U.S. Network television's latest "ripped from the headlines" storytelling efforts are taking their inspiration from -- and onto -- the Internet.
The latest episode of NBC primetime series "Homicide: Life on the Street" spins the tale of a gruesome murder broadcast live on the Internet -- but the story will premiere online, not on TV.
The story line will kick off on the show's online spin-off serial, "Homicide: Second Shift," when installments are posted Wednesday and Thursday before the action picks up in Friday's telecast, NBC officials said.
The Baltimore cops profiled in the fictional TV show will team up with their counterpart characters from the Web show to solve the case, the network says in its promotion for the show.
"As the eerie case progresses, the detectives realize they will need the entire squad's help to catch the perpetrator before the next ritual is performed," according to NBC's promo for the episode dubbed "Homicide.com."
CyberCrime lends a hand
To nail down the technical details, Homicide co-producer Sara Charno commissioned ZDTV CyberCrime legal analysts, attorneys Luke Reiter and Alex Wellen to serve as consultants on the episode. (ZDTV is an affiliate of Ziff-Davis, which also produces ZDNN.)
"I needed to know the investigative beats, where (police) would look, what the procedure would be and what the red herrings would be," Charno said.
Wellen and Reiter said they provided technical advice to the show's producers, and also suggested some twists to the plot line.
Reiter said the Webcast murder takes place at a local university -- which is how the "Homicide" cops are sure the crime occurred within their jurisdiction. "It's a university site where it happens, so there are plenty of clues to go on," he said.
The show's producers also took pains to incorporate high-tech elements in other aspects of the script, showing the investigators taking advantage of online telephony and other Internet tools to carry out their investigation, Reiter said. "NBC really worked at including high-tech issues throughout the story line," he said.
Besides working with the writers in the development of the script, Wellen said he and Reiter went on the set of the show to observe the filming of the high-tech scenes. "We observed a number of the computer sequences," he said.
Wellen said the "Homicide" writers quickly nailed down the story's technical details.
"They came to us with a concept of a cybermurder and had some familiarity with the technology. But quickly they were asking very sophisticated questions. The writers presented a very strong story," Wellen said.
Tom Clancy goes cyber
NBC isn't the only network pushing shows about online crime during the U.S. February "sweeps" period (when networks try to boost ratings in order to glean more revenues from advertisers).
ABC on Monday night aired the first installment of a mini-series based on Tom Clancy's novel "NetForce," which chronicles "a new division of the FBI created in 2005 to specifically deal with spiraling crime on the Internet."
In the Clancy novel, the force's commander is murdered as part of a plot by organized crime figures to gain control over the world's online financial networks. The mini-series concludes on Thursday.
