Homicide is an Australian television police procedural drama series broadcast on the Seven Network and produced by Crawford Productions.
After self-financing the pilot episode, Hector Crawford shopped it around commercial networks for nearly a year, before a series was commissioned in 1964 by Melbourne HSV7 station manager Keith Cairns, even if Sydney would not decide to come along.
[1] The series dealt with the fictional homicide squad of the Victorian Police force and the various crimes and cases the detectives are called upon to investigate.
However, Homicide ran on-air for longer than Blue Heelers, and had a greater cumulative running time due to the production of five feature-length episodes.
Homicide scripts explored a number of major social issues, such as: Many early episodes were introduced by chief of detectives John Fegan speaking directly to camera, to highlight their significance and, presumably, to indicate they may not be suitable for younger viewers.
Early episodes were in black and white (B&W) with the bulk of material recorded on videotape in the Dorcas street studios of HSV7 using a multicamera setup, with many video directors, the most prolific being Alex Emanuel.
Each episode also featured about ten minutes of location footage shot on 16 mm film, predominantly by Ian Jones or David Lee.
The opening and closing theme music for the entire series run was the library piece "Victory" written by American composer James Reichert, and intermittent narration from announcer John McMahon was used for the early B&W seasons.
The first "victim" was Ian Turpie shot by Gordon Glenwright, with Susanne Haworth supplying the first pre-credits scream, while Graeme Blundell and Dorothy Crawford look on as uncredited crowd extras.
[5] According to The Homicide Story, the first scene ever turned for the pilot was of veteran vaudevillian Al Mack pantomiming a derelict under the Hoddle Bridge next to the Yarra River, possibly filmed as early as 1963/4.
With occasional exceptions, the earliest filmed segments – which often focused on dramatic shots of cars pulling in, gun battles, arrests and fist fights – did not have synchronised sound.
Both pre-recorded sound effects recordings and the work of Crawford's foley artist would be used, particularly for gunshots and the title sequence's percussive car-door slams as the stars emerge.
Over the years the ratio of film to videotape was increased, and synchronised sound between a Nagra magnetic tape recorder and a maneuverable Arriflex camera became the location norm by the late 1960s leading to more efficiency and documentary authenticity.
In addition, the series was produced at a tenth of the cost of an overseas program and easily outrated them, despite stiff competition from hit US shows thrown up against it.
Steady roles in long-running Crawford series helped convince successful expatriate actors like Charles Tingwell and Michael Pate to return to their homeland after decades in Hollywood or the UK.