If last night's episode does end up being the last one, I can be happy with them going out that way. It was another case as usual, but also unique in that there was no murder, no trial, no courtroom scenes (there was a grand jury scene), and the two detectives and two lawyers were seen throughout the entire episode, rather than being confined to first half and second half like normal. We got to see Mike Cutter pulling out the theatrics one last time, Jack McCoy giving another one of his smackdowns (Sonic's complaint that the "Order" side is often too sanctimonious would probably find itself vindicated though), Lupo's gentle way of dealing with suspects, and Van Buren trying to hold everything together.
It was a solid, satisfying final bow, and even though it wasn't written as a series fineale, I prefer a "life goes on" type of finale to anything else they might have come up with, which would have been out of the show's character.
NBC Cancels Law & Order after 20 years
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Mister Tee
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I do remember Arrest and Trial -- and, in fact, when Law and Order first debuted 20 years ago, I wondered why nobody seemed to reference it.Damien wrote:Tee, Magilla, do you remember a short-lived ABC show around 1963/64 called Arrest and Trial, which was the same exact premise as Law & Order?
I have an actor friend who belongs to a group he says has a minute membership -- New York Actors Who Haven't Appeared on Law & Order.
A friend of mine made much the same joke -- he was looking through his Playbil prior to a curtain, and said, "Hey, I found someone without a Law & Order credit". I'm always seeing friends on the show (which my wife watches as relentlessly as Sonic's, even shows she's seen multiple times).
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FilmFan720
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Sonic Youth wrote:They should start a 24-hour Law & Order channel, All Law & Order, All the Time. They have enough programming to do so.
They really do. Counting all of the spin-offs (including the four overseas versions), there are about 50 Law & Order seasons, and over 1000 episodes.
You might be glad to know, Sonic, that Vincent D'Onofrio has left Criminal Intent. But he was replaced by Jeff Goldblum, so it's not like they traded up. I never really got into Criminal Intent myself, although I have seen several episodes.
Damien wrote:the 3 or 4 times I watched it, I thought it was embarrassingly bad.
You must have caught it during Elizabeth Rohm's reign of terror. I still shudder when I think of some of those episodes, especially one called "The Dead Wive's Club". The episode where she got fired was at least memorable, with one of the most bizzarre lines in television history.
Edited By dws1982 on 1274545114
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Sonic Youth
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They should start a 24-hour Law & Order channel, All Law & Order, All the Time. They have enough programming to do so. Every time I channel flip, I see a Law & Order eppy going on somewhere. I'm not a fan, either, I'm afraid. I enjoy the "Law" portion of the show, then turn it off when they get to the overly-sanctimonious "Order". As for "Criminal Intent", the word "unwatchable" doesn't begin to describe Vincent D'onofrio's performance. I enjoy "SVU" - primarily because of the leads - when it doesn't go out of its way to be sordid beyond credibility. My wife loooooves these shows, though. She's big on crime and police procedurals and trials, and a Law & Order channel would be heaven for her.
If there's one thing I've learned about law and testifying in "L&H", it's that you NEVER testify when the music starts playing in the background. It's a little ongoing joke we have when we watch the show. When that music fades up on the soundtrack, we always yell at the TV "Shut up! Don't you hear the music? You're going to lose the case!" And wouldn't you know it? They do.
Edited By Sonic Youth on 1274542979
If there's one thing I've learned about law and testifying in "L&H", it's that you NEVER testify when the music starts playing in the background. It's a little ongoing joke we have when we watch the show. When that music fades up on the soundtrack, we always yell at the TV "Shut up! Don't you hear the music? You're going to lose the case!" And wouldn't you know it? They do.
Edited By Sonic Youth on 1274542979
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler
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Big Magilla
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So many of my friends and acquaintances have been on Law & Order over the years. One of my closest friends, (Susan) Blair Ross played a school principal on this past week's season finnale of SVU, and my old friend Kate Udall (daughter of Mo Udall) was a lesbian a few weeks ago on an episode when Kathy Griffin was the main guest star.
I wish I could have been a devotee of Law & Order because it was such a New York show and I really did want to like it, but the 3 or 4 times I watched it, I thought it was embarrassingly bad. And if this dross represents "quality television," well there in a nutshell is why I rarely watch tv series.
