Three Men and Adena
Encyclopedia
"Three Men and Adena" is the fifth episode of the first season of the American police drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street
. It originally aired on NBC
in the United States on March 3, 1993. The episode was written by executive producer Tom Fontana
and directed by Martin Campbell
. In the episode, Pembleton
and Bayliss
have a 12-hour limit to elicit a confession from Risley Tucker for the murder of 11-year-old Adena Watson. The episode takes place almost entirely within the confines of the police interrogation room with the three actors.
Tucker was played by theater and film actor Moses Gunn, marking his final performance before his death in December 1993. "Three Men and Adena" was seen by 7.08 million households in its original broadcast, which was among the lowest-rated network shows from that evening. However, the episode received positive reviews; it is considered one of the classic Homicide episodes, and ranked number 74 in an Entertainment Weekly
list of the 100 greatest television moments. Tom Fontana won an Emmy Award
for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for the episode's script.
(Kyle Secor
) and Pembleton
(Andre Braugher
) prepare to interview Risley Tucker (Moses Gunn), an elderly arabber
. Bayliss is convinced Tucker murdered 11-year-old Adena Watson, but Pembleton is less confident. Since they have already interviewed Tucker multiple times, the court will not allow him to be bothered anymore if he does not confess after this interview, and the detectives have only 12 hours to elicit a confession before Tucker walks free. Pembleton starts off acting friendly while Bayliss, who has taken the Watson case very personally, is more aggressive. Adena used to work for Tucker, taking care of his horse. Pembleton brings up Tucker's alcoholism
, but Tucker said he gave up drinking because he used to black out, insisting he hasn't had a drink in 16 months. Tucker also insists he hadn't seen Adena for three days before she died, but Bayliss shows him she had soot on her skirt that matched soot from Tucker's barn, indicating she was there the day she was killed.
During a moment of anger, Bayliss nearly presses Tucker's face against a hot pipe on the wall, but Pembleton stops him. Tucker still angrily insists he did not kill her, and he agrees to submit to a polygraph test
. When Bayliss leaves, Pembleton speaks to Tucker in a soft and comforting tone, trying to get Tucker to trust him. Pembleton suggests Tucker had a drink and blacked out the night he killed Adena, and he seems close to getting a confession before Tucker once again insists he is innocent. With four hours left before the deadline, Bayliss returns and says Tucker failed the polygraph test. Bayliss and Pembleton then aggressively team up on Tucker, talking quickly and intimidating him with repeated questions. They bring up a previously dropped statutory rape charge against Tucker involving a 14-year-old girl, then suggest he attempted to have sex with Adena and killed her because she resisted. They confront Tucker with gruesome crime scene photos of Adena and ask him if he is sure he didn't kill her, to which a frightened and confused Tucker replies, "Not right now, I'm not."
With less than an hour left and still without a confession, the detectives are exhausted, and Tucker turns the table on them. He claims Pembleton has the attitude of a man trying to distance himself from his African American heritage because he is ashamed to be black. Tucker also accuses Bayliss of hiding a "dark side" inside him that he is afraid to embrace. Eventually, Tucker admits he harbored pedophilic
feelings for Adena, and feels shame that the "one great love of my life was an 11-year-old girl". He breaks down and cries, but still insists he did not kill her. The 12-hour time limit elapses and the detectives fail to get a confession. Tucker is released and Bayliss is miserable he was unable to close the case. Pembleton, who has a new respect for Bayliss, tries to comfort him by saying he is now convinced Tucker is the killer, but Bayliss is no longer so sure.
and written by Tom Fontana
, executive producer of Homicide: Life on the Street. The interrogation room at the homicide division, colloquially referred to by detectives as "The Box", is a setting that appears in almost every episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. While filming an interrogation scene there in "Gone for Goode
", the first episode of the first season, director Barry Levinson
commented to Fontana that the acting from Andre Braugher
and Kyle Secor
was so effective, an entire episode could be filmed revolving strictly around an interrogation. The comments partially inspired Fontana to write "Three Men and Adena". Fontana said, "I only had the courage to write that episode based on the fact that I had seen what (Braugher and Secor) could do in the pilot episode". Almost the entire episode of "Three Men and Adena" takes place within the confines of the police interrogation room with Braugher, Secor and Moses Gunn, the theater and film actor who guest starred as Risley Tucker. It was Gunn's final performance before his death in December 1993. Fontana acknowledged a certain amount of risk in producing such an unusual episode in only the fifth week of the show, but he said, "It was important for Barry Levinson and I to establish that we weren't going to do the same old show every week."
