Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–1999)

Clark Johnson: Detective Meldrick Lewis

Photos 

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Quotes 

• [Crosetti and Lewis are in adjacent stalls in the men's room] 

  Det. Steve Crosetti : Got any toilet paper?

  Det. Meldrick Lewis : Nope.

  Det. Steve Crosetti : Got five ones for a five?

• Det. Meldrick Lewis : Lemme tell you one thing, all right? You gotta do everything I say.

  Det. Mike Kellerman : Well, there's nothing I won't do; but some things are gonna cost you extra.

• Det. Beau Felton : Kay might die. I'm not gonna close my eyes and pretend that nothing bad's gonna happen. Because you know what? It already did. So you gotta tell me, what're you supposed to do when your partner dies on you?

  Det. Meldrick Lewis : What you do is... You keep going.

  Det. Beau Felton : What do you mean, you keep going?

  Det. Meldrick Lewis : You get up, you do your job, you make it through every day... And you hope that one day you're gonna wake up and it won't hurt so much. Then the next day it will hurt a little less, and the next day, even less than that. It's not like you forget them, you know? Your life is changed forever. It's not ever gonna go back to the way it was... But you get through it... You just keep going on.

  Det. Beau Felton : That's it? Keep going?

  Det. Meldrick Lewis : That's it.

  Det. Beau Felton : Meldrick, that's the stupidest thing I ever heard.

  Det. Meldrick Lewis : You're spitting on my advice. You call me down here, I open my heart to you, and now you're spiting on what I got to say.

  Det. Beau Felton : Basically, yeah.

  Det. Meldrick Lewis : Gimme back the giraffe.

  Det. Beau Felton : What? Forget it.

  Det. Meldrick Lewis : You don't like my advice, you ain't getting the giraffe.

• Det. Frank Pembleton : Meldrick! In the mood for a multiple homicide?

  Det. Meldrick Lewis : On a Friday night? Always.

• [Lewis and Kellerman drove up to Hazel, Pennsylvania to bring a female suspect back to Baltimore] 

  Police Officer in Hazel, Pennsylvania : You guys from Baltimore, here to pick up Rose Halligan?

  Det. Meldrick Lewis : That's correct. I'm Detective Lewis, this is...

  Police Officer in Hazel, Pennsylvania : Uh, you can't have her.

  Det. Meldrick Lewis : What do you mean?

  Police Officer in Hazel, Pennsylvania : Regulations stipulate a policewoman escorts a female prisoner.

  Det. Meldrick Lewis : [gesturing to Kellerman]  Meet Detective Michelle Kellerman.

  Police Officer in Hazel, Pennsylvania : You're not a woman.

  Det. Mike Kellerman : I used to be.

• Det. Meldrick Lewis : Baltimore, home of the misdemeanor homicide.

• Det. Meldrick Lewis : In this job you gotta be able to howl at yourself, or else you die inside.

• Det. Meldrick Lewis : I've been a cop for a long time. And drugs out there, we're never gonna win that. There's a hundred open-air drug markets in this city and fifty thousand drug fiends out there. And we are taking on human desires with lawyers, and jailhouses, and lockups, and you and I both know human desire is kicking us in the ass.

• Det. Meldrick Lewis : Luther, Luther. Look both ways when you cross the street, my brother.

  Luther Mahoney : You do the same.

• Det. Meldrick Lewis : We're talking about sacred freedoms here - notably, your Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. Hey, if it was good enough for Ollie North and Mark Furhman, who the hell are you to incriminate yourself at the first opportunity?

• Potential Waitress : I'm not really a waitress. I write. One-acts.

  Det. John Munch : Hunh, one-act plays.

  Potential Waitress : Read them and we'll talk about them, okay?

  Det. Meldrick Lewis : You're a writer and you had to ask me for a pen?

  Potential Waitress : My life is total irony.

  Det. John Munch : All in one act, huh?

• Det. Meldrick Lewis : [punchline to a joke Lewis tells in episodes broadcast nearly two years apart]  ... so the bear says, "You didn't really come here to hunt, did you?"

• Det. Meldrick Lewis : You go when you're supposed to go, and everything else is homicide.

• Sgt. Kay Howard : What is y'all's fascination with sperm?

  Det. Meldrick Lewis : It's just a healthy curiosity. If it weren't for our daddy's sperm, wouldn't none of us be here.

  Sgt. Kay Howard : Or your mama's eggs.

• Det. Meldrick Lewis : Remember kids, don't just say no to drugs, say "No, thank you".

• Det. Meldrick Lewis : Don't nobody know nothing 'bout no shooting at no cops?