Drama for his work on "Finnegan's Wake" with Yoshimura and Mills (who wrote the teleplay). [22] Simon has said that he thought the show was a "remarkable drama" but that it did not reflect the book. [4] He has also said that when writing for the show he had to put his experiences of the real detectives aside as the characters became quite different, particularly in terms of their more philosophical approach to the job. [6] Simon said that TV must find shorthand ways of referencing anything real. [3] The Corner Main article: The Corner In 1997 he co-authored, with Ed Burns , The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood , the true account of a West Baltimore community dominated by a heavy drug market. [23] [24] Simon credits his editor John Sterling with the suggestion that he observe a single drug corner. [2] He took a second leave of absence from the Baltimore Sun in 1993 to research the project.

[3] [25] Simon became close to one of his subjects, drug addict Gary McCullough, and was devastated by his death while he was writing the project. [3] Simon says that he approached the research with the abstract idea that his subjects may die because of their addictions but it was not possible to fully prepare for the reality. [3] He remains grateful to his subjects saying "This involved people's whole lives, there's no privacy in it. That was an enormous gift which many, many people gave us. Even the most functional were at war with themselves. But they were not foolish people. And they made that choice." [3] The Corner was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times. [26] Simon again returned to his journalism career after finishing the book but felt further changed by his experiences. He said he was less enamoured with the bragadiccio of the writers room and no longer believed that they were making a difference; he left his job at The Sun within a year for work on NBC's Homicide. [3] Soon after Homicide concluded Simon co-wrote (with David Mills) and produced The Corner as a six-hour TV miniseries for HBO .

[4] The show received three Emmy Awards , including Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or a Movie, for Simon and Mills. [4] The Wire Main article: The Wire (TV series) Currently he serves as the creator, executive producer , and head writer of the HBO drama series The Wire . [25] Many of The Wire's characters and incidents also come from Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. [27] After a critically acclaimed fourth season, Simon has signed on to produce a fifth and final season of The Wire which will focus on the role of mass media in society. [28] He again worked with Ed Burns on creating the show. They originally set out to create a police drama loosely based on the experiences of Burns when working on protracted investigations of violent drug dealers using surveillance technology. During this time Burns had often faced frustration with the bureaucracy of the police department, which Simon equated with his own ordeals as a police reporter for the Baltimore Sun .

Writing against the background of current events, including institutionalized corporate crime at Enron and institutional dysfunction in the Catholic Church, the show became "more of a treatise about institutions and individuals than a straight cop show." [29] They chose to take The Wire to HBO because of their existing working relationship from the The Corner . Owing to its reputation for exploring new areas, HBO was initially dubious about including a cop drama in their lineup, but eventually agreed to produce the pilot [29] [30] after ordering a further two scripts to see how the series would progress. [31] Carolyn Strauss president of HBO entertainment has said that Simon's argument that the most subversive thing HBO could do was invade the networks "backyard" of police procedurals helped to persuade them. [2] The theme of institutional dysfucntion was expanded across different areas of the city as the show progressed. The second season focused on the death of working class America through examination of the city ports.

[32] The third season "reflects on the nature of reform and reformers, and whether there is any possibility that political processes, long calcified, can mitigate against the forces currently arrayed against individuals." [32] For the fourth season Simon again turned to Burns experience, this time his second career as a Baltimore public school teacher in examining the theme of education. [2] [33] Simon was reunited with his Corner producers Robert F. Colesberry and Nina K. Noble on The Wire. [28] Simon credits Colesberry for achieving the show's realistic visual feel because of his experience as a director. [34] They recruited Homicide star and director Clark Johnson to helm the pilot episode. [34] The completed pilot was given to HBO in November 2001. [31] Johnson returned to direct the second episode when the show was picked up. [34] Simon approached acclaimed crime fiction authors to write for The Wire. He was recommended the work of George Pelecanos by a colleague while working at the Baltimore Sun because of similarities between their writing.

The two writers have much in common including a childhood in Silver Springs, attendance at the University of Maryland and their interst in the "fate of the American city and the black urban poor." [31] Simon did not read Pelecanos initially because of territorial prejudice; Pelecanos is from Washington. [4] Once Simon received further recommendations including one from his wife Laura Lippman he tried Pelecanos' novel The Sweet Forever and changed his mind. [31] He sought out Pelecanos when recruiting writers for The Wire. The two met at the funeral of a mutual friend shortly after Simon delivered the pilot episode. [31] Simon pitched Pelecanos the idea of The Wire as a novel for televion about the American city as Pelecanos drove him home. [31] Pelecanos became a regular writer [35] and later a producer for the shows second [36] and third seasons. [37] Simon and Pelcanos collaborated to write the episode " Middle Ground " [38] [39] which received the show's only Emmy nomination to date, in the category Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series .

[40] Pelecanos left the production staff following the third season to focus on his next novel; Simon has commented that he missed having him working on the show full-time but was pleased that he continued to write for them and was a fan of the resultant book The Night Gardener . [41] Similar to Simon's own experience in researching Homicide Pelecanos spent time embedded with the Washington DC homicide unit to research the book. Crime novelist Dennis Lehane has also written for the series starting with third season. [42] [37] Lehane has commented that he was impressed by Simon and Burns' ear for authentic street slang. [31] Eric Overmyer was brought in to fill the role of Pelecanos as a full-time writer producer. [41] [43] He had previously worked with Simon on Homicide where the two became friends. [41] Simon has said that he was impressed with Overmyers writing particularly in synthesising the story for " Margin of Error " as the episode is the height of the show's political storyline but must also progress other plot threads.

[41] Simon has stated that he finds working with HBO more comfortable than his experiences with NBC on Homicide and that HBO are able to allow greater creative control because they are dependent on subscribers rather than on viewing figures. [23] He has said that he feels unable to return to network television because he felt pressure to compromise storytelling for audience satisfaction. [4] Future projects Edit Simon is also producing and writing an adaptation of Generation Kill for HBO with Ed Burns . [44] Simon has written a teleplay about bluesman Muddy Waters that has not been produced. [3] He has mentioned plans to write another book; potentially about the rise of drug use in the 1950s and 1970s. [4] Simon continues to work as a freelance journalist and author, writing for The Washington Post , The New Republic , and Details magazine. [25] Simon is collaborating with Eric Overmyer again on a project about musicians in post-Katrina New Orleans. [31] Overmyer lives part-time in New Orleans and Simon believes his experience will be valuable in navigating the "ornate oral tradition" of the city's stories.