"Three Men and Adena" marked the conclusion of the Adena Watson murder case, a story arc which began at the start of the first season. The Watson case was based on the real-life 1988 Baltimore slaying of Latonya Kim Wallace, which is chronicled in Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
, the 1991 David Simon
non-fiction book that served as the basis of the Homicide series. Elements of the interview in "Three Men and Adena" were incorporated from real-life police interrogations in that case. The Wallace case was never solved, and Fontana insisted that the Watson case in Homicide remain unsolved as well, despite pressure from NBC
for a more satisfying conclusion. Fontana said, "We never solved it because we felt that it would be a disservice to the real girl, to have this fake TV solution. Because it's not O.K. that she died, that no one took responsibility." The scene when Tucker admits for a moment he is not sure in his own mind that he didn't commit the murder was inspired by a similar real-life interaction Fontana found in a police interrogation transcript during his research. Fontana said, "It was so chilling (and) I was like, 'Oh man, how do you get there?'"
Martin Campbell spent three days of preparation on the "Box" set, analyzing it from every angle to learn the feel of the room. Fontana comes from a playwriting background, and "Three Men and Adena" involves long lengths of dialogue in a single setting, much like a play. The actors shot about 14 pages of dialogue each day, and had a very small amount of rehearsal time before shooting. According to Fontana, Campbell never shot a scene from the same angle twice, "So the entire hour keeps changing the point of view of the camera, so that you never get tired of being in that room." While filming the episode, Campbell would shoot single scenes with multiple pages of long dialogue, then film the scene again from another angle. Braugher said the experience felt more like staging a play than shooting a television episode, and allowed for a feeling of spontaneous human emotion in the performances. Although the dialogue in the final episode did not stray from the original script, Fontana said Campbell and the actors came up with the rhythm and pacing of the performances largely on their own, particularly during the fast-paced questions when Pembleton and Bayliss team up on Tucker.
The fact that Tucker goes free upholds a common theme in Homicide: Life on the Street – that life is not always fair, and that criminals sometimes get away with their crimes, a conviction that often put the show's producers at odds with NBC
executives. Fontana deliberately wrote the script so that it would remain ambiguous whether Tucker committed the murder or not. He wanted the character to have a genuine feeling of love for Adena Watson, but the strong feelings do not specifically mean he killed the girl. Braugher praised Fontana for creating such a three-dimensional character in Tucker, and said, "Fontana's genius is that we are never quite certain as to what it is that we have on our hands." Fontana also wanted Pembleton and Bayliss to have different interpretations of the same interrogation; Bayliss begins the interview convinced of the man's guilt and becomes uncertain by the end, and Pembleton has the opposite experience. Multiple police departments have requested copies of "Three Men and Adena" for use in training sessions due to its accurate portrayal of the intricacies of the police interrogation process. The interrogation included several police tactics not typically featured in television dramas, including the presentation of false evidence in an attempt to get a confession. During the opening scene of the episode, Bayliss watches the music video for "Surround", by the British band Bleach
.
. The episode received a 7.6 rating/12 share. It was among the lowest-rated major network shows from that evening, in part due to heavy competition from ABC
's broadcast of the Sixth Annual American Comedy Awards
, which was seen by 14.7 million households. "Three Men and Adena" was also outperformed by CBS
's two-hour broadcast of In the Heat of the Night
, which was seen by 11.82 million households and Fox
's Beverly Hills, 90210
, which was seen by 10.33 million households. Also on NBC that day, the series premiere of the new Crime and Punishment fared better than Homicide, capturing 8.47 million viewers. In the Washington, D.C.