Tee, Magilla, do you remember a short-lived ABC show around 1963/64 called Arrest and Trial, which was the same exact premise as Law & Order?
I have an actor friend who belongs to a group he says has a minute membership -- New York Actors Who Haven't Appeared on Law & Order.
I wish I could have been a devotee of Law & Order because it was such a New York show and I really did want to like it, but the 3 or 4 times I watched it, I thought it was embarrassingly bad. And if this dross represents "quality television," well there in a nutshell is why I rarely watch tv series.
Tee, Magilla, do you remember a short-lived ABC show around 1963/64 called Arrest and Trial, which was the same exact premise as Law & Order?
I have an actor friend who belongs to a group he says has a minute membership -- New York Actors Who Haven't Appeared on Law & Order.
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
TNT Marks LAW & ORDER Series Finale with Day-Long Marathon of Memorable Episodes
Schedule:
Noon “Point of View” – first episode featuring Jerry Orbach’s character, Detective Lennie Briscoe.
1 p.m. “Sanctuary” – favorite episode of Michael Moriarity, who plays ADA Ben Stone.
2 p.m. “Competence” – episode in which Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson) is shot.
3 p.m. “Pride” – last regular episode featuring Chris Noth’s character, Detective Mike Logan.
4 p.m. “Terminal” – favorite episode of Sam Waterston, who plays ADA Jack McCoy, and Steven Hill, who plays DA Adam Schiff.
5 p.m. “Gunshow” – first and favorite episode of Jesse L. Martin, who plays Detective Ed Green.
6 p.m. “C.O.D.” – final episode for Jerry Orbach’s Detective Lennie Briscoe.
7 p.m. “Burn Card” – final episode for Jesse L. Martin’s Detective Ed Green.
8 p.m. “Illegal” – fan favorite.
9 p.m. “Zero” – fan favorite, with memorable ending in which Jack McCoy refers to Adam Schiff.
A few notes about these: Elaine Stritch guest stars in "Point of View". She won a Guest Actress Emmy.
"Sanctuary": Watch it. One of the single best TV episodes ever.
"Commpetence": Lt. Van Buren actually does the shooting, contrary to what the summary above says.
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anonymous1980
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This is a good article that shows how important the show (and the franchise in general) has been for New York actors:
Law & Order School of Drama
Some actors called it "judging," as in "I judged last week," a verb meaning, "to play a judge on 'Law & Order.' " Donna Hanover, a broadcast journalist and ex-wife of former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, judged seven times. Humorist Fran Lebowitz donned the robes on 12 occasions.
"To be part of that judge pool, it's an honor," says Stephen McKinley Henderson, who played Judge Marc Kramer on seven episodes over the last 15 years and is also a Tony nominee this year for "Fences."
To play a judge was only one point of entry into perhaps the greatest ongoing casting call of all time. For a record-tying 20 years, the original "Law & Order" shot 456 episodes in all. Its finale on Monday employed 42 actors in speaking roles and 125 extras. Every episode adhered to the same actor-intensive formula: fast location changes, talky scenes separated by the ominous chung chung sound, and crowded New York street life, courtrooms and the like.
The show provided about 4,000 jobs each year, including one-day acting roles, according to the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting. Over the years the show employed 20,639 individual actors, with 5,934 of them in speaking roles and the rest background actors, according to Mike Hodge, the New York division president of the Screen Actors Guild. Of all the movies, plays and other TV shows in history, it's hard to think of a single entertainment entity which has hosted more troupers, emoters and hambones.
One casting director, Suzanne Ryan, estimates she's seen up to 130 auditions per show, which comes out to 2,860 to 3,120 per season, and 57,200 to 62,400 in all. More than one aspirant would end his or her tryout with a hopeful "chung chung."
Some of the roles were played by marquee names—Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, Laura Linney, Samuel L. Jackson. Hundreds more were working actors who populate New York theater stages and serve on movies and TV as those familiar character actors we can't quite place.
Known as the "mothership," the original "Law & Order" became a staple on Playbill biographies, with tough-minded creator Dick Wolf as an unlikely Medici for New York actors. To be sure, it was no place for an actor to airily explore his or her "craft." Mr. Wolf fiercely preserved the strict procedural form of "Law & Order"—it was its predictability that made it one of the great rerun shows and a billion-dollar brand for him and NBC.