[31] The show will focus on a working class neighborhood and will be smaller in scope than The Wire. [41] [31] HBO have comissioned a pilot episode of the series but it has not received a "green-light". [41] Personal life David Simon is married to Baltimore novelist and former Sun reporter Laura Lippman . Writing process and characteristics Edit Simon is known for his realistic dialogue and journalistic approach to writing. [31] He says that authenticity is paramount and that he writes not with a general audience in mind but with the opinions of his subjects as his priority. [31] Credits Homicide: Life on the Street | The Wire | Fandom powered by Wikia Homicide: Life on the Street 625pages on Share Homicide: Life on the Street is a highly acclaimed American television police procedural series chronicling the work of a fictional Baltimore Police Department homicide unit. The series was based on David Simon 's nonfiction book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets , and many characters and stories used throughout the show's seven seasons were based on individuals and events depicted in the book.

It ran for seven seasons on the NBC network from 1993 to 1999 and then was followed by a 2000 TV-movie that served as a de facto series finale. Contents Edit Clark Johnson plays Detective Meldrick Lewis on Homicide and City Desk Editor Gus Haynes on The Wire. Clark Johnson got his directing debut on Homicide and directed the pilot episode and finale of The Wire. Richard Belzer plays John Munch on Homicide and appeared as a bar patron in The Wire. The cameo is identified as Munch by many people because Belzer's lines included mention of previously owning a bar but this has not been confirmed by the show's creators. Callie Thorne plays Detective Laura Ballard on Homicide and Elena McNulty on The Wire. Peter Gerety plays Detective Stuart Gharty on Homicide and Judge Daniel Phelan on The Wire. Toni Lewis plays Detective Terri Stivers on Homicide and an FBI agent on The Wire. Other police Edit Clayton LeBouef plays Colonel George Barnfather on Homicide and strip club front man Wendell "Orlando" Blocker on The Wire.

Gary D'Addario plays QRT commander Lieutenant Jasper on Homicide and Grand Jury Prosecutor Gary DiPasquale on The Wire. He was the inspiration for the character Al Giardello on Homicide. Charley Scalies plays Sergeant Sal Burns on Homicide and stevedore Thomas "Horseface" Pakusa on The Wire. Cleo Reginald Pizana plays Detective Bob Connelly on Homicide and Mayoral Chief of Staff Coleman Parker on The Wire. Dave Trovato plays Officer Mike Graul on Homicide and Lieutenant (later Major) Cantrell on The Wire. Jay Spadaro plays Officer Jay Salerno on Homicide and played a uniformed officer on The Wire. Michael Ahl plays Officer Phatt on Homicide and a narcotics detective on The Wire. Joe Gerety plays FBI Agent Stampers on Homicide and a state trooper on The Wire. Al Brown appears uncredited as a Deputy City Sherrif in the season 3 Homicide episode "Every Mother's Son" and Major (later Deputy Commissioner) Stan Valchek on The Wire. Alan J. Wendl plays a desk sergeant on both Homicide and The Wire.

Keith Johnson plays a uniformed officer on Homicide and a desk sergeant on The Wire. Pete Burris guest starred in the season 5 Homicide episode "White Lies" as the polygraph examiner and appeared uncredited in the season 1 The Wire finale " Sentencing " as a federal judge. Criminals Edit Erik Todd Dellums plays drug kingpin Luther Mahoney on Homicide and Dr. Randall Frazier on The Wire. Robert F. Chew plays drug dealer Wilkie Collins in season 6 of Homicide and Proposition Joe on The Wire. Larry Hull plays Charles Flavin on Homicide and William Gant on The Wire. Tim McAdams plays James Douglas on Homcide and a motorist and school teacher on The Wire. Benjamin Busch plays internet killer Luke Ryland on Homicide and Officer Anthony Colicchio on The Wire. Antonio D. Charity plays stick-up man Marvin AKA Kid Funkadelic in the Homicide episdoe "Bop Gun" and Corrections Officer Dwight Tilghman on The Wire. Reg E. Cathey plays drug dealer Bernard Weeks in the Homicide episode "Full Court Press" and political aide Norman Wilson on The Wire.

J.D. Williams plays Damon "Casper" Kelly in the Homicide episode "The Why Chromosome" and drug dealer Bodie Broadus on The Wire. Others Edit Larry Gilliard, Jr. plays William Lyness in the Homicide episode "Dog and Pony Show" and drug dealer D'Angelo Barksdale on The Wire. Michael Willis plays Attorney Darin Russom on Homicide and politically connected property developer Andy Krawczyk on The Wire. Jim True-Frost plays George Buxton in the Homicide episode "Stakeout" and detective turned teacher Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski in The Wire. Michael Salconi plays a barman called Alfred in the Homicide episodes "Thrill of the Kill" and "Wu's on First", and Officer Michael Santangelo on The Wire. Nath Benchley plays a bartender in the Homicide episodes "Self Defense" and "Fallen Heroes: Part 2" and Detective Augustus Polk on The Wire. Tom Quinn plays Tom Rath in the Homicide episode "The Heart of a Saturday Night" and Detective Patrick Mahon on The Wire.

Doug Roberts plays Donalad Tochterhagen on Homicide and State's Attorney Steven Demper on The Wire. Donald Neal plays Augie Distel on Homicide and rewrite man Jay Spry on The Wire. Thomas J. McCarthy plays Bob Parker in the Homicide episode "Wu's on First" and State Desk Editor Tim Phelps on The Wire. Mary Beth Wise plays Beth Felton on Homicide and surveillance detail member Karen on The Wire. Angel M. Wainwright plays Shy K on Homicide and Tywanda on The Wire. Joey Perillo plays Bernard Munch on Homicide and a medical examiner on The Wire. Kay Lawal plays Rose Landry in the Homicide episdoe "Bop Gun" and a Western district community member in the third season of The Wire (she was credited for the role in the episode "Middle Ground"). Dick Stilwell plays Congressman Jerry Wade in the Homicide episode "Cradle to Grave" and police commissioner Warren Frazier in The Wire episode "The Hunt".