-based affiliate WRC-TV
's market alone, the episode was watched by 122,166 viewers, which locally was also the lowest rating of the evening.
list of the 100 greatest television moments, and number 15 among the top television moments from the 1990s. It was also identified by The Baltimore Sun
as one of the ten best episodes of the series. Sun writer David Zurawik said Fontana's playwriting background was deeply infused in the episode, which he called a "landmark hour" that it "put (three men) and a few sticks of battle-scarred, municipal-green furniture and somehow managed to show us the human soul and the heart of darkness". Additionally, "Three Men and Adena" was among a 1999 Court TV marathon of the top 15 Homicide episodes, as voted on by 20,000 visitors to the channels website. David Bianculli of the New York Daily News said the episode "remains one of TV's best drama hours ever", and he ranked it the second-best television episode ever made, behind the Taxi
episode where Reverend Jim gets his driver's license. Entertainment Weekly writer Bruce Fretts said the episode was "one of the most powerful prime-time hours ever" and called Andre Braugher's performance a "tour de police force". Alex Strachan of The Vancouver Sun
described "Three Men and Adena" as "one of Homicide' s finest moments". He called the episode "claustrophobic, cynical and ultimately painful" and particularly praised the performances of Braugher and Secor, and the fact that it was not a happy ending. David P. Kalat, writer of Homicide: Life on the Street: The Unofficial Companion, described the episode as "an astonishing tour de force of writing and acting that demonstrates all of Homicide' s best qualities". He also praised the chemistry between Braugher and Secor, particularly when they found a common voice during the interrogation.
Rocky Mountain News
critic Dusty Saunders said the episode was "as good as dramatic television gets", and showed how the quality of Homicide is anchored in strong writing and acting rather than action. John Leonard, a literary and television critic, called it "the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen in a television hour". Leonard praised the tension, the setting and the writing, particularly when Tucker turned the tables on the detectives. He said the episode was better than such works as Ariel Dorfman
's Death and the Maiden
and author Don DeLillo
's books about men in small rooms. Lon Grahnke of the Chicago Sun-Times
called it a "relentless masterpiece". Manuel Mendoza of The Dallas Morning News
considered "Three Men and Adena" one of the best Homicide episodes and particularly praised the performance of Moses Gunn. Mendoza also said, "The claustrophobia of The Box contributes to the palpable tension. The Baltimore Sun
television critic David Zurawik said the episode established The Box as "the main stage for Pembleton and the moral center of the Homicide universe". Zurawik also said, "Stark and minimalist, the episode was musical theater as much as television, a celebration and explosion of language; an angry, urban opera with the voices of Bayliss and Pembleton coming together and then falling back as Tucker sings a final aria of rage and contempt." Calgary Herald
writer Bruce Weir said the episode "is Homicide at its finest: brilliantly written, intensely acted and continuously surprising." Emily Nussbaum of The New York Times
called "Three Men and Adena" the standout episode of the series, and described it as "a potent showcase for the series' smartly mordant dialogue, and its willingness to explore the cliches of TV detectives instead of merely repeating them". Los Angeles Times
writer Howard Rosenberg described it as a "mesmerizing (and) complex character study", and said Gunn delivered the best guest performance of the television season. Grant Tinker
, former CEO of NBC, said of the episode, "I thought it was stunning."
for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for his "Three Men and Adena" script. It was one of two Emmys Homicide: Life on the Streets received during the 45th Primetime Emmy Awards
season, with Barry Levinson also winning an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series
for the episode "Gone for Goode". "Three Men and Adena" and the rest of the first and second season episodes were included in the four-DVD box-set "Homicide: Life on the Street: The Complete Seasons 1 & 2", which was released by A&E Home Video
on May 27, 2003 for $69.95.
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
. It originally aired on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
in the United States on March 3, 1993. The episode was written by executive producer Tom Fontana
Tom Fontana
Tom Fontana is an American writer and producer.-TV career:Fontana has been a writer/producer for such series as Oz , The Jury, The Beat, The Bedford Diaries, Homicide: Life on the Street, St...
and directed by Martin Campbell
Martin Campbell
-Life and career:Campbell was born in Hastings, New Zealand. He directed two James Bond films, 1995's GoldenEye, starring Pierce Brosnan, and 2006's Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig, and was the first Bond director since John Glen to direct more than one film, as well as the oldest director in...