But for actors it was a lifeline. A "Law & Order" job allowed actors to hold off on a regional theater gig or a part they weren't interested in—a stopgap until something better came along. And it got many a New York performer a Screen Actors Guild card, which helped provide access to health insurance. Actor Peter Sarsgaard, co-star of "Jarhead" and "An Education," got his SAG card with a 1995 guest appearance as a student who knew the victim, according to a casting director. He was in one scene.
The actor-friendly nature of the show, especially in the early years before budget constraints intervened, was well known. Kevin Scullin, who played a corpse, an FBI agent and a court clerk in five episodes between 2001 and 2005, said the series helped him make his rent at least three times. "It was a godsend," he says.
When Mr. Scullin played a corpse, a role for which he did not receive residuals, he said the show found excuses to bulk up his paycheck, throwing in money for performing at night, as well as "wet pay" and "smoke pay," add-ons for scenes that expose actors to water or smoke.
As a corpse, his biggest responsibility was to avoid breathing while the camera was on him as he lay on a slab. But the show also paid him for three extra days of work so he could pose for fake family photos and appear in security-camera footage used in the police investigation. All told, the part paid more than $2,000, he recalls.
Stephen Kunken, who is nominated for a 2010 Tony Award for the play "Enron," appeared on "Law & Order" three times between 2001 and 2009. He says actors tried to work the odds, strategizing so they wouldn't squander their turn in the rotation with a small role. Mr. Wolf has a "60-day rule" that actors cannot play more than one part in "Law & Order," or spinoffs "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" or "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" within a two-month period.
"You had to go, 'I'm going to hold off on the corpse to try to be the lab tech and then I'll trade up from the lab tech, maybe I won't do that for awhile and two years from now I'll be the killer,' " Mr. Kunken says.
When he was 29 years old, Joe Lisi was working as a New York policeman. He went to a "Law & Order" audition and landed one of his first acting jobs playing a cop at a crime scene. That role led to six episodes on "Law & Order" and a string of other TV and movie roles. The dual careers sometimes created confusion. Once Mr. Lisi, who has since retired as a cop, played a gangster indicted for murder on a show called "Against the Law." A clerk called the precinct to report that its newly assigned commanding officer, Capt. Lisi, had just been arrested for murder.
He says that without those roles he may have given up on acting. "There were only two things I wanted to be my whole life: a New York City cop and an actor. With 'Law & Order,' I got to do both," Mr. Lisi says.
"Our Bible became a naturalism that was the absolute antithesis of a polished Hollywood TV look," says executive producer Fred Berner. The prototype was Jerry Orbach, who died in 2004 after playing Det. Lennie Briscoe for 12 years.
"I always think about the show as before Jerry and after Jerry," says executive producer René Balcer, who has worked on the series since it made its 1990 debut. "You saw the weariness of 25 years of crime-fighting in New York written on his face."
Pay for guest roles as judges, jurors and police officers on "Law & Order" ranged from about $800 for one day's work to nearly $3,000 for a week. Actors who stuck around for the entire eight-day shoot were paid at least $7,000, according to the show, based on SAG minimum pay scales. Actors who pass through the show receive residuals, though the checks eventually dwindle: One check—for one cent—is displayed on "Law & Order" actress Leslie Hendrix's bulletin board.
Head casting director Lynn Kressel has found actors for "Law & Order" since the 1989 pilot, which CBS turned down before NBC picked it up. Ms. Kressel has been casting series regulars in the police drama and all of its various spinoffs ever since. (Mr. Wolf, network executives and NBC's Universal Media Studios weigh in on major casting decisions.) Among New York actors Ms. Kressel is a well-known career booster. She sometimes pays by cash at restaurants so the aspiring actor/waitperson won't recognize her name on the credit card and ask for an audition. She tries to go to the theater several nights a week to see if she can spot new faces. "If someone can do it on stage, then they can do it on TV," she says.