Christopher Glenn Wilson plays Timothy Draper in the Homicide episode "Cradle to Grave" and a DEA agent in The Wire episodes "The Cost" and "The Hunt". Kevin Murray plays Malcolm in the Homicide episode "Partners" and Frederick Mapes in the Homicide episode "Lies and Other Truths" and FBI Agent Kleary in season 2 of The Wire. Jill Redding plays Mrs. Krebs in the Homicide episode "The Old and the Dead" and bar owner Delores season 2 of The Wire. Duane Chandler Rawlings plays Leon in the Homicide episode "Heartbeat" and Co-Op Kingpin Hungry Man in The Wire. J. Valenteen Gregg plays Jerome in the Homicide episode "Requiem for Adena" and stevedore Moonshot in season 2 of The Wire. Barry Bradford plays a drug dealer in the Homicide episode "Scene of the Crime" and a Barksdale stash house man in The Wire episode "The Cost". Kevin Jiggers plays Raheem in the Homicide episode "Scene of the Crime" and Frommers in season 2 of The Wire. Jim Scopelitis plays Dr.

Siegel in the Homicide episode "The Heart of a Saturday Night" and a banker in The Wire episode "Not for Attribution". Tony Tsendeas plays Gary Swim in the Homicide episode "The Heart of a Saturday Night" and a homeless man in The Wire episode "React Quotes". R. Emery Bright plays Julius J. Cummings in the Homicide episode "Blood Wedding" and the Western district community relations sergeant in season 3 of The Wire. Christopher Mann plays Antonio Brookdale in the Homicide episode "Deception" and councilman Anthony Gray on The Wire. Kurt L. Schmoke plays himself (as the Mayor of Baltimore) in the Homicide episode "Partners and other Strangers" and the Homicide movie and plays the health commissioner in season 3 of The Wire. Dion Graham plays Curtis Lambright in the Homicide episode "Saigon Rose" and State's Attorney Rupert Bond on The Wire. Bobby J. Brown plays Terry in the Homicide episode "Closet Cases" and Officer Bobby Brown on The Wire.

Jeorge Watson plays Tricky in the Homicide episode "Sins of the Father" and Barksdale drug dealer Marvin Browning in season 1 of The Wire. Maria Broom plays Suzanne Taylor in the season 7 Homicide episode "Just an Old Fashioned Love Song" and councilwoman Marla Daniels in The Wire. Wendy Grantham has an uncredited role as Carrie Coleman in the season 7 Homicide episode "Just an Old Fashioned Love Song" and a recurring role as Shardene Innes in The Wire. Joseph Urla plays Jake Benedeck in the Homicide episode "The Twenty Percent Solution" and the Maryland District US Attorney in season 5 of The Wire. David Simon has a cameo as a suspect in the Homicide episode "Wanted Dead or Alive: Part 1" and a cameo as a reporter in season 2 of The Wire. He wrote the novel that inspired Homicide ( Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets ) and later served as a writer and producer on the series. Amy Ryan played Erika Cullen in the Homicide episode "A Case of Do or Die" and Beadie Russell on The Wire.

Terrence Currier guest starred as Charles Devlin in the season 6 Homicide episode "Finnegan's Wake" and appeared uncredited as Roy Brown in the season 1 The Wire episode " Sentencing ". Kirk Penberthy guest starred in the season 6 Homicide episode "Closet Cases" as Sam Farrell and appears uncredited as FBI Agent Arnold D. Paulette in the season 1 The Wire finale " Sentencing ". Gil Deeble played Robert Dawson in the season 7 Homicide episode "Zen and the Art of Murder" and drug addict Hucklebuck on The Wire. Brian Anthony Wilson played Diner #1 in the Homicide episode "Identity Crisis" and homicide Detective Vernon Holley in The Wire. Lawrence Cameron Steele played a detective in the Homicide episode "The Why Chromosome" and a Western district shift lieutenant in season 3 of The Wire. Mark Joy plays Nathan Stiegler in Homicide: The Movie and property developed Ed Bowers in The Wire. David E. Goodman appears uncredited as a surgeon in Homicide: The Movie and the Mayor's budget advisor in seasons 3 to 5 of The Wire.

William Shipman appears uncredited as a Muslim in Homicide: The Movie and did background work as a police officer on The Wire. John Bobby did background work on both series according to IMDb. Aaron Michael Lacey did background work on both series according to IMDb. Shared crew members Edit The publishers of Simon's book Homicide:A Year on the Killing Streets were eager for a screen adaptation and submitted it to numerous directors but there was little interest. [1] Simon suggested that they send the book to Baltimore native and film director Barry Levinson . Levinson's assistant Gail Mutrix enjoyed the book and both she and Levinson became attached as producers. [1] The project became the award-winning TV series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-1999), on which Simon worked as a writer and producer. [2] Despite providing then source material for the show Simon was not credited as the series creator - Paul Attansio was given that credit. Simon was asked to write the show's pilot episode by Mutrix but declined as he felt he did not have the necessary expertise. [3] He collaborated with his old college friend David Mills to write the season two premiere "Bop Gun".

[4] [5] The episode was based on a story by executive producer Tom Fontana and featured Robin Williams in a guest starring role that garnered the actor an Emmy nomination. Simon and Mills won the WGA Award for Best Writing in a Drama for "Bop Gun". [4] Simon left his job with the Baltimore Sun in 1995 to work full time on Homicide: Life on the Street during the production of the show's fourth season. Simon wrote the teleplay for the season four episodes "Justice: Part 2" [6] and "Scene of the Crime" (with Anya Epstein ). [7] For season five he was the show's story editor and continued to contribute teleplays writing the episodes "Bad Medicine" [8] and "Wu's on First?" (again with Epstein). [9] He was credited as a producer on the shows sixth and seventh series.