. In the episode, Pembleton
Frank Pembleton
Francis Xavier "Frank" Pembleton is a fictional homicide detective on the television drama series Homicide: Life on the Street portrayed by Emmy Award winning actor Andre Braugher. He is a primary character of the show through the first six seasons...
and Bayliss
Tim Bayliss
Timothy Bayliss is a fictional detective on Homicide: Life on the Street. He was a primary character, and was played by Kyle Secor. He was loosely based on the real-life Det...
have a 12-hour limit to elicit a confession from Risley Tucker for the murder of 11-year-old Adena Watson. The episode takes place almost entirely within the confines of the police interrogation room with the three actors.
Tucker was played by theater and film actor Moses Gunn, marking his final performance before his death in December 1993. "Three Men and Adena" was seen by 7.08 million households in its original broadcast, which was among the lowest-rated network shows from that evening. However, the episode received positive reviews; it is considered one of the classic Homicide episodes, and ranked number 74 in an Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
list of the 100 greatest television moments. Tom Fontana won an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for the episode's script.
Plot summary
BaylissTim Bayliss
Timothy Bayliss is a fictional detective on Homicide: Life on the Street. He was a primary character, and was played by Kyle Secor. He was loosely based on the real-life Det...
(Kyle Secor
Kyle Secor
Kyle Ivan Secor is an American television and movie actor, best known for his role as Detective Tim Bayliss on the crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street.-Early years:...
) and Pembleton
Frank Pembleton
Francis Xavier "Frank" Pembleton is a fictional homicide detective on the television drama series Homicide: Life on the Street portrayed by Emmy Award winning actor Andre Braugher. He is a primary character of the show through the first six seasons...
(Andre Braugher
Andre Braugher
Andre Braugher is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Thomas Searles in the film Glory, as the fiery detective Frank Pembleton on Homicide: Life on the Street from 1993 to 1998 and again in the 2000 made-for-TV film Homicide: Life on the Street, and as Owen Thoreau Jr...
) prepare to interview Risley Tucker (Moses Gunn), an elderly arabber
Arabber
An arabber is a street merchant who sells fruits and vegetables from a colorful, horse-drawn cart. Once a common sight in American East Coast cities, only a handful of arabbers still walk the streets of Baltimore.-Arabbing:...
. Bayliss is convinced Tucker murdered 11-year-old Adena Watson, but Pembleton is less confident. Since they have already interviewed Tucker multiple times, the court will not allow him to be bothered anymore if he does not confess after this interview, and the detectives have only 12 hours to elicit a confession before Tucker walks free. Pembleton starts off acting friendly while Bayliss, who has taken the Watson case very personally, is more aggressive. Adena used to work for Tucker, taking care of his horse. Pembleton brings up Tucker's alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, but Tucker said he gave up drinking because he used to black out, insisting he hasn't had a drink in 16 months. Tucker also insists he hadn't seen Adena for three days before she died, but Bayliss shows him she had soot on her skirt that matched soot from Tucker's barn, indicating she was there the day she was killed.
During a moment of anger, Bayliss nearly presses Tucker's face against a hot pipe on the wall, but Pembleton stops him. Tucker still angrily insists he did not kill her, and he agrees to submit to a polygraph test
Polygraph
A polygraph measures and records several physiological indices such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions...
. When Bayliss leaves, Pembleton speaks to Tucker in a soft and comforting tone, trying to get Tucker to trust him. Pembleton suggests Tucker had a drink and blacked out the night he killed Adena, and he seems close to getting a confession before Tucker once again insists he is innocent. With four hours left before the deadline, Bayliss returns and says Tucker failed the polygraph test. Bayliss and Pembleton then aggressively team up on Tucker, talking quickly and intimidating him with repeated questions. They bring up a previously dropped statutory rape charge against Tucker involving a 14-year-old girl, then suggest he attempted to have sex with Adena and killed her because she resisted. They confront Tucker with gruesome crime scene photos of Adena and ask him if he is sure he didn't kill her, to which a frightened and confused Tucker replies, "Not right now, I'm not."
With less than an hour left and still without a confession, the detectives are exhausted, and Tucker turns the table on them. He claims Pembleton has the attitude of a man trying to distance himself from his African American heritage because he is ashamed to be black. Tucker also accuses Bayliss of hiding a "dark side" inside him that he is afraid to embrace. Eventually, Tucker admits he harbored pedophilic
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
feelings for Adena, and feels shame that the "one great love of my life was an 11-year-old girl". He breaks down and cries, but still insists he did not kill her. The 12-hour time limit elapses and the detectives fail to get a confession. Tucker is released and Bayliss is miserable he was unable to close the case. Pembleton, who has a new respect for Bayliss, tries to comfort him by saying he is now convinced Tucker is the killer, but Bayliss is no longer so sure.
