Almost the entire original cast from season one returned for the second season, including Daniel Baldwin, Ned Beatty, Richard Belzer, Andre Braugher, Clark Johnson, Yaphet Kotto, Melissa Leo, Jon Polito and Kyle Secor. The only permanent cast member not to return was Wendy Hughes, who previously played medical examiner Carol Blythe; her absence was never explained on-screen other than a mention in the episode "A Many Splendored Thing" that Bolander and Blythe had broken up. While the rest of the cast was contractually obliged to return, many of them had offers for other films, television shows or plays, and the logistics of arranging their schedules so all of them could return for the show was difficult. In an interview, Fontana claimed the cast was contractually entitled to be paid for 13 episodes but they all agreed to take less money and come back for the shortened-season. The uncertainty over whether Homicide would be renewed or not created a great deal of stress for some cast members. Polito said of the feeling, "Where is limbo? It's in Baltimore." Baldwin in particular expressed frustration with NBC for failing to renew the show for a full season and said he feared the uncertainty could hurt his film career: For two years now, I've been walking around thinking, 'Why did I do this? Why did I subject myself to this nonsense?' I will never, ever do another series. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. There is no justice in television... Where's the confidence? Why aren't I here talking about being picked up for 22 episodes? I want to say to Warren Littlefield: Can you read? Can you read? I've never seen this kind of critical response to a show before. Likewise, Beatty said he enjoyed the actual filming of the episodes but hated the television business end of it, claiming, "I can't think of anything I would less rather do than television at this moment." He said the process left him "pretty much burnt" and said his enthusiasm for the show had "eroded as time goes on". It was initially reported that Beatty would not return for the second Homicide season at all because he had accepted a starring role in The Boys, a CBS comedy series also featuring Christopher Meloni. Polito said he did not believe Beatty's departure would hurt the show because of the ensemble nature of the cast: "I love Ned's work, but