He wrote the teleplays for parts two and three of the sixth season premiere "Blood Ties" [10] [11] (the latter marking his third collaboration with Epstein) and provided the story for the later sixth season episodes "Full Court Press" [12] and "Finnegan's Wake" (with James Yoshimura ). [13] He provided the story for the seventh season episodes "Shades of Gray" (with Julie Martin ), [14] "The Same Coin" (again with Yoshimura) [15] and "Self Defense" (with Eric Overmyer ). [16] Simon wrote the story and teleplay for the seventh season episodes "The Twenty Percent Solution" [17] and "Sideshow: Part 2". [18] Simon, Martin and teleplay writer T. J. English won the Humanitas Prize for the episode "Shades of Gray". [19] Simon was nominated for a second WGA Award for Best Writing in a Drama for his work on "Finnegan's Wake" with Yoshimura and Mills (who wrote the teleplay).

[20] Simon has said that he thought the show was a "remarkable drama" but that it did not reflect the book. [1] He has also said that when writing for the show he had to put his experiences of the real detectives aside as the characters became quite different, particularly in terms of their more philosophical approach to the job. [3] Simon said that TV must find shorthand ways of referencing anything real. [4] Eric Overmyer Edit Overmyer joined the Homicide writing staff in the shows fourth season. He wrote a single episode in the fourth and fifth season. He became a consulting producer for the shows sixth season and continued to write episodes. He became a supervising producer for the seventh season and continued to write episodes. Overmyer was brought in as a consulting producer and writer for the fourth season of The Wire. Writers As already noted David Simon wrote for both series. As already noted Eric Overmyer wrote for both series. David Mills wrote for Homicide and joined the writing staff of The Wire in the fourth season. Joy Lusco Kecken began her career as an assistant to Homicide producer Henry Brommell and later wrote two episodes of Homicide.

She wrote for the first three seasons of The Wire before returning as an episodic director for the fifth season. Rafael Alvarez wrote an episode of Homicide and wrote for the first three seasons of The Wire. Shamit Choksey worked as a writer's assistant on Homicide and co-wrote a first season episode of The Wire. Directors Tim Van Patten directed several episodes of both series. Ed Bianchi directed several episodes of both series. Alex Zakrzewski was a director of photography on Homicide and later an episodic director on The Wire. Nina K. Noble served as a unit production manager and first assistant director on Homicide and became a producer and eventually an executive producer on The Wire. Ivan J. Fonesca has worked as an assistant director on both series. Frank Ferro has worked as an assistant director on both series. Other crew Edit Vince Peranio served as the production designer on both series. Brook Yeaton served as the property master on Homicide as an on-set dresser on The Wire. He also had a recurring role on The Wire as drug dealer "White" Mike McArdle .

Jeffrey Pratt Gordon served as the second props assistant on Homcide and the property master on The Wire. He had a recurring role on The Wire as stevedore Johnny "Fifty" Spamanato . Pat Moran was the Baltimore casting director for both series. Real police lieutenant Gary D'Addario served as a techinical consultant for both series. As noted earlier he had a recurring role on both series. References 101 Best Written TV Series 101 Best Written TV Series Dashboard 1 THE SOPRANOS Created by David Chase A mobster in therapy, having problems with his mother," was how The Sopranos initially sparked, according to creator David Chase, though he was thinking about the premise for a feature film. 2 SEINFELD Created by Larry David & Jerry Seinfeld At the end of Seinfeld's run, Jerry Seinfeld commented that one of the more underrated aspects of his show was the number of its locations and sets, creating a sense of indoor-outdoor movement unusual for a multi-camera sitcom.

3 THE TWILIGHT ZONE Season One writers: Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, Robert Presnell, Jr., Rod Serling No show in the history of television has lingered in the imagination quite like Rod Serling's anthology series, which could function both as a science fiction chiller and an issues-driven examination of human behavior and moral complexities, with climactic twists. 4 ALL IN THE FAMILY Developed for Television by Norman Lear, Based on Till Death Do Us Part, Created by Johnny Speight Asked how he'd been able to be so controversial on All in the Family, creator Norman Lear said to the WGAW Web site in 2009: "I don't really know how to explain it. It took me three years to get All in the Family on the air. Let me put it that way." Developed for Television by Larry Gelbart M*A*S*H remains the only long-running series, comedy or drama, set around a war zone. 6 THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW Created by James L.

Brooks and Allan Burns The MTM brand, under Moore and then-husband Grant Tinker, was responsible for an iconic run of comedies (and dramas) in the 1970s, beginning with The Mary Tyler Moore Show, an updating of the workplace sitcom set at a Minneapolis TV station where Mary Richards (Moore) was a news writer and producer. 7 MAD MEN Created by Matthew Weiner Matt Weiner wrote the Mad Men pilot nearly a decade before it found a home as the first scripted drama at AMC, where the series debuted in the summer of 2007 and quickly took hold of the imagination with its evocation of Madison Avenue and the country as the turbulent 1960s dawn. 8 CHEERS Created by Glen Charles & Les Charles and James Burrows The qualities that made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a seminal sitcom in the 1970s gave Cheers the same importance to the '80s. 10 THE WEST WING Created by Aaron Sorkin "The people who get angry at us on one Wednesday night will be standing up and cheering the next Wednesday night," Aaron Sorkin wrote in Written By before The West Wing premiered.

11 THE SIMPSONS Created by Matt Groening, Developed by James L. Brooks and Matt Groening and Sam Simon The Simpsons is as ineffable as American humor gets. Among the show's landmarks (hitting 100 episodes, then 200, then 500) was the inclusion of Homer's exclamation, "Doh!" in the Oxford English Dictionary ("used to comment on a foolish or stupid action, especially one's own"). 12 I LOVE LUCY "Pilot," Written by Jess Oppenheimer & Madelyn Pugh & Bob Carroll, Jr. Though the show won an Emmy as Best Comedy, the writers were never so honored (in fairness, the Emmy for sitcom writing didn't exist until 1955). 13 BREAKING BAD Created by Vince Gilligan Creator Vince Gilligan said he was joking with Tom Schnauz that the two former X-Files writers might have to rent an RV and cook crystal meth if their stalled Hollywood careers didn't turn around.