When "Law & Order" came to town, there was little New York screen work beyond commercials, a few soaps and the occasional movie (a host of TV shows are now filmed there). William H. Macy, who appeared in one of the first episodes and returned for another spot in 1992 before his acclaim for "Fargo," says the job helped him make ends meet back then: "New York City actors, we just lived and died by the little bit of TV work that would come our way," he says. "Law & Order" and other shows meant a paycheck, but the work of a so-called day player could be lonely. "Lunchtime comes and you pray that someone will sit beside you," he says of the one-day acting jobs. "It's no fault of the cast and crew—usually, they're exhausted."
Fran Lebowitz, whose biting essays were published in "Metropolitan Life" and "Social Studies," got the judge role after begging a friend in the cast for an audition. "People always asked me, 'Fran, are you doing this tiny part hoping to get a bigger part?' and I said, 'No, I'm doing this tiny part hoping to become a real judge,'" says Ms. Lebowitz, whose duties were limited to setting bail.
Guest roles have changed over the years as the series evolved and ratings sagged. The show averages about 7.3 million viewers this season, down 52% from a decade ago, according to Nielsen Co.
At one point, the show did away with what writer Lorenzo Carcaterra calls "the two schmucks who find the body" at the beginning of each episode. Stories began to open while the victim is still alive. Mr. Berner, the executive producer, says he cut down on the practice of suspects and witnesses flipping a pizza or loading a truck as detectives interrogate them: "My experience is that if you get stopped by an officer, your heart beats fast and you stand still."
Ms. Hendrix, who played a medical examiner, says over the years the set seemed to run itself. "It was a formula you could fit yourself into without much effort," she says. "Eight or nine days that episode is shot and finished and boom, here we are, on to the next one." She recalls her favorite line as: "If you'll excuse me, I've got to go pull a javelin out of some guy's chest."
The job can be double-edged. In her recurring role as forensic psychologist Elizabeth Olivet, a passive listener who drew out other people's stories, actress Carolyn McCormick says she received mail from prisoners and others who felt she understood their story. But she lost out on funny and sexy roles elsewhere. "That role has stigmatized me as someone who is smart and boring," says Ms. McCormick. "Someone once said to me, 'I'd love to see you in a play because I'd love to see you change your expression.' "
This Monday night, barring some later cable deal that could result in a few shows with an asterisk attached, "Law & Order" will air its final new episode. "Rubber Room" is yet another "ripped from the headlines" story based on a controversial disciplinary process for New York public school teachers. Before the cancellation, it was written as a goodbye to longtime actress S. Epatha Merkerson. Her character, Lt. Anita Van Buren is battling cancer.
Not every cast member has only fond memories. When George Dzundza was leaving after the first season, the show planned for his character, Sgt. Max Greevey, to get shot in the face. Mr. Dzundza objected, asking to live long enough to say a few words as a kind of goodbye to his fans. The request was denied, he says. He refused to do the episode, and though his character was still shot, he says, there was no final image of his bloodied face.
Mr. Dzundza, who found it hard to be separated from his family as he commuted to the set from his Los Angeles home, recalls a New York cold snap when he shot a scene in 35-second increments because the camera kept freezing. "If we were dogs, they would've shut this company down," he recalls joking at the time. "It would've been cruelty to animals. You take that in stride—that's part of the combat aspect of doing it, and sometimes that's very, very exciting as well, but it's not easy."
But most other actors were filled with regret. One agent sent a note to Ms. Kressel saying, "It's the end of life as we know it." And Ms. Hanover, the former New York first lady who played a judge, said with a sigh, "I was hoping to have a chance to get back on the bench one more time."
Law & Order School of Drama
Some actors called it "judging," as in "I judged last week," a verb meaning, "to play a judge on 'Law & Order.' " Donna Hanover, a broadcast journalist and ex-wife of former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, judged seven times. Humorist Fran Lebowitz donned the robes on 12 occasions.
"To be part of that judge pool, it's an honor," says Stephen McKinley Henderson, who played Judge Marc Kramer on seven episodes over the last 15 years and is also a Tony nominee this year for "Fences."
To play a judge was only one point of entry into perhaps the greatest ongoing casting call of all time. For a record-tying 20 years, the original "Law & Order" shot 456 episodes in all. Its finale on Monday employed 42 actors in speaking roles and 125 extras. Every episode adhered to the same actor-intensive formula: fast location changes, talky scenes separated by the ominous chung chung sound, and crowded New York street life, courtrooms and the like.