Production
"Three Men and Adena" was directed by Martin CampbellMartin Campbell
-Life and career:Campbell was born in Hastings, New Zealand. He directed two James Bond films, 1995's GoldenEye, starring Pierce Brosnan, and 2006's Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig, and was the first Bond director since John Glen to direct more than one film, as well as the oldest director in...
and written by Tom Fontana
Tom Fontana
Tom Fontana is an American writer and producer.-TV career:Fontana has been a writer/producer for such series as Oz , The Jury, The Beat, The Bedford Diaries, Homicide: Life on the Street, St...
, executive producer of Homicide: Life on the Street. The interrogation room at the homicide division, colloquially referred to by detectives as "The Box", is a setting that appears in almost every episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. While filming an interrogation scene there in "Gone for Goode
Gone for Goode
"Gone for Goode" is the first episode of the first season of the American police drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on January 31, 1993, immediately following Super Bowl XXVII. The episode was written by series creator Paul...
", the first episode of the first season, director Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:...
commented to Fontana that the acting from Andre Braugher
Andre Braugher
Andre Braugher is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Thomas Searles in the film Glory, as the fiery detective Frank Pembleton on Homicide: Life on the Street from 1993 to 1998 and again in the 2000 made-for-TV film Homicide: Life on the Street, and as Owen Thoreau Jr...
and Kyle Secor
Kyle Secor
Kyle Ivan Secor is an American television and movie actor, best known for his role as Detective Tim Bayliss on the crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street.-Early years:...
was so effective, an entire episode could be filmed revolving strictly around an interrogation. The comments partially inspired Fontana to write "Three Men and Adena". Fontana said, "I only had the courage to write that episode based on the fact that I had seen what (Braugher and Secor) could do in the pilot episode". Almost the entire episode of "Three Men and Adena" takes place within the confines of the police interrogation room with Braugher, Secor and Moses Gunn, the theater and film actor who guest starred as Risley Tucker. It was Gunn's final performance before his death in December 1993. Fontana acknowledged a certain amount of risk in producing such an unusual episode in only the fifth week of the show, but he said, "It was important for Barry Levinson and I to establish that we weren't going to do the same old show every week."
"Three Men and Adena" marked the conclusion of the Adena Watson murder case, a story arc which began at the start of the first season. The Watson case was based on the real-life 1988 Baltimore slaying of Latonya Kim Wallace, which is chronicled in Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets is a 1991 book written by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon describing a year spent with detectives from the Baltimore Police Department homicide squad...
, the 1991 David Simon
David Simon
David Simon is an American author, journalist, and a writer/producer of television series. He worked for the Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years. He wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood with Ed Burns...
non-fiction book that served as the basis of the Homicide series. Elements of the interview in "Three Men and Adena" were incorporated from real-life police interrogations in that case. The Wallace case was never solved, and Fontana insisted that the Watson case in Homicide remain unsolved as well, despite pressure from NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
for a more satisfying conclusion. Fontana said, "We never solved it because we felt that it would be a disservice to the real girl, to have this fake TV solution. Because it's not O.K. that she died, that no one took responsibility." The scene when Tucker admits for a moment he is not sure in his own mind that he didn't commit the murder was inspired by a similar real-life interaction Fontana found in a police interrogation transcript during his research. Fontana said, "It was so chilling (and) I was like, 'Oh man, how do you get there?'"
Martin Campbell spent three days of preparation on the "Box" set, analyzing it from every angle to learn the feel of the room. Fontana comes from a playwriting background, and "Three Men and Adena" involves long lengths of dialogue in a single setting, much like a play. The actors shot about 14 pages of dialogue each day, and had a very small amount of rehearsal time before shooting. According to Fontana, Campbell never shot a scene from the same angle twice, "So the entire hour keeps changing the point of view of the camera, so that you never get tired of being in that room." While filming the episode, Campbell would shoot single scenes with multiple pages of long dialogue, then film the scene again from another angle. Braugher said the experience felt more like staging a play than shooting a television episode, and allowed for a feeling of spontaneous human emotion in the performances. Although the dialogue in the final episode did not stray from the original script, Fontana said Campbell and the actors came up with the rhythm and pacing of the performances largely on their own, particularly during the fast-paced questions when Pembleton and Bayliss team up on Tucker.
