Some detective characters are already so much of the background of our lives like Sherlock Holmes that, regardless of copyright status or ownership issues, the public at large already knows who that person is. For example, with Sherlock Holmes, whether he is American, British, or Japanese, a man or a woman, a mouse or a gnome, in the past, present, or future, whether he has one brother or two — or also a sister, he is accompanied by Watson, who serves as a sounding board — while frequently but not always dressed in a silly hat, and says “Elementary!”
But creating a completely within copyright character that has those same known “canonical” elements that hold true throughout various iterations is ….. Recently, there have been sequel crime dramas that restart as if nothing changed — original Law & Order, Criminal Minds, and CSI. But with the exception of The Good Wife/The Good Fight, which isn’t a crime/detective drama, a character or characters appearing in various formats, yet with the same canonical heart is uncommon. However, there are two recent examples, John Munch and Inspector Morse/Lewis.
With the death of Richard Belzer, the long run of John Munch, the detective character on both Homicide: Life on the Streets and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, draws to a close. But like the most well-known detective, Sherlock Holmes, the line for what is “canon” and what is simply a one-off or parody is difficult to determine. Munch not only appeared in full detective mode in X-Files, but appear in one Law & Order, you become part of the story of them all. Additionally, Munch had appearances in Sesame Street (from the actual Law & Order set) and on Arrested Development. Belzer was Munch from 1993 through 2016, an incredibly long run for any character, let alone on the longest running American scripted drama. In every iteration, Munch is a grumpy detective, but in appearances longer than a few minutes, the character is also a conspiracy theorist with multiple ex-wives.
But the idea of a detective character within the same canonical universe appearing over the course of multiple decades has another recent example from the UK: Morse. Over the course of three shows, the work of young Endeavor Morse, then Inspector Morse with his assistant Lewis, and then after Morse’s death, Lewis with his assistant. Chronologically, this Morse universe takes place between 1965 and 2015, though the airing dates are Inspector Morse (1987–2000), Lewis (2006–2015) and Endeavor, starting in 2012 and with the last series airing in the UK in March 2023, covering the years 1965 through 1972.
Unlike many prequel/sequel shows that are comedy shows, like Will & Grace and Rosanne/The Conners, where canonical relationships and even entire characters are erased (think of the erasure of the last season of the original run of Roseanne), the Morse series works hard to stay within what the audience knows about the canonical characters.
For example, the long-running sometimes respectful and sometimes contentious relationship between Morse and, depending on the show, his former or present superior, Fred Thursday, runs throughout both Endeavor and Inspector Morse. Also, the same pathologist, Hobson, appears in both Inspector Morse and Lewis, eventually becoming Lewis’ romantic partner. With only four characters over three shows, Thursday, Morse, and Lewis have a canonical through-line that shows how police work changed in the UK from the 60s up until the most recent decade. But it also shows how television production, editing, music cues and more have changed from the 1980s to the present.
If one watched Morse following in-universe chronology, one would see Morse move from being a young still eager detective who is already drinking too much who loves opera to an older alcoholic cynical detective who loves opera while training his assistant detective Lewis, who moves from being young through training up his own assistant, Hathaway. The character of Lewis is portrayed by the same actor, Kevin Whately, from 1987 through 2015, an even longer run than that of Richard Belzer as Munch.
The idea of one actor playing the same fictional detective over many decades has also appeared in the news recently, but has been reported mostly as humorous, rather than as a statement about copyright, intellectual property and character ownership. In 2011, Warren Beatty, who first played Dick Tracy in 1990, won a lawsuit regarding the rights to the character. The agreement, originally made in 1985, meant that he would control the film rights in perpetuity as long as he continued to make Dick Tracy projects. Following up on an earlier Turner Movie special, Beatty recently appeared on a special on the network as the character, a surreal performance described by Vanity Fair’s Jordan Hoffman as “a baffling little experiment [with t]he public access quality of it all is extremely charming, as is “Dick Tracy” sighing that “fighting crime is serious!” during an Al Pacino musical number.”
Transition here??? (i don’t think it’s needed tbh)
Will the success of Munch and Lewis appearing as long-term canonically accurate characters be repeated in quite the same way by others? It depends on what the comparison is — after all, Dick Wolf has three different canon universes — the Law & Orders, the Chicago [something] universe and the FBIs, and CBS/Paramount has the varied Criminal Minds and NCISs. But all of those are self-contained, created and produced by one studio, which owns the intellectual property of all of the content, including the characters.
On the other hand, Munch the character appeared in three created-by-different-teams important universes, starting in Barry Levinson’s Homicide, which was based on a non-fiction book, moving on to Dick Wolf’s ripped from the headlines Law & Order universe, and guesting on Chris Carter’s X-Files. According to Wikipedia, “Munch has become the only fictional character, played by a single actor, to physically appear on 10 different television series. These shows were on five different networks: NBC (Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, and 30 Rock), Fox (The X-Files and Arrested Development), UPN (The Beat), HBO (The Wire) and ABC (Jimmy Kimmel Live!).”
Munch is also the second longest running detective character that has appeared on American television, appearing over twenty- three seasons, with only Olivia Benson, also from Law & Order: Criminal Intent, as longer running.
Based on the increasing way large media companies wish to control the narrative regarding their properties, such as Disney create their own parodies melding together their different properties (Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars) or like Space Jam, have a showing of owned characters, Munch is likely a character feat not likely to be repeated.
But hopefully when creators think about how to show the same characters played over time over multiple shows over many years, with the same canonical vibe, they will look to the Endeavor / Morse / Lewis trilogy of shows; especially when looking to create the same flavor that has given Sherlock Holmes those same basic elements regardless of whether he is House M.D. or a cartoon dog.