The show provided about 4,000 jobs each year, including one-day acting roles, according to the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting. Over the years the show employed 20,639 individual actors, with 5,934 of them in speaking roles and the rest background actors, according to Mike Hodge, the New York division president of the Screen Actors Guild. Of all the movies, plays and other TV shows in history, it's hard to think of a single entertainment entity which has hosted more troupers, emoters and hambones.
One casting director, Suzanne Ryan, estimates she's seen up to 130 auditions per show, which comes out to 2,860 to 3,120 per season, and 57,200 to 62,400 in all. More than one aspirant would end his or her tryout with a hopeful "chung chung."
Some of the roles were played by marquee names—Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, Laura Linney, Samuel L. Jackson. Hundreds more were working actors who populate New York theater stages and serve on movies and TV as those familiar character actors we can't quite place.
Known as the "mothership," the original "Law & Order" became a staple on Playbill biographies, with tough-minded creator Dick Wolf as an unlikely Medici for New York actors. To be sure, it was no place for an actor to airily explore his or her "craft." Mr. Wolf fiercely preserved the strict procedural form of "Law & Order"—it was its predictability that made it one of the great rerun shows and a billion-dollar brand for him and NBC.
But for actors it was a lifeline. A "Law & Order" job allowed actors to hold off on a regional theater gig or a part they weren't interested in—a stopgap until something better came along. And it got many a New York performer a Screen Actors Guild card, which helped provide access to health insurance. Actor Peter Sarsgaard, co-star of "Jarhead" and "An Education," got his SAG card with a 1995 guest appearance as a student who knew the victim, according to a casting director. He was in one scene.
The actor-friendly nature of the show, especially in the early years before budget constraints intervened, was well known. Kevin Scullin, who played a corpse, an FBI agent and a court clerk in five episodes between 2001 and 2005, said the series helped him make his rent at least three times. "It was a godsend," he says.
When Mr. Scullin played a corpse, a role for which he did not receive residuals, he said the show found excuses to bulk up his paycheck, throwing in money for performing at night, as well as "wet pay" and "smoke pay," add-ons for scenes that expose actors to water or smoke.
As a corpse, his biggest responsibility was to avoid breathing while the camera was on him as he lay on a slab. But the show also paid him for three extra days of work so he could pose for fake family photos and appear in security-camera footage used in the police investigation. All told, the part paid more than $2,000, he recalls.
Stephen Kunken, who is nominated for a 2010 Tony Award for the play "Enron," appeared on "Law & Order" three times between 2001 and 2009. He says actors tried to work the odds, strategizing so they wouldn't squander their turn in the rotation with a small role. Mr. Wolf has a "60-day rule" that actors cannot play more than one part in "Law & Order," or spinoffs "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" or "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" within a two-month period.
"You had to go, 'I'm going to hold off on the corpse to try to be the lab tech and then I'll trade up from the lab tech, maybe I won't do that for awhile and two years from now I'll be the killer,' " Mr. Kunken says.
When he was 29 years old, Joe Lisi was working as a New York policeman. He went to a "Law & Order" audition and landed one of his first acting jobs playing a cop at a crime scene. That role led to six episodes on "Law & Order" and a string of other TV and movie roles. The dual careers sometimes created confusion. Once Mr. Lisi, who has since retired as a cop, played a gangster indicted for murder on a show called "Against the Law." A clerk called the precinct to report that its newly assigned commanding officer, Capt. Lisi, had just been arrested for murder.
He says that without those roles he may have given up on acting. "There were only two things I wanted to be my whole life: a New York City cop and an actor. With 'Law & Order,' I got to do both," Mr. Lisi says.
"Our Bible became a naturalism that was the absolute antithesis of a polished Hollywood TV look," says executive producer Fred Berner. The prototype was Jerry Orbach, who died in 2004 after playing Det. Lennie Briscoe for 12 years.
"I always think about the show as before Jerry and after Jerry," says executive producer René Balcer, who has worked on the series since it made its 1990 debut. "You saw the weariness of 25 years of crime-fighting in New York written on his face."