The fact that Tucker goes free upholds a common theme in Homicide: Life on the Street – that life is not always fair, and that criminals sometimes get away with their crimes, a conviction that often put the show's producers at odds with NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
executives. Fontana deliberately wrote the script so that it would remain ambiguous whether Tucker committed the murder or not. He wanted the character to have a genuine feeling of love for Adena Watson, but the strong feelings do not specifically mean he killed the girl. Braugher praised Fontana for creating such a three-dimensional character in Tucker, and said, "Fontana's genius is that we are never quite certain as to what it is that we have on our hands." Fontana also wanted Pembleton and Bayliss to have different interpretations of the same interrogation; Bayliss begins the interview convinced of the man's guilt and becomes uncertain by the end, and Pembleton has the opposite experience. Multiple police departments have requested copies of "Three Men and Adena" for use in training sessions due to its accurate portrayal of the intricacies of the police interrogation process. The interrogation included several police tactics not typically featured in television dramas, including the presentation of false evidence in an attempt to get a confession. During the opening scene of the episode, Bayliss watches the music video for "Surround", by the British band Bleach
Bleach (British band)
Bleach were an indie rock band from Ipswich, England, usually considered part of the shoegazing genre. The band was formed in 1989 by brothers Neil and Nick Singleton together with drummer Steve Scott and vocalist Salli Carson. Their first release was the Eclipse EP in 1990, followed in 1991 by...
.
Ratings
In its original American broadcast on March 3, 1993, "Three Men and Adena" was watched by 7.08 million households, according to Nielsen ratingsNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. The episode received a 7.6 rating/12 share. It was among the lowest-rated major network shows from that evening, in part due to heavy competition from ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's broadcast of the Sixth Annual American Comedy Awards
American Comedy Awards
The American Comedy Awards were a group of awards presented annually in the United States from 1987 to 2001 recognizing performances and performers in the field of comedy, with an emphasis on television comedy and comedy films...
, which was seen by 14.7 million households. "Three Men and Adena" was also outperformed by CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's two-hour broadcast of In the Heat of the Night
In the Heat of the Night (TV series)
In the Heat of the Night is a television series based on the motion picture and novel of the same name. It was broadcast on NBC from 1988 until 1992, and then on CBS until 1995...
, which was seen by 11.82 million households and Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
's Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210 is an American drama series that originally aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox and was produced by Spelling Television in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...
, which was seen by 10.33 million households. Also on NBC that day, the series premiere of the new Crime and Punishment fared better than Homicide, capturing 8.47 million viewers. In the Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
-based affiliate WRC-TV
WRC-TV
WRC-TV, channel 4, is an owned and operated television station of the NBC television network, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
's market alone, the episode was watched by 122,166 viewers, which locally was also the lowest rating of the evening.
Reviews
"Three Men and Adena" received positive reviews and has been described as one of the "classic episodes" of Homicide: Life on the Street. "Three Men and Adena" ranked number 74 in an Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
list of the 100 greatest television moments, and number 15 among the top television moments from the 1990s. It was also identified by The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun is the U.S. state of Maryland’s largest general circulation daily newspaper and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries....
as one of the ten best episodes of the series. Sun writer David Zurawik said Fontana's playwriting background was deeply infused in the episode, which he called a "landmark hour" that it "put (three men) and a few sticks of battle-scarred, municipal-green furniture and somehow managed to show us the human soul and the heart of darkness". Additionally, "Three Men and Adena" was among a 1999 Court TV marathon of the top 15 Homicide episodes, as voted on by 20,000 visitors to the channels website. David Bianculli of the New York Daily News said the episode "remains one of TV's best drama hours ever", and he ranked it the second-best television episode ever made, behind the Taxi
Taxi (TV series)
Taxi was an American sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982 on ABC and from 1982 to 1983 on NBC. The series, which won 18 Emmy Awards, including three for "Outstanding Comedy Series", focuses on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher...
