Homicide: Life on the Street Season 1 Episode 8

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is the eighth 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 24, 1993. In the episode, Howard and Bayliss attempt to quit smoking, Gee discovers secret asbestos removal in the squad room, and Munch and Bolander investigate the beating death of a 14-year-old boy. The teleplay was written by James Yoshimura based on a story by executive director Tom Fontana, and the episode was directed by Wayne Ewing, who doubled as director of photography. The episode featured a cameo appearance by film director and Baltimore native John Waters as a bartender. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" was originally supposed to be the first season finale, but the episode "Night of the Dead Living" was moved to the end of the season because NBC programmers felt it was too slow-paced to show any earlier in the season. During one scene, Munch and Bolander convince a suspect the copy machine is a dangerous lie-detector machine. This was inspired by a real-life trick used by the Baltimore Police Department and documented in David Simon's 1991 non-fiction book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, on which the series was based. It was later used in an episode of Simon's police drama series, The Wire.