NEWS & NOTES : LIFE ON THE STREET TAKES REAL-LIFE TURN IN `HOMICIDE' EPISODE.

Byline: Keith Marder Daily News Television Writer

It pays to executive produce a series. Because when you do, you have no problem getting screen time.

And, the following story will not only prove that, but also that television writers write what they know.

Academy Award-winning director Barry Levinson will guest star Friday on ``Homicide: Life on the Street.''

Levinson, the show's executive producer, will play himself.

In the episode, Baltimore homicide detectives Meldrick Lewis (Clark Johnson) and Mike Kellerman (Reed Diamond) chase a suspect through the mean streets of the city when they stumble upon an on-location shoot.

Levinson, playing the director, has to stop the production because the suspect runs into the shot.

The bit part is based on a recent similar event, in which a robbery suspect was fleeing a Baltimore drugstore and accidentally ran into ``Homicide'' crews on a location shoot.

Apparently the suspect saw cops hanging out and gave himself up - to ``Homicide'' stars Richard Belzer and Johnson.

Hip-hop flip flop: Beginning on Monday, the UPN will switch the position of two of its sitcoms. ``Sparks'' will move to 9 p.m. and ``Goode Behavior'' will be shown at 9:30.

``Sparks'' is set in a family-owned and -operated law office, starring James Avery, Robin Givens, Terrence Howard and Miguel A. Nunez.

``Goode Behavior'' stars Sherman Hemsley as an ex-con and Dorien Wilson as his straight-laced college professor son.

The thumb guys speak: It's that time of year again, when everyone is rating the events of the past 12 months, and multimedia movie mavens Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert are no different.

This week on their ``Siskel & Ebert'' (6:30 p.m. Sundays on KABC-Channel 7), they will announce their top 10 movies of the year. Top of both guys' list: ``Fargo.''

Next week they'll announce their least favorite films of the year.

Siskel picked ``Mad Dog Time,'' and Ebert, who was spotted seeing ``Mother'' on the Santa Monica Third Street Promenade last week, picked ``Little Indian, Big City,'' as the single biggest waste of film and theater space of the year.