episode where Reverend Jim gets his driver's license. Entertainment Weekly writer Bruce Fretts said the episode was "one of the most powerful prime-time hours ever" and called Andre Braugher's performance a "tour de police force". Alex Strachan of The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun is a daily newspaper first published in the Canadian province of British Columbia on February 12, 1912. The paper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. It is published six days a week, Monday to Saturday...
described "Three Men and Adena" as "one of Homicide
Rocky Mountain News
Rocky Mountain News
The Rocky Mountain News was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, United States from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. As of March 2006, the Monday-Friday circulation was 255,427...
critic Dusty Saunders said the episode was "as good as dramatic television gets", and showed how the quality of Homicide is anchored in strong writing and acting rather than action. John Leonard, a literary and television critic, called it "the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen in a television hour". Leonard praised the tension, the setting and the writing, particularly when Tucker turned the tables on the detectives. He said the episode was better than such works as Ariel Dorfman
Ariel Dorfman
Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman is an Argentine-Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. A citizen of the United States since 2004, he has been a professor of literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina since 1985.-Personal...
's Death and the Maiden
Death and the Maiden (play)
Death and the Maiden is a 1990 play by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman. The world premiere was staged at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 9 July 1991, directed by Lindsay Posner...
and author Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo is an American author, playwright, and occasional essayist whose work paints a detailed portrait of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries...
's books about men in small rooms. Lon Grahnke of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
called it a "relentless masterpiece". Manuel Mendoza of The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News is the major daily newspaper serving the Dallas, Texas area, with a circulation of 264,459 subscribers, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in September 2010...
considered "Three Men and Adena" one of the best Homicide episodes and particularly praised the performance of Moses Gunn. Mendoza also said, "The claustrophobia of The Box contributes to the palpable tension. The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun is the U.S. state of Maryland’s largest general circulation daily newspaper and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries....
television critic David Zurawik said the episode established The Box as "the main stage for Pembleton and the moral center of the Homicide universe". Zurawik also said, "Stark and minimalist, the episode was musical theater as much as television, a celebration and explosion of language; an angry, urban opera with the voices of Bayliss and Pembleton coming together and then falling back as Tucker sings a final aria of rage and contempt." Calgary Herald
Calgary Herald
The Calgary Herald is a daily newspaper published in the Canadian city of Calgary, Alberta.- History :The paper was first published on August 31, 1883 by Andrew Armour and Thomas Braden as The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser. It started as a weekly paper with only...
writer Bruce Weir said the episode "is Homicide at its finest: brilliantly written, intensely acted and continuously surprising." Emily Nussbaum of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called "Three Men and Adena" the standout episode of the series, and described it as "a potent showcase for the series' smartly mordant dialogue, and its willingness to explore the cliches of TV detectives instead of merely repeating them". Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
writer Howard Rosenberg described it as a "mesmerizing (and) complex character study", and said Gunn delivered the best guest performance of the television season. Grant Tinker
Grant Tinker
Grant Almerin Tinker is the former chairman and CEO of NBC from 1981 to 1986, co-founder of MTM Enterprises, and television producer. Tinker is the former husband of television actress Mary Tyler Moore...
, former CEO of NBC, said of the episode, "I thought it was stunning."
Awards and DVD release
Tom Fontana won an Emmy AwardEmmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for his "Three Men and Adena" script. It was one of two Emmys Homicide: Life on the Streets received during the 45th Primetime Emmy Awards
45th Primetime Emmy Awards
The 45th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 19, 1993. The ceremony was broadcast on ABC. It was hosted by Angela Lansbury.-Programs:-Lead roles:-Supporting roles:-Writing:...
season, with Barry Levinson also winning an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series
The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series is an Emmy presented to the best directing of a television drama series.-Best Direction of a Single Program of a Drama Series:*1959: Jack Smight – Alcoa-Goodyear Theatre ...
for the episode "Gone for Goode". "Three Men and Adena" and the rest of the first and second season episodes were included in the four-DVD box-set "Homicide: Life on the Street: The Complete Seasons 1 & 2", which was released by A&E Home Video
A&E Television Networks
A&E Television Networks is a U.S. media company that owns a group of television channels available via cable & satellite in the US and abroad...
on May 27, 2003 for $69.95.
External links
- "Three Men and Adena" at TV.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...