I'm Kevin Flynn, and this is these are their stories. As you know by now,

Hector Richard Belzer passed away. He was of course Detective John Munch on homicide,

life on the street, and of course, law and order SVU. Now we plan to have a very much

centric episode coming up in the near future. But I realized that we actually had a large

discussion about Richard Belzer when we were covering the SVU episode Zebras. There was

a bit there about conspiracies and a little bit more about Munch. And our rip from the headline

story wasn't really much of a rip from the headline story, but it gave us an opportunity

to talk for a few minutes about Richard Belzer. And we thought it'd be great to just revisit

that part as we remember a great actor and a classic television character. All right,

let's take a look at the real-life story that inspired this episode. It's time for a rip from

the headline. A key plot point in this episode concerns Munch and his ex-wife, both believers

in conspiracy theories. In real life, actor Richard Belzer is also an avid believer in conspiracy

theories, a trait that was written into his character more than 25 years ago. A stand-up comedian,

Belzer got his shot as a network regular on the cast of NBC's Homicide Life on the Street,

where Munch first appeared as a detective in Baltimore. Director Barry Levinson said at first,

Belzer was not comfortable in the role and was poor at delivering his lines. Levinson began to

incorporate Belzer's own views into the character, such as his belief that the CIA plotted to

assassinate President Kennedy. Belzer began playing Munch in crossover episodes in other TV shows,

including an appearance with the conspiracy buffs known as the lone gunman on the ex-files.

When Dick Wolf brought Munch to SVU, he retained the character's paranoid views. Richard Belzer has

written four books about conspiracy theories, including JFK, UFOs, and Elvis. His most recent book,

Someone Is Hiding Something, deals with a mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

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