The original show by creator Dick Wolfe received 156 Golden Globe nominations, Emmy nominations from 1991- 2003, and was the longest running crime drama on American television. The franchise eventually inspired spin-offs like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: LA, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Interestingly, S. Epatha Merkerson, who played a brilliant Lt. Van Buren, finally lost interest in continuing her role after 391 episodes. Although Fred Dalton Thompson (D. A. Arthur Branch) made a great presidential candidate, I always enjoyed the oratory of Sam Waterston as Jack McCoy. Seasons of Law and Order can best be described by the cast playing Jack’s assistant DA, the Detectives, and the District Attorney.
The Assistant DA
Jack always had the best looking assistant DAs, and it was left to the audience’s imagination whether his relationship went beyond the courtroom. We were left to wonder, “Oh Jack, is she one of yours?” Wolfe only provided the relevant information as all other matters were outside our jurisdiction. I followed the series from Jill Hennessey as Claire Kincaid, Carey Lowell as Jamie Ross, Angie Harmon as Abbie Carmaichael, Elisabeth Rohm as Serena Southerlyn, Annie Parisse as DA Borgia, and Alana de la Garza as Rubirosa. Though he changes assistants quite often, the character of McCoy was steady throughout the seasons. Their repartee always added an interesting angle to the case.
The Detectives
Some of my favorites from Manhattan’s 27th Precinct and NYPD’s finest are Chris Noth, Jerry Orbach, Benjamin Bratt, Dennis Farina, Jeremy Sisto as Detective Lupo, Anthony Anderson as Detective Bernard and Jesse L. Martin as Detective Green. Some interesting tidbits are that Noth originally competed for the role of Mike Logan with Michael Madsen. After the audition, Madsen’s reading was perceived as repetitive, so Noth received the role instead. Jerry Orbach was initially hesitant about his role as Detective Briscoe due to his age (sadly, he expired after two seasons in 2004). Jesse L. Martin is a veteran of Broadway, and, most interestingly, Dennis Farina, in real life, was a Chicago policeman for 18 years.
The District Attorney
What would the show be without a powerful District Attorney who can checkmate the prosecution, the people of New York, and McCoy? Steven Hill’s character DA Adam Schiff is based on real-life Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau. Fred Dalton Thompson, as DA Arthur Branch, a retiring Senator, eventually left the show to seek the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. It was interesting to cast McCoy as the DA when Linus Roache joined the cast as Michael Cutter.
Through scant evidence, plea bargains, hair samples, blood trails, Wolfe pulled the material for the initial plots based on actual cases. He let the cold, hard facts speak for themselves, as is narrated in the opening line: “In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.”