92 Fun Facts About Law and Order

Which phrase do Law & Order's promos use for its habit of basing plots on real news stories?

Ripped from the headlines is the slogan for plots that echo real cases, yet such episodes carry a disclaimer that the story is fictional; one lawyer still sued over a character too much like him.

Michael Moriarty played which Executive Assistant District Attorney in Law & Order's first four seasons?

Ben Stone resigned in 1994, feeling responsible after one of his witnesses was murdered mid-trial, which opened the door to a new lead prosecutor.

Which politician appeared as himself on SVU in 2016 to talk about the backlog of untested rape kits?

Joe Biden was vice president when he flew to New York to tape the cameo for the season-18 episode 'Making a Rapist'.

Which two parts make up the original 'Law & Order' episode structure?

Investigation and Trial: detectives chase the suspect in the first half and prosecutors try the case in the second, a design that made the prosecution the hero, reversing the usual courtroom-drama formula.

What is the nickname of the 'Law & Order' scene-transition sound effect?

The Dun Dun, which composer Mike Post calls 'The Clang', is a blend of synthesised noises that he thinks of as the stylised sound of a jail cell locking.

Which actor played Law & Order prosecutor Jack McCoy from 1994 until the character resigned in 2024?

Sam Waterston played McCoy for some 400 episodes; the character quit so that the governor, not a vindictive mayor's ally, would choose the next District Attorney.

Richard Belzer agreed to bring John Munch to SVU only if which actor was cast as his partner?

Dean Winters, whom Belzer saw as a little brother, got the part of Brian Cassidy but was contracted to HBO's Oz, so Cassidy transferred out midway through season one.

Jerry Orbach famously played which veteran detective on the original 'Law & Order'?

Lennie Briscoe was Orbach's role for 12 seasons; when the actor died in 2004 his eyes were donated at his own wish, giving sight to two women who needed corneas.

Fred Thompson joined Law & Order as DA Arthur Branch in 2002 while still a US senator from which state?

Tennessee: Thompson's first screen role was himself, in Marie, a 1985 film about a state parole scandal he had fought as a lawyer.

Which actor played the eccentric, brilliant Detective Robert Goren in 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent'?

Vincent D'Onofrio collapsed on set in 2004 and was diagnosed with exhaustion after 14-hour days as Goren; from the next season his episodes alternated with a second detective team's.

Steven Zirnkilton's narration opens every Law & Order episode and ends on which four-word line?

These are their stories closes the intro; Zirnkilton got the job after helping the show's creator buy a house in Maine and handing him a demo tape instead of a bill.

Which 1988 pilot about city officials tied to the mob sat unaired until Law & Order's first season?

Everybody's Favorite Bagman was shot for CBS, which passed; it aired two years later as the sixth episode, which is why its district attorney is played by Roy Thinnes, not Steven Hill.

Richard Belzer jokingly called Law & Order's scene-change sound effect what?

'The Dick Wolf Cash Register': Belzer's joke about what the sound earns its creator; composer Mike Post himself calls the effect 'The Clang'.

After punching a politician in 1995, Law & Order's Mike Logan was transferred to a squad on which New York island?

Staten Island was treated as banishment: Jack McCoy called the posting 'two-and-a-half to five', and the 1998 TV movie about the detective's fight to get back was titled Exiled.

Which 'Law & Order: SVU' actress, as Olivia Benson, holds the record for longest-running character in a US primetime drama?

Mariska Hargitay has played Benson since 1999, and the role led her to found the Joyful Heart Foundation, which supports survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse.

Law & Order's original 20-season run tied which Western's record as the longest-running live-action primetime series?

Gunsmoke also ran 20 seasons; NBC cancelled Law & Order in 2010 one season short of beating it, and the record fell instead to the show's own spin-off in 2019.

Which SVU detective studied law at night and left the squad in 2019 to become its prosecutor?

Sonny Carisi passed the bar exam in season 17 yet chose to stay a detective, and only later crossed to the district attorney's office to try the squad's cases himself.

Steven Hill's District Attorney Adam Schiff was loosely based on which real-life Manhattan DA?

Robert Morgenthau ran the office from 1975 to 2009 and became a devoted viewer of the show himself; his wife said he loved Adam Schiff.

