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Homicide: Life on the Street season 5

season of television series

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ16386076 ↗
Source-derived summary

The fifth season of Homicide: Life on the Street aired in the United States on the NBC television network from 20 September 1996 to 16 May 1997 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 (a regular character portrayed by Michelle Forbes); and Detective Terri Stivers (a recurring character portrayed by guest star Toni Lewis), a Narcotics officer who works with Homicide to bring down local drug kingpin Luther Mahoney.

The two-part season finale introduced Detective Paul Falsone (portrayed by Jon Seda), a member of the Auto Squad briefly on loan to Homicide, re-introduced Stuart Gharty (portrayed by Peter Gerety), now a detective assigned to Internal Investigations, and marked the return of Detective Megan Russert (Isabella Hofmann) from her season-long leave of absence in France. It also marked the final regular appearances of Sgt. Kay Howard (Melissa Leo) and unit videographer J. H. Brodie (Max Perlich).

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

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Homicide: Life on the Street season 5” as season of television series. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Homicide, Life and Street.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1996, 1997, 2004—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Homicide, Life and Street providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Homicide: Life on the Street season 5”, the useful work is to connect “season of television series” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16386076. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1996, 1997 and 2004.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Homicide: Life on the Street season 5” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.