Dead or alive, the entire cop cast of Homicide: Life on the Street is back for an NBC TV movie -- but naturally, executive producer Tom Fontana isn't dishing about how some characters are being resurrected.
Fans of the show, cancelled last spring after seven seasons, recall that Det. Steve Crosetti (Jon Polito) committed suicide and news of Det. Beau Felton's (Daniel Baldwin) murder reached the squad after he transferred out.
Those cops could appear in flashbacks in Homicide: The Movie, Sunday at 8 p.m. on Ch. 6, but Fontana says don't count on it.
"I wouldn't assume that. That would not be an assumption that I would make personally," he teased TV critics in Pasadena last month.
"I think that's part of the surprise of the film and I would hate for anyone to reveal it too soon."
A third death could explain an astral reunion, since the catalyst that brings the cops together is the shooting of Lieut. Al Giardello (Yaphet Kotto) during his campaign for mayor of Baltimore.
Fontana says the writers had a chance to do something special when they learned everybody from Det. Stanley Bolander (Ned Beatty) to seventh season newcomer Det. Rene Sheppard (ER's Michael Michele) and even videographer James Brodie (Max Perlich) would return.
"But because the story centres around the shooting of Giardello, it seemed like a natural reason for them all to come back and for them all to have something to do because it's one of our classic red herring stories," Fontana says.
The movie brings closure to the series and, hopefully, it'll answer some nagging questions. Did Munch murder a cop-killer years ago? Did sexually ambiguous Det. Tim Bayliss (Kyle Secor) murder Internet killer Luke Ryland last season? Secor says the movie begins eight months after his departure, "and it's dealt with in a satisfying way for the character and for me."
Along with the Homicide crew, Fontana has recruited actors from his other TV shows. Eamonn Walker (Oz) plays a TV cameraman; Jason Priestley signed on as a cop after guest directing on Fontana's UPN series The Beat; and Ed Begley Jr. reprises his St. Elsewhere role as Dr. Victor Ehrlich -- he's just not called Ehrlich.
"You know, he is playing Ehrlich," Fontana says. "But we can't say that he's playing Ehrlich because of some minor legal problem."