14 THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW Created by Carl Reiner Carl Reiner has said he based his first sitcom on his experiences as a writer on Your Show of Shows, working for temperamental star Sid Caesar while also trying to be a husband and father. 15 HILL STREET BLUES Created by Michael Kozoll and Steven Bochco Low rated in its infancy, Hill Street Blues broke as many TV storytelling rules as its ultimate success helped establish for cop shows. 16 ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT Created by Mitchell Hurwitz Mitchell Hurwitz offered a glimpse into his take on the family sitcom when he spoke of his own parents' refusal to "quietly disappear into their middle age." 17 THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART Created by Madeleine Smithberg, Lizz Winstead; Head Writer: Chris Kreski; Writers: Jim Earl, Daniel J. Goor, Charles Grandy, J.R.

Havlan, Tom Johnson, Kent Jones, Paul Mercurio, Guy Nicolucci, Steve Rosenfield, Jon Stewart It began as The Daily Show (hosted by Craig Kilborn) in 1996, became The Daily Show (hosted by Jon Stewart) in 1999, and is now just as often referred to as Jon Stewart as its official title, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. 18 SIX FEET UNDER Created by Alan Ball Alan Ball pushed dramatic television into uncharted territory with his series about the Fishers and their Los Angeles funeral home. 19 TAXI Created by James L. Brooks and Stan Daniels and David Davis and Ed. Weinberger Post-Mary Tyler Moore Show, James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels, Ed. Weinberger and David Davis left MTM, formed their own company, and sold Taxi to Paramount (according to TV.com, Brooks and Davis bought back the option to a New York magazine article about night-shift cab drivers from MTM's Grant Tinker).

20 THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW Created by Garry Shandling & Dennis Klein Having lampooned himself and sitcoms generally on the meta It's Garry Shandling's Show, Shandling this time trained his comedic radar onto the fear and self-loathing backstage at a late-night talk show. 21 30 ROCK Created by Tina Fey Tina Fey's canny take-off on her former life as head writer on Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock was initially viewed as "too inside" for a mass audience, a behind-the-scenes look at a sketch show, with Fey playing showrunner Liz Lemon and Tracy Morgan as Tracy Jordan, the hard-to-control comedy star brought in to juice ratings. 22 FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS Developed by Television by Peter Berg, Inspired by the Book by H.G. Bissinger Peter Berg wrote and directed the pilot of a show that was the second adaptation of H.G. Bissinger's non-fiction narrative about the impact of high school football on the hearts, minds, and lives in small-town Dillon, Texas.

23 FRASIER Created by David Angell & Peter Casey & David Lee, Based on the character "Frasier Crane" created by Glen Charles & Les Charles The Grub Street Productions team of Casey-Angell-Lee furthered the work they'd done on Cheers by moving psychologist Frasier Crane from Boston to Seattle and giving him a radio call-in show. 24 FRIENDS Created by Marta Kauffman & David Crane Co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane met in the theater program at Brandeis; by the time they created Friends, they had added a third partner, Kevin Bright, with whom they'd worked on the pilot of the HBO series Dream On. 25 SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Season One writers: Anne Beatts, Chevy Chase, Al Franken, Lorne Michaels, Marilyn Suzanne Miller, Paul Mooney, Garrett Morris, Michael O'Donoghue, Herb Sargent, Tom Schiller, Rosie Shuster, Alan Zweibel In his 2009 memoir, writer-performer Tom Davis conjures the small gang of writers standing outside Lorne Michaels' office at the inception of SNL in July of 1975.

26 THE X-FILES Created by Chris Carter Fox's signature drama for most of the '90s, The X-Files, created by Chris Carter, was one of primetime television's all-time great hit science-fiction series, although to call it sci-fi is requires qualifying that it delved into the paranormal and the conspiratorial. 27 LOST Created by Jeffrey Lieber and J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof A pastiche of genres sci-fi, James Bond movies, action, adventure, and thriller co-mingled to intoxicating effect on Lost. 28 ER Created Michael Crichton The show that launched George Clooney's career had a 20-year gestation period between the time Michael Crichton first wrote the pilot in 1974 and John Wells guided it to the top of the ratings in the mid-1990s. 29 THE COSBY SHOW Created by Ed Weinberger & Michael Leeson and William Cosby, Jr., Ed. D. Bill Cosby's return to network television caused a new vogue for sitcoms based closely on the act of a stand-up comedian, a trend that dominated primetime into the ensuing decades.

30 CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM Created by Larry David Having co-created Jerry Seinfeld's roman a clef of a sitcom, Larry David has turned himself inside out on Curb. 31 THE HONEYMOONERS Season One writers: Herbert Finn, Marvin Marx, A.J. Russell, Leonard Stern, Walter Stone, Sydney Zelinka* The standard by which all working-class sitcoms are still measured had a fitful beginning. Harry Crane and Joe Bigelow are credited with creating Ralph Kramden, a Brooklyn bus driver, as a sketch character for Jackie Gleason in 1951, when Gleason was hosting the Dumont network's Calvalcade of Stars variety show (two other writers on that show, Coleman Jacoby and Artie Rosen, brought in Art Carney for a different sketch). 32 DEADWOOD Created by David Milch After a dozen years as the bard of NYPD Blue, David Milch's first created series was a strange, brilliant, and rococo Western set in a Gold Rush town in the Dakota territories, circa the late 1800s.