SVU leads Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson were named after whom?

Dick Wolf's children: he named the two detectives after his son Elliot and his daughter Olivia when creating the series in 1999.

Which actor played Detective Joe Fontana, the senior detective who joined Law & Order's 27th Precinct in 2004?

Dennis Farina had spent 18 years as a Chicago police officer before turning to acting; Fontana lasted two seasons and then retired off screen.

Michael Moriarty quit Law & Order in 1994 after a feud with which U.S. Attorney General over television violence?

Janet Reno had begun pushing in 1993 for limits on violence in television; Moriarty denounced that as censorship and handed in his resignation in January 1994.

According to SVU's opening narration, sexually based offenses are considered especially what?

Heinous is the word; Christopher Meloni, who heard the narration open every episode for 12 seasons, still fluffed it when asked to recite the intro from memory.

Which rapper plays Detective Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola on 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'?

Ice-T joined SVU in 2000, eight years after his band Body Count's song 'Cop Killer' infuriated police groups and government officials.

Which British network commissioned 'Law & Order: UK', the franchise's London-set adaptation?

ITV ordered 13 episodes built on scripts from the American original; the run stopped in 2014 when its star Bradley Walsh chose to leave.

Who played ADA Alexandra Cabot on 'Law & Order: SVU' and again in 'Conviction'?

Stephanie March's Cabot was shot, declared dead and hidden in Witness Protection in 2003; she resurfaced running a bureau of young prosecutors in the 2006 spin-off.

Which Disney character was voiced by Jerry Orbach, a year before he joined Law & Order's cast?

Lumière, the candelabra who leads 'Be Our Guest' in Beauty and the Beast, was Orbach's voice, and he performed the number live at the 1992 Academy Awards.

What was the name of Detective Elliot Stabler's wife in 'Law & Order: SVU' and 'Organized Crime'?

Kathy, played by Isabel Gillies, died after a car bombing in 2021, the loss that drives her husband into the Organized Crime Control Bureau.

Why did Christopher Meloni leave SVU after its twelfth season in 2011?

No new contract was agreed in May 2011, so his detective retired off screen after a squad-room shooting; a decade later the actor came back to lead a spin-off.

Which actress guest-starred as a grieving mother in season one before returning as Law & Order's Lieutenant Van Buren?

S. Epatha Merkerson went on to command the squad for 17 seasons; in the last of them Van Buren spent the year fighting cervical cancer.

Which network first ordered 13 episodes of 'Law & Order' on the concept alone, then backed out?

Fox ordered 13 episodes with no pilot; CBS then ordered a pilot but passed too, and the show finally landed at NBC, where it stayed for its entire run.

Which Broadway legend won a 1993 guest-actress Emmy for playing a defence lawyer on Law & Order?

Elaine Stritch won as Lanie Stieglitz; she had earlier auditioned to be Dorothy in The Golden Girls, and lost the part to Bea Arthur.

In 2002, 'Law & Order' overtook which series as the longest-running police drama on American television?

Hawaii Five-O had held the mark since its twelfth and last season ended in 1980; Law & Order passed it without a single member of its original cast still on screen.

DA Arthur Branch actor Fred Thompson left Law & Order in 2007 to pursue what?

A presidential run: Thompson sought the 2008 Republican nomination, and NBC kept his reruns off the air while he was a candidate so rivals could not demand equal time.

Which actor played Detective Mike Logan in Law & Order's original cast?

Chris Noth played Logan for five seasons, until the detective punched out a politician and was shipped off to a dead-end posting.

Which original 'Law & Order' detective was partnered with Mike Logan in the very first season?

Max Greevey lasted one season: when George Dzundza left the show, the sergeant was ambushed and killed outside his home in the season-two premiere.

Which Dann Florek character was captain in the original 'Law & Order' and then long-time captain of SVU?

Donald Cragen ran SVU for 15 seasons before retiring in 2014 to take a six-month cruise around the world, leaving Olivia Benson in charge of the squad.

Which film star joined SVU for a four-episode arc in 2010 as prosecutor Jo Marlowe?

Sharon Stone's Marlowe, written as an adrenaline junkie, filled the gap left when Alexandra Cabot took leave to join the International Criminal Court.

Which actor joined the revived 'Law & Order' as Detective Frank Cosgrove?