Pay for guest roles as judges, jurors and police officers on "Law & Order" ranged from about $800 for one day's work to nearly $3,000 for a week. Actors who stuck around for the entire eight-day shoot were paid at least $7,000, according to the show, based on SAG minimum pay scales. Actors who pass through the show receive residuals, though the checks eventually dwindle: One check—for one cent—is displayed on "Law & Order" actress Leslie Hendrix's bulletin board.
Head casting director Lynn Kressel has found actors for "Law & Order" since the 1989 pilot, which CBS turned down before NBC picked it up. Ms. Kressel has been casting series regulars in the police drama and all of its various spinoffs ever since. (Mr. Wolf, network executives and NBC's Universal Media Studios weigh in on major casting decisions.) Among New York actors Ms. Kressel is a well-known career booster. She sometimes pays by cash at restaurants so the aspiring actor/waitperson won't recognize her name on the credit card and ask for an audition. She tries to go to the theater several nights a week to see if she can spot new faces. "If someone can do it on stage, then they can do it on TV," she says.
When "Law & Order" came to town, there was little New York screen work beyond commercials, a few soaps and the occasional movie (a host of TV shows are now filmed there). William H. Macy, who appeared in one of the first episodes and returned for another spot in 1992 before his acclaim for "Fargo," says the job helped him make ends meet back then: "New York City actors, we just lived and died by the little bit of TV work that would come our way," he says. "Law & Order" and other shows meant a paycheck, but the work of a so-called day player could be lonely. "Lunchtime comes and you pray that someone will sit beside you," he says of the one-day acting jobs. "It's no fault of the cast and crew—usually, they're exhausted."
Fran Lebowitz, whose biting essays were published in "Metropolitan Life" and "Social Studies," got the judge role after begging a friend in the cast for an audition. "People always asked me, 'Fran, are you doing this tiny part hoping to get a bigger part?' and I said, 'No, I'm doing this tiny part hoping to become a real judge,'" says Ms. Lebowitz, whose duties were limited to setting bail.
Guest roles have changed over the years as the series evolved and ratings sagged. The show averages about 7.3 million viewers this season, down 52% from a decade ago, according to Nielsen Co.
At one point, the show did away with what writer Lorenzo Carcaterra calls "the two schmucks who find the body" at the beginning of each episode. Stories began to open while the victim is still alive. Mr. Berner, the executive producer, says he cut down on the practice of suspects and witnesses flipping a pizza or loading a truck as detectives interrogate them: "My experience is that if you get stopped by an officer, your heart beats fast and you stand still."
Ms. Hendrix, who played a medical examiner, says over the years the set seemed to run itself. "It was a formula you could fit yourself into without much effort," she says. "Eight or nine days that episode is shot and finished and boom, here we are, on to the next one." She recalls her favorite line as: "If you'll excuse me, I've got to go pull a javelin out of some guy's chest."
The job can be double-edged. In her recurring role as forensic psychologist Elizabeth Olivet, a passive listener who drew out other people's stories, actress Carolyn McCormick says she received mail from prisoners and others who felt she understood their story. But she lost out on funny and sexy roles elsewhere. "That role has stigmatized me as someone who is smart and boring," says Ms. McCormick. "Someone once said to me, 'I'd love to see you in a play because I'd love to see you change your expression.' "
This Monday night, barring some later cable deal that could result in a few shows with an asterisk attached, "Law & Order" will air its final new episode. "Rubber Room" is yet another "ripped from the headlines" story based on a controversial disciplinary process for New York public school teachers. Before the cancellation, it was written as a goodbye to longtime actress S. Epatha Merkerson. Her character, Lt. Anita Van Buren is battling cancer.
Not every cast member has only fond memories. When George Dzundza was leaving after the first season, the show planned for his character, Sgt. Max Greevey, to get shot in the face. Mr. Dzundza objected, asking to live long enough to say a few words as a kind of goodbye to his fans. The request was denied, he says. He refused to do the episode, and though his character was still shot, he says, there was no final image of his bloodied face.
Mr. Dzundza, who found it hard to be separated from his family as he commuted to the set from his Los Angeles home, recalls a New York cold snap when he shot a scene in 35-second increments because the camera kept freezing. "If we were dogs, they would've shut this company down," he recalls joking at the time. "It would've been cruelty to animals. You take that in stride—that's part of the combat aspect of doing it, and sometimes that's very, very exciting as well, but it's not easy."