33 STAR TREK Created by Gene Roddenberry As creator Gene Roddenberry wrote to science fiction author Isaac Asmiov two months after the first Star Trek series premiered in 1966: "Star Trek almost did not get on the air because it refused to do a juvenile science fiction, because it refused to put a Lassie' aboard the space ship, and because it insisted on hiring Dick Matheson, Harlan Ellison, A.E. Van Vogt, Phil Farmer, and so on." 34 MODERN FAMILY Created by Steven Levitan & Christopher Lloyd The sweet spot on Modern Family, done as a mock documentary, is in exposing the growing pains for a culture confronting the fluid meaning of the mainstream family unit. 35 TWIN PEAKS "Pilot," Written by Mark Frost & David Lynch "When Blue Velvet Meets Hill Street Blues," read the New York Times headline in 1990, describing Twin Peaks. 36 NYPD BLUE Created by David Milch & Steven Bochco Steven Bochco made more creative elbow room on network television with YPD Blue, which debuted amid "viewer discretion" hype before settling into what it was one of the last important primetime cop series.

37 THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW Season One: Written by Bill Angelos, Stan Burns, Don Hinkley, Buz Kohan, Mike Marmer, Gail Parent, Kenny Solms, Saul Turtletaub; Writing Supervised by Arnie Rosen The kind of beloved series that television executives abandoned long ago comedy-variety, with an infectiously multi-talented comedian as host, aided by a small band of merry pranksters, Burnett's show was part of the era that also included Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, The Flip Wilson Show, and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. 38 BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2005) Developed by Ronald D. Moore, Based on the Series Battlestar Galactica, Created by Glen A. Larson Having written for the series Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager, Ronald Moore arrived at his remake of Battlestar Galactica determined to bring the "space opera" genre out of its fusty cartoon past. 39 SEX AND THE CITY Created by Darren Star, Based on the Book by Candace Bushnell Is the show over? Because the movies aren't.

Creator Darren Star based his series on Candace Bushnell's book, adapted itself from her columns in the New York Observer. 40 GAME OF THRONES Created by David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, Based on A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin Medieval (or thereabouts) fantasy is not a TV genre with a particularly exalted tradition, which is why Game of Thrones, in its lavish production values and depth of mythology, feels so unprecedented in television. 41 THE BOB NEWHART SHOW - TIE Created by David Davis and Lorenzo Music Talking about the success of The Bob Newhart Show on the podcast "Bullseye" recently, Newhart told a story about Jack Benny. 41 YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS - TIE Season One: Written by Mel Tolkin, Lucille Kallen, Max Liebman* If you journeyed from Vaudeville to Saturday Night Live, you'd want to stop awhile at Your Show of Shows.

43 DOWNTON ABBEY - TIE Created by Julian Fellowes* Series creator Julian Fellowes' lavish period piece is also a pace-driven soap opera, set on a spectacular estate out in the English countryside of Yorkshire, home of the aristocratic Crawleys and their staff. 43 THIRTYSOMETHING - TIE Created by Marshall Herskovitz & Edward Zwick Since this sensitive ensemble drama burst onto the scene at the end of the "greed is good" 80s, many have tried and just as many have failed to replicate a show about well, ennui-riddled, upwardly mobile strivers, encountering speed bumps or ruptures in their relationship lives. 43 LAW & ORDER - TIE Created by Dick Wolf The son of an advertising executive, Dick Wolf went into the ad business himself before moving into film and television. 46 HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET - TIE Created by Paul Attanasio, Based on the Book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon Homicide was based on the book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, written by David Simon from his time as a crime reporter at The Baltimore Sun. 46 ST.

ELSEWHERE - TIE Created by Joshua Brand & John Falsey, Developed by Mark Tinker/John Masius Like other important shows from the 1980s MTM stable, St. Elsewhere, which twice won Emmys for its writing, featured a writing staff whose future series appear elsewhere on this list. 48 HOMELAND Developed by Howard Gordon & Alex Gansa, Based on the Original Israeli Series Prisoners of War by Gideon Raff Homeland is a more humanist and psychologically disturbing version of 24, a show on which co-creators Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa were writers. 49 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Created by Joss Whedon Part of the fun, and influence, of Buffy was in the way it mixed and matched genres while maintaining the integrity of its comedy and its heart. 50 THE COLBERT REPORT - TIE Season One writers: Mike Brumm, Stephen Colbert, Rich Dahm, Eric Drysdale, Peter Gwinn, Jay Katsir, Laura Krafft, Allison Silverman "Anyone can read the news to you.

I promise to feel the news at you." That was Stephen Colbert's mantra when The Colbert Report debuted, and he has hardly wavered. 50 THE OFFICE (UK) - TIE Created by Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant* Early in the 2000s, the buzz began moving west across the Atlantic: There was this quirky and very funny faux-documentary comedy series out of England called The Office. 50 THE GOOD WIFE - TIE Created by Robert King & Michelle King Leading roles for women on TV don't grow on trees, much less leading roles as layered as Alicia Florrick, played by Juliana Margulies. 53 NORTHERN EXPOSURE Created by Joshua Brand & John Falsey The series' classic fish-out-of-water premise involved Joel Fleischman, a New Yorker fresh out of Columbia Medical School who is sent to run a clinic in frigid, off-the-grid Cicely, Alaska. 54 THE WONDER YEARS Created by Neal Marlens & Carol Black Created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black, this sweet, intelligent confection of a half-hour comedy functioned as a looking glass into a late '60s suburban childhood. 55 L.A.

LAW Created by Steven Bochco & Terry Louise Fisher Over its eight seasons, L.A. Law racked up 15 Emmys in various categories (including two as outstanding drama). 56 SESAME STREET Created by Joan Ganz Cooney Simply put, the show's continual inventiveness and impact as an educational tool forged via the runaway popularity of the Muppets changed the landscape of children's television. 57 COLUMBO Created by Richard Levinson & William Link As a writing team, Richard Levinson and William Link were an anomaly, given that they started writing together in junior high. 58 FAWLTY TOWERS - TIE Written by John Cleese & Connie Booth* In a TV interview, John Cleese called Fawlty Towers "just little 30-minute farces that start very, very low-key and finish up absolutely frantic." 58 THE ROCKFORD FILES - TIE Created by Roy Huggins and Stephen J. Cannell As smooth as Columbo was rumpled, private eye Jim Rockford, an ex-con, lived and worked out of a trailer at the beach in Santa Monica.

