A Moment of Homicide and Improv

Last night, I was watching an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street (wait, what did you think I was referring to in the title?). There is a scene in which Detective Beau Felton (Daniel Baldwin) figures out, to his delight, that his partner, Detective Kay Howard (Melissa Leo) has a crush on district attorney Ed Danvers (Zeljko Ivanek). Beau gleefully teases Kay: "Kay's in love with Ed Danvers, you're in love with Ed Danvers, Kay's in love with Ed Danvers!"

As Kay turns to leave, her jacket momentarily gets snagged on the stair railing. Without missing a beat, Beau says, "oh, stuck on there, are ya? Just like you're stuck on Ed Danvers!"

Now, before I get too into this, I admit that, yes, it's possible that this moment was planned. But think how many takes they would have had to do to get Melissa Leo's coat to get snagged on the railing, at just the exactly right moment, and to make it look natural. All for what? For a quickly forgotten throw-away line that adds nothing but a very minor laugh?

I think the more likely explanation is that Baldwin improvised the line, a line which wouldn't qualify as comic genius, but would qualify as clever for being both unobvious and a natural extension of the dialogue.

Which is all to say that I've found yet another reason to watch Homicide: the unexpected comic wit of a Baldwin brother.

Okay, I admit, that reason's not very convincing. Just watch the show.