Munch has gone to the big Waterfront in the sky.

[Patooka]

Richard Belzer, Detective John Munch in TV hits, dies aged 78

Standup comedian played police role in Homicide: Life on the Streets, Law & Order: SVU and other series

www.theguardian.com

The pedant in me has to point out that the character John Munch was first in the show Homicide: Life on the Street and the X-Files before Law and Order. Richard Belzer had that sort of acerbic sarcasm I wish I had.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Forget pedant. The pedant says that one of the main actor in SVU was actually in Homicide: Life on the Street and played a marshall. He had an HBO comedy special, which was pretty funny. Not ROFLMFAO funny, but good.

Munch was one of the best characters in Homicide. Yes, he moved to SVU, but his position wasn't as dominant. One of my favorite moments was when I think Munch was going on about some study that concluded doing nothing was the best course of action for some problem, and he asked who does that? Who stumps for nothing. And Lewis stabs back, you do, that is all you do. Munch wasn't a very big hero. But he was fun on the screen. Bayliss, Pendleton, Howard (Melissa Leo would go pretty far herself) were the heavy guns. But Munch was an addictive indulgency.

And we can leave it here, a reminder that he isn't Montel Williams.

NotMontel

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