Jeffrey Donovan had been on the show twice before he got a badge: as a murder victim in 1995 and as a killer in 2007.

Which 'Law & Order' spin-off was the first cancelled, after low ratings and the death of a prominent actor?

Trial by Jury ran for 12 episodes on NBC in 2005 before the axe fell; its thirteenth surfaced on Court TV the following January.

Which Sex and the City star won a 2008 guest-actress Emmy for an episode of SVU?

Cynthia Nixon played a woman faking multiple personalities in the season-nine premiere, a part that also had her slap Christopher Meloni's detective across the face.

Which actor filled in as Law & Order's Detective Nick Falco while Ed Green recovered from being shot?

Michael Imperioli covered four episodes in 2005, nine years after guest-starring on the show as a killer; Falco himself later came back as a murder suspect.

Steven Hill, Law & Order's DA Adam Schiff, led the team in the first season of which 1960s spy series?

Mission: Impossible began with Hill as team leader Dan Briggs, but as an Orthodox Jew he left the set before sundown every Friday, a clash with the shooting schedule, and he was replaced after one season.

The fictional New York Ledger from Law & Order was the setting for which other Dick Wolf series?

Deadline starred Oliver Platt as a columnist at the Ledger, the tabloid on the franchise's newsstands; its ratings slid and NBC cancelled it after five episodes.

In the 'Law & Order' universe, which fictional university is often referenced?

Hudson University is a stand-in that looks part Columbia and part N.Y.U., and turns up in so many cases that The New York Times called it the place where everyone majors in murder.

Which actor joined Law & Order in 1995 as Detective Rey Curtis, staying for four seasons?

Benjamin Bratt earned an Emmy nomination as Curtis, who was written out in 1999 taking early retirement after his wife's multiple sclerosis diagnosis.

How was ADA Claire Kincaid written out of Law & Order at the end of season six?

Killed in a car crash while driving a colleague home from a bar in the finale 'Aftershock'; Jill Hennessy had chosen not to renew her three-year contract.

Which ER star took command of Law & Order's detectives in 2024 as Lieutenant Jessica Brady?

Maura Tierney joined as the new lieutenant in season 24, some 33 years after her first appearance on the show, a 1991 guest role she now laughs at.

NBC pressure to add what to Law & Order led to two cast members being dropped after season 3?

Female characters: the network's president threatened cancellation unless women joined the cast, so two men were let go and Lieutenant Anita Van Buren and ADA Claire Kincaid arrived.

Angie Harmon won the role of Law & Order's ADA Abbie Carmichael after the creator heard her what?

Her Texas accent won it; Vanessa Williams was among the other candidates, and Carmichael was conceived as louder and more outspoken than any predecessor.

Which Law & Order ADA's abrupt 2005 exit had her ask if she was being fired for being a lesbian?

Serena Southerlyn: Elisabeth Röhm's ADA was fired by Branch in the January 2005 episode 'Ain't No Love' and asked 'Is this because I'm a lesbian?', a line nothing earlier had set up.

Law & Order's Jesse L. Martin left midway through season 15 to film which movie musical?

Rent: Martin had originated Tom Collins on Broadway and reprised him in the 2005 film; Ed Green was written out as shot in the line of duty while he was away.

Which humorist had recurring cameos as a judge on the original Law & Order?

Fran Lebowitz says she begged to be on the show and wanted only an arraignment judge's part, Janice Goldberg, because it meant sitting still and saying one sentence.

The Law & Order theme was written for electric piano, guitar and which third instrument?

Clarinet: composer Mike Post kept the theme deliberately spare to match the show's clipped style, setting a jazzy reed melody over a gritty guitar line.

Which actor played ADA Rafael Barba on 'Law & Order: SVU' from 2012 to 2018?

Raúl Esparza played Barba until season 19, when the prosecutor switched off a dying infant's life support, was tried for murder and, though acquitted, resigned after 21 years.

Which cable network took over Law & Order's reruns from A&E in the early 2000s and kept them until 2019?

TNT stepped in when A&E balked at a renewal price four times its original deal; A&E's weekday repeats had been credited with swelling the audience for NBC's new episodes.

Which comedian earned an Emmy nomination for playing a manipulative engineer in SVU's 200th episode?

