Law & Order

[Bullgrit]

I'm a big Law & Order fan. I love that show, and I've been watching it here and there as I find it on for as long as it's been aired. Now that I have Netflix, I've been watching it in order from its first season, 1990. It's amazing how many of the episodes I've seen and recognize even from 20 years ago. I'm only on season 2 right now, but I've found some really interesting, (in a trivial sense), things:

Clark Gregg -- Marvel's Agent Coulson -- played a murder victim's boyfriend in the season 1.

S. Epatha Merkerson -- Lieutenant Anita Van Buren on L&O from seasons 4-20 -- played a grieving mother in season 1.

Jerry Orbach -- Detective Lenny Brisco on L&O from seasons 3-14 -- played a defense attorney in season 2.

A murder victim in season 2 was named Edward Cullen.


The Merkerson and Orbach notes are probably examples of actors making a good impression on the producers and getting called back for regular work. That's great.

Bullgrit

 

[trappedslider]

Sadly they don't have all of L&O but there's an old joke form during it's run that when you go see something on Broadway that if an actor didn't have an L&O credit to their name that it meant they were either new or weren't that good

EDIT: and if i had the money http://www.amazon.com/Law-Order-The...sr=8-1&keywords=law+and+order+complete+series

 

[Felon]

Law & Order was a masterpiece early in its run, when nobody was watching it and it struggled to avoid cancellation. It was so different from everything that came before. There were plenty of episodes that focused on the ugly reality that the good guys don't always win. Remember the one episode with the Columbians where all the witnesses died ("she doesn't have an uncle...")? Then there was another episode where they were working a murder case, and the captain was asking them if they were going to follow up on a lead that night, and the cop asks "are you going to approve overtime?" as he put on his overcoat, knowing full well the answer. Heck, some of the early detectives were even fat. Imagine that: an overweight television cop.

And then it all changed, and it became a supercop show that spun off more supercop shows. Scenery-chewing detectives like Vincent D'Onofrio dash across rooftops to catch the mustache-twirling bad guy. Diehard DA's bend the rules and damn the politics to seek justice for total strangers. It became a ridiculous parody of its former self, mutating into a bloated, incestuous franchise.

In all likelihood, this was pretty much a reaction to CSI's popularity at the time, and to L&O's credit it never got quite that ludicrous. Still, if there's a compelling argument for solipsism, the shrugging acceptance of where L&O started out and the stark contrast to where it ended up is it.