Which TV detective has appeared on eight different series in the last decade?
NPR has a short, colorful piece today on Detective John Munch, played for the last 15 years by actor Richard Belzer. Munch got his start on Homicide: Life on the Streets in 1993. Irascible (and irrepressible, it seems), Munch later popped up on shows like Law & Order, The X-Files and Arrested Development. (The IMDB has the full list.)
This week Munch had a cameo on The Wire. NPR says that was his eighth series, though the IMDB lists nine; Sesame Street doesn’t count, it seems.
Belzer fans will also enjoy this 2003 interview on NPR, commemorating the 30th anniversary of The National Lampoon Radio Hour.
Turns out Belzer was in the original NLRH cast, along with John Belushi, Bill Murray, Michael O’Donoghue and other future mainstays of Saturday Night Live. The brief ad for the Indianapolis Academy of the French Accent is worth the price of admission.