Robin Williams played Merritt Rook, who poses as a police officer by phone to push strangers into crimes; Richard Belzer, a friend from their stand-up days, recruited him.

Which actor played police psychiatrist Dr. Emil Skoda on Law & Order from 1997?

J. K. Simmons, later an Oscar winner for Whiplash, played Skoda while also appearing as the neo-Nazi inmate Vern Schillinger on HBO's Oz.

Which nickname did Law & Order give the Executive ADA introduced in the season 5 premiere 'Second Opinion'?

'Hang 'em High McCoy': the reputation Jack McCoy arrived with in the 1994 premiere 'Second Opinion'; he later calls himself a 'junkyard dog' of a prosecutor.

Which relative of Law & Order's Detective Briscoe was murdered after testifying against a drug dealer?

His daughter Cathy, struggling with addiction, was killed in the 1998 episode 'Damaged' by the dealer she had testified against, and the detective blamed himself.

Detective John Munch was based on which real Baltimore homicide figure?

Jay Landsman, a sergeant in the 1991 book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, inspired Munch; he later acted in The Wire while another actor played a character with his name.

Who is paid royalties every time Munch appears in an SVU episode?

David Simon: Munch sprang from Simon's book Homicide, so Simon has said he receives a small payment each time the character turns up on another show.

Detective John Munch turned up in a 1997 episode of which Fox series?

The X-Files met Munch, a devoted conspiracy theorist, in 'Unusual Suspects', a 1989 flashback in which the Baltimore detective, for once the sceptic, refuses to believe the Lone Gunmen's story.

What was SVU's original working title?

Sex Crimes: the working title was dropped after a studio executive objected, and Wolf attached the Law & Order brand even though some feared a flop could damage the original.

Which prosecutor, played by Diane Neal, took over as SVU's ADA in 2003 after Alexandra Cabot's exit?

Casey Novak arrived the episode after her predecessor faked her own death, and stayed through season nine, when she was censured; she later returned to the job.

SVU's concept grew from the 1986 'preppie murder' case of which killer?

Robert Chambers, who killed Jennifer Levin in Central Park in 1986, inspired the season-one episode 'Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die'; writing it left the creator wanting to dig deeper into the psychology behind such cases.

Which future Mad Men star was a finalist for SVU's male lead in 1999?

John Slattery reached the final four with Tim Matheson and Nick Chinlund, but the part went to the actor who read in the last round alongside the eventual female lead.

Before joining SVU in season two, Fin Tutuola worked undercover for which NYPD division?

Narcotics kept him undercover for weeks at a time, which wrecked his marriage; the rapper who plays him signed on for only a handful of episodes and never left.

Why did SVU production move from New Jersey back to New York in 2010?

Tax credits were suspended: New Jersey froze its film tax-credit programme in 2010, so SVU left North Bergen for the Chelsea Piers stages the original series had just vacated.

On SVU, what is the job of Tamara Tunie's Melinda Warner?

Medical examiner: Tunie took the part in 2000 while still playing attorney Jessica Griffin on the soap As the World Turns, and held both jobs for seven years.

Which comedian joined SVU in season 13 as TARU technician Leo Gerber?

Gilbert Gottfried was hired after the new showrunner called the squad's tech scenes dry and went looking for a more colourful character to liven them up.

Kelli Giddish's detective transferred to Manhattan SVU from which city's police department?

Atlanta: Rollins joined Manhattan SVU from the city's police in 2011, and season 16 revealed that her deputy chief there had assaulted her.

Which actress played Sheila Porter, the grandmother of Benson's adopted son Noah?

Brooke Shields, a close friend of the show's star, played Sheila Porter across season 19; the grandmother first fought for custody of Noah, then abducted him.

Christopher Meloni's SVU detective served in which branch of the military?

Marine Corps: Stabler served after high school, then came home to become a police officer, the same job his abusive father had held.

Which actor played crime boss Richard Wheatley, Elliot Stabler's nemesis in the first two seasons of Organized Crime?

Dylan McDermott's Wheatley, born Richard Sinatra, hid a criminal empire behind an online pharmaceutical company and was a suspect in the bombing that killed Stabler's wife.

Organized Crime moved from NBC to which streaming service for its fifth season?