To a certain extent the character was the creation, as Columbo was, of the personality of its star, James Garner. 60 MOONLIGHTING - TIE Created by Glenn Gordon Caron Nominally a comedic detective series, the show's originality came from the electrifying chemistry between stars Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd, whose verbal jousting earned the duo, and the series, comparisons to Howard Hawkes comedies like His Girl Friday, or William Powell and Myrna Loy of The Thin Man series. 60 FREAKS AND GEEKS - TIE Created by Paul Feig The title itself was an ironic statement about the pejoratives that get attached to those kids who don't quite buy into the aspirational idea of fitting in. 62 ROOTS Written by William Blinn, M. Charles Cohen, Ernest Kinoy, James Lee; Based on the Book by Alex Haley Roots, from executive producer David L. Wolper, and produced by Stan Margulies, was more than a miniseries it was a spectacular and unprecedented example of television's power as a storytelling medium, one that could simultaneously direct the national conversation and prod its conscience.

63 SOUTH PARK - TIE Created by Matt Stone & Trey Parker* From "The Spirit of Christmas," an animated holiday card made for Fox executive Brian Graden that got passed around Hollywood like comedy samizdat, to The Book of Mormon, their current Broadway smash musical, no comedy writers have been on quite on such a run of wrongness as Trey Parker and Matt Stone. 65 PLAYHOUSE 90 Season One writers: Edna Anhalt, Edmund Beloin, Harold Jack Bloom, Marc Brandel, George Bruce, James P. Cavanagh, Whitfiled Cook, Helen Doss, Scott Fitzgerald, Devery Freeman, Frank Gilroy, Helen Howe, Speed Lamkin, Ernest Lehman, Herbert Little, Jr., Don Mankiewicz, Elick Moll, Paul Monash, Dean Reisner, Norman Retchin, Selma Robinson, William Sackheim, Rod Serling, Leonard Spigelgass, Leslie Stevens, Brandon Thomas, David Victor, Charles M.

Warren, Hagar Wilde, Cornell Woolrich "One cannot imagine the joy one had as a professional viewer of this windblown medicine show called television to be able to deal every week for four years with the depth, the quality and sometimes the disaster that was the weekly Playhouse." 66 DEXTER - TIE Developed for Television by James Manos, Jr., Based on the Novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay The movement toward dark characters on TV had grown dark enough to make possible a series, albeit on pay cable, about a Machiavellian serial killer whose targets are other serial killers. 66 THE OFFICE (U.S.) - TIE Created by Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant, Developed by Greg Daniels, Based on the BBC Series The Office Adapting the British comedy by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, Greg Daniels gathered around him writer-performers B.J. Novak, Mindy Kaling, and Paul Lieberstein. 68 MY SO-CALLED LIFE Created by Winnie Holzman "I cannot bring myself to eat a well-balanced meal in front of my mother.

It just means too much to her," the searching teenager Angela, played by Claire Danes, says in voice-over in the pilot of My So-Called Life, which lasted 19 episodes before being cancelled by ABC. 70 THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW Episode 1, "The New Housekeeper," Written by Jack Elinson and Charles Stewart Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle upon the death of Andy Griffith, David Wiegand pointed out that Sheriff Andy and the good folks of Mayberry, N.C., found wide appeal in primetime in an era when "the sexual revolution, the divisiveness of the Vietnam War and the general rejection of traditional values' by younger Americans had an impact on TV. 71 24 - TIE Created by Joel Surnow & Robert Cochran Heading into its debut, the challenges facing this intriguing new thriller were narrative ones namely, the ability to attract, and hold, a large audience through a story that unfolded by the hour, in weekly installments.

71 THE SHIELD - TIE Created by Shawn Ryan You could argue that no series in the history of television left a greater imprint on its network than The Shield, which enabled FX to branch out into grittier, R-rated dramatic fare while also keeping its dignity intact. 71 ROSEANNE - TIE Created by Matt Williams, Based on a Character Created by Roseanne Barr In 1985, on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, America met a comedian named Roseanne Barr. Three years later she had a hit sitcom that furthered her inimitable persona as the housewife sardonically self-identifying as a "domestic goddess." 74 MURPHY BROWN - TIE Created by Diane English Series creator Diane English left after four popular and award-winning seasons to create new shows, just as Murphy Brown's decision to become a single mother was blasted as morally irresponsible by then-Vice President Dan Quayle. 74 HOUSE - TIE Created by David Shore Creator David Shore's series came along a decade after ER and gave the medical drama a jolt, basing a show on a physician who didn't have a God complex so much as a complex that was vociferously godless.

76 I, CLAUDIUS - TIE Written by Robert Graves and Jack Pulman* 'Twas the year of the miniseries: In January of 1977 Roots premiered on ABC; in March the network's scandalous hit Rich Man, Poor Man concluded, and in November, public television's Masterpiece Theater waded into the muck – albeit the rarefied muck – by airing the 13-hour I, Claudius from the BBC. 76 BARNEY MILLER - TIE Created by Danny Arnold & Theodore J. Flicker The air of world-weary sadness that hung over the denizens of the 12th Precinct made Barney Miller feel different from other sitcoms, quieter in personality and more offbeat cops in action via inaction, dragging themselves around the squad room like drones in an office otherwise made colorful by the perps coming in off the street. Episode 1, "The Fight of the Felix," Written by Peggy Elliott & Ed Scharlach Neil Simon's hit Broadway play was directed by Mike Nichols and starred Walter Matthau and Art Carney.

79 STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - TIE Created by Gene Roddenberry For his follow-up to a sci-fi series phenomenon roughly the size of the cosmos, Gene Roddenberry wanted to demonstrate, as he put it in a 1991 Los Angeles Times Magazine article, "that TV need not be violent to be exciting." 79 ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS - TIE Season One writers: Gwen Bagni, Samuel Blas, Robert Blees, Ray Bradbury, Richard Carr, James Cavanagh, Eustace Cockrell, Francis Cockrell, Marian Cockrell, John Collier, Robert C. Dennis, Mel Dinelli, Stanley Ellin, Fred Freiberger, Irwin Gielgud, Gina Kaus, Terence Maples, Richard Pedicini, Louis Pollock, Joseph Ruscoll, A.J. Russell, Stirling Silliphant, Andrew Solt, Harold Swanton, Victor Wolfson, Cornell Woolrich Some of Hitchcock's most memorable films came out while he was hosting his anthology TV series, including Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho; Rear Window had come out the previous year.

