Third Watch: In Their Own Words

As was the case for so many others who create fictional television programs, the writers, producers, directors, and actors of NBC’s Third Watch were faced with the difficulty of resuming a semblance of “normalcy” in the weeks following September 11, 2001. They chose to build a bridge between the two worlds in which they work. One was the world of the fictional stories they tell each week, stories exploring the lives of fictional police officers, fire fighters, and emergency medical service personnel. The other was the world of the real people who live in those roles, in the real New York, where the series is filmed. The bridge they built took the form of another set of stories, the real stories, told about September 11. These were stories of lost colleagues, of heroic actions, of personal grief, and lingering pain. They remembered with affection and joy. They wept for what was gone from their city. They reminded us all of the relations between our fictions and ourselves. This courageous step beyond genre was produced by Brooke Kennedy and directed by John Wells and Julie Hebert, with Executive Producers Christopher Chulack, John Wells and Edward Allen Bernero, Producers Kristin Harms, Charles S. Carroll and Scott Williams. A Peabody goes to Third Watch: In Their Own Words for seizing the opportunity afforded by its privileged place in the television schedule to honor those on whose lives and actions the stories in the series are based.