Peacock got season five in April 2025 after four seasons on NBC; its star said streaming would allow a little more edge, but the show was cancelled a year later.

Before playing Law & Order's ADA Jamie Ross, Carey Lowell was a Bond girl in which film?

Licence to Kill cast her as Pam Bouvier in 1989; years later Lowell brought Ross back to the franchise on the other side of the bench, as a judge.

Criminal Intent left NBC for which cable channel in its seventh season?

USA Network: Criminal Intent moved there for season 7 in 2007, having already been rerun on USA the week after each NBC airing; the move shared costs as ratings fell.

Jeff Goldblum joined Criminal Intent in season 8 as which detective?

Zack Nichols, the son of two psychiatrists, lasted two seasons; Goldblum left in 2010 citing uncertainty over the show's future, and Goren and Eames returned for the final run.

Who played Nicole Wallace, the con artist and killer who became Robert Goren's nemesis on Criminal Intent?

Olivia d'Abo's Wallace had her fate put to a vote in 2004: NBC shot two endings for the episode 'Great Barrier' and viewers chose online whether she lived or died.

Which actress played Goren's schizophrenic mother Frances on Criminal Intent?

Rita Moreno played the dying Frances Goren, who admits on her deathbed that she does not know whether a condemned serial killer is her son's real father.

Which Cheers star led Law & Order's 2005 courtroom spin-off as bureau chief Tracey Kibre?

Bebe Neuwirth, Lilith in Cheers, played the tough homicide bureau chief in a spin-off built to follow the defence's preparation for trial as well as the prosecution's.

Which future Oscar winner played ADA Sigrun Borg in the 2005 courtroom spin-off?

Jessica Chastain, later a Best Actress winner for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, played Borg; Candice Bergen and Carey Lowell recurred as judges, Lowell reprising her ADA Jamie Ross.

Which actor played Ricardo Morales, the Law & Order: LA prosecutor who quit to rejoin the police as a detective?

Alfred Molina's Morales had spent 15 years with the LAPD before becoming a prosecutor; fed up, he went back in the 2011 retool to fill the gap left by a departing detective.

In Law & Order True Crime, Edie Falco played which real attorney for the Menendez brothers?

Leslie Abramson defended Erik Menendez through a first trial that ended with deadlocked juries; the eight-episode series follows the case to the brothers' convictions in 1996.

Which future Doctor Who showrunner was appointed to run Law & Order: UK?

Chris Chibnall, then a Torchwood writer, ran the London version and wrote six of its first thirteen episodes himself, each built on a script from the American original.

Law & Order's Canadian spin-off, launched on Citytv in 2024, is set in which city?

Toronto plays itself, CN Tower and all, with plots inspired by real Canadian crimes: one early episode about a crack scandal echoed the city's former mayor Rob Ford.

Which actress, who married Law & Order's Hugh Dancy in 2009, played a young killer on the show in 1992?

Claire Danes was a child actor when she played a teenage murderer in the episode 'Skin Deep'; three decades later she and her husband were each shown the clip on morning television and could hardly believe it.

Detective Kevin Bernard first walked into Law & Order's 27th Precinct on assignment from which unit?

Internal Affairs sent him to investigate a shooting by Ed Green; Green was cleared but retired, and the investigator took the empty desk.

Camryn Manheim played which lieutenant in Law & Order's 2022 revival?

Kate Dixon ran the 27th Precinct's detectives for three seasons; Manheim had first turned up on the show in 1991 and played three different bit parts in its early years.

Hugh Dancy joined the 2022 'Law & Order' revival as which Executive Assistant District Attorney?

Nolan Price: Dancy's EADA led the prosecution from the 2022 revival alongside Odelya Halevi's ADA Samantha Maroun; Tony Goldwyn arrived as DA Nicholas Baxter in 2024.

Dr. George Huang (BD Wong) was a forensic psychiatrist on loan to SVU from which agency?

FBI: Huang arrived 'on loan' from the Bureau in season two; BD Wong was asked to film four episodes and went on to appear in 230.

Before DA Nicholas Baxter, Tony Goldwyn appeared in Criminal Intent as whom?

Goren's brother Frank, a homeless addict the detective tried and failed to rescue, was murdered in the season-seven finale; Goldwyn returned to the franchise in 2024.