79 UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS - TIE Created by Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins* Long before the sotto voce buzz and chatter at Edwardian era Downton Abbey, there was 165 Eaton Place, London, and the Bellamy family. Conceived and Written by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Neil Innes, Terry Jones, Michael Palin* Greatest comedy in the history of television? You wouldn't get an argument in some quarters. 83 GET SMART "Pilot," Written by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry Not having seen Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or Woody Allen in What's Up, Tiger Lily, for that matter I didn't read Get Smart as a take-off on Cold War-esque, mutually assured destruction; I'm just now realizing the CONTROL vs. KAOS dichotomy. 84 THE DEFENDERS - TIE Created by Reginald Rose Reginald Rose won two Emmys for his writing on The Defenders, which continued in the vein of the work for which he was most known for writing, Twelve Angry Men.

84 GUNSMOKE - TIE Episode 1, "Matt Gets It," Written by Charles Marquis Warren & John Meston Already a hit on radio starring William Conrad as Marshall Matt Dillon, Gunsmoke, starring James Arness, became the most popular Western in TV history and one of the longest running shows ever. 86 JUSTIFIED - TIE Developed by Television by Graham Yost, Based on the Short Story "Fire in the Hole" by Elmore Leonard Graham Yost, after working on two major miniseries for HBO, Band of Brothers and The Pacific, segued into something entirely different in Justified. 86 SGT. BILKO (THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW) - TIE Created by Nat Hiken In a New York Times article in 1996, when the movie version of Sgt. Bilko was to be released, David Everitt, author of the book King of the Half Hour: Nat Hiken and the Golden Age of TV Comedy, paid homage to one of early TV's great overlooked comedy writer figures, dating back to Fred Allen on radio. 88 BAND OF BROTHERS Written by Erik Bork, E.

Max Frye, Tom Hanks, Erik Jendresen, Bruce C. McKenna, John Orloff, Graham Yost; Based on the Book by Stephan E. Ambrose The television miniseries had traditionally gone to war, but Band of Brothers did so with a budget that reportedly stretched to $120 million. 89 ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN Season One: Written by Chris Beard, Phil Hahn, John Hanrahan, Coslough Johnson, Paul Keyes, Marc London, Allan Manings, David Panich, Hugh Wedlock, Digby Wolfe Unlike other landmark comedy variety series, most notably Saturday Night Live, It's impossible to talk about Laugh-In without viewing it through the lens of its times, the late 1960s and early '70s. 90 THE PRISONER Premiere Episode: Written by George Markstein and David Tomblin* A strange, psychedelic amalgam of Cold War spy fiction, sci-fi and Kafka-esque anti-authoritarianism, The Prisoner starred Patrick McGoohan as Number Six.

91 THE MUPPET SHOW - TIE Season One: Written by Jack Burns, Jim Henson, Jerry Juhl, Marc London Behind Jim Henson's genius and generosity of spirit were writers who shared his vision for puppetry that could tickle kids while delighting adults. 91 ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS (U.K.) - TIE Episode 1, "Fashion," Written by Jennifer Saunders, Based on an original idea by Jennifer Saunders & Dawn French* Jennifer Saunders was already known in the U.K. as part of the comedy double act French and Saunders when she created "Ab Fab," which featured the besotted exploits of middle-aged gal pals Edina (Saunders) and Patsy, played by Joanna Lumley. 93 BOARDWALK EMPIRE Created by Terence Winter, Based on the Book Boardwalk Empire by Nelson Johnson As a writer on The Sopranos, Terence Winter's name is on some of the show's most iconic episodes, including "Pine Barrens," and "Long Term Parking," in which a mobster's fianc was taken out.

94 WILL & GRACE Created by David Kohan & Max Mutchnick The season prior to Will & Grace's debut had seen TV history, when Ellen Degeneres' sitcom alter ego came out as a lesbian in a two-part episode of ABC's Ellen. 95 FAMILY TIES Created by Gary David Goldberg In 1986, The Washington Post reported that at a White House ceremony honoring 141 high school students selected as presidential scholars for achievement in academics, the arts and leadership, President Reagan called Family Ties his favorite TV show, pointing to how "the wider culture is once again beginning to respect, even to celebrate, family life." 96 LONESOME DOVE - TIE Teleplay by Bill Wittliff, Based on the Novel Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry "It was so big, and at that moment, Westerns were dead," Bill Wittliff, who adapted Larry McMurtry's novel into the acclaimed miniseries, told the San Antonio Express-News in 2007. 96 SOAP - TIE Created by Susan Harris What more could you want from a primetime satire of daytime soaps?

The comedy, centered around the extended family circus of the wealthy Tates and the middle-class Campbells, hit all the soapy plot points and then some extramarital affairs, major crimes, spells of amnesia, a guy abducted by aliens and cloned, another guy who talks only through his puppet, transvestitism, incest, asexuality, homosexuality, a demon spawn, and the butler who had to put up with all the shenanigans. 98 THE FUGITIVE - TIE Episode 1, "Where the Action Is," Written by Harry Kronman The series finale set a ratings record with a 72 percent share, and went down as history-making for the way it gave audiences a climax to all the tension it had built up over four seasons. 98 LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN - TIE Season One: Writing Supervised by Merrill Markoe, Writers: Andy Breckman, Tom Gammill, David Letterman, Richard Morris, Gerard Mulligan, Max Pross, Karl Tiedemann, Steve Winer The sort of irony that David Letterman popularized on his show involved, for starters, calling attention to the fact that he was doing a talk show.

98 LOUIE - TIE Season One: Written and Directed by Louis C.K. The show, about a bemused comedian and divorced father of two girls, has the feel of honest autobiography.

Question: Who wrote the TV series 'The Wire'?
Answer: DAVID SIMON