But most other actors were filled with regret. One agent sent a note to Ms. Kressel saying, "It's the end of life as we know it." And Ms. Hanover, the former New York first lady who played a judge, said with a sigh, "I was hoping to have a chance to get back on the bench one more time."
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OscarGuy
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There are two records in question. Gunsmoke held the record for longest run of an hour-long dramatic series. The Simpsons holds the records for longest run of a half-hour comedy series and of an animated series.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
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MovieWes
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As far as I'm concerned, Gunsmoke still holds the record. They did, after all, produce 5 made-for-TV movies after its run was over, which should count for something.
Anyway, it hardly matters. The Simpsons is in its 21st season, so it actually holds the record.
Edited By MovieWes on 1274300061
Anyway, it hardly matters. The Simpsons is in its 21st season, so it actually holds the record.
Edited By MovieWes on 1274300061
"Young men make wars and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution." -- Alec Guinness (Lawrence of Arabia)
It'll probably come to nothing but...
‘Law & Order’ Creator Still Looking to Bring Original Back
Is “Law & Order” really dead?
Not if its creator, Dick Wolf, can help it. Mr. Wolf said after Monday’s NBC upfront presentation that he was out seeking “other offers” for his 20-year-old, New York-based franchise, which NBC canceled this week.
Mr. Wolf has long aimed to see his signature police and legal procedural surpass the classic western “Gunsmoke” as television’s longest-running prime-time drama. NBC’s decision left the two shows in a tie for that record.
Mr. Wolf was known to be negotiating as hard as he could to try to persuade NBC to extend the show for another year. On Monday, he said he was not giving up, but he did not specify where he was hoping to place the series.
Mr. Wolf did say that another plan – one that would have wrapped up the flagship “Law & Order” with a two-hour movie on NBC – was delayed until he exhausts every other opportunity to keep the show going as a weekly series.
‘Law & Order’ Creator Still Looking to Bring Original Back
Is “Law & Order” really dead?
Not if its creator, Dick Wolf, can help it. Mr. Wolf said after Monday’s NBC upfront presentation that he was out seeking “other offers” for his 20-year-old, New York-based franchise, which NBC canceled this week.
Mr. Wolf has long aimed to see his signature police and legal procedural surpass the classic western “Gunsmoke” as television’s longest-running prime-time drama. NBC’s decision left the two shows in a tie for that record.
Mr. Wolf was known to be negotiating as hard as he could to try to persuade NBC to extend the show for another year. On Monday, he said he was not giving up, but he did not specify where he was hoping to place the series.
Mr. Wolf did say that another plan – one that would have wrapped up the flagship “Law & Order” with a two-hour movie on NBC – was delayed until he exhausts every other opportunity to keep the show going as a weekly series.
Considering that Wolf has made more money for NBC-Universal than any single individual in the past twenty years (the franchise--mainly through syndication, but also through overseas deals--has made billions for NBC over the years), I think that NBC should have given him and his creative team a chance to--within reason--end it on their own terms. I know that TNT's syndication agreement only ran through season twenty, and there were some difficulties reaching an agreement for future episodes. But they could've figured out something.
And it's not really even the 21-season record that I care about. One of the most important drama series in the history of television deserves a proper sendoff. Lost gets over five hours dedicated to it when its final episode airs. Law & Order made location filming a viable option (before almost every show just passed LA off as any place) and made syndicating drama series a viable thing (some drama series had been syndicated before Law & Order, but now almost every series that lasts four or five seasons is, and it's a VERY profitable thing). It deserved at least a two-hour retrospective before its finale airs.
And it's not really even the 21-season record that I care about. One of the most important drama series in the history of television deserves a proper sendoff. Lost gets over five hours dedicated to it when its final episode airs. Law & Order made location filming a viable option (before almost every show just passed LA off as any place) and made syndicating drama series a viable thing (some drama series had been syndicated before Law & Order, but now almost every series that lasts four or five seasons is, and it's a VERY profitable thing). It deserved at least a two-hour retrospective before its finale airs.