History Trivia / LawAndOrder

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: In "Under the Influence", Jack conspires with a corrupt judge to have a drunk driver charged with murder. Both the cops and Ross are against this because, by the laws present at the time this episode aired, the driver would be guilty of manslaughter since he couldn't form the required mens rea due to being drunk. In the 20 years since this episode, many drunk drivers have been charged with murder under the ''depraved indifference'' statute[[note]]You knew that driving drunk posed a danger to human life, didn't care, and got behind the wheel of a car anyway[[/note]]. Had this episode aired today, [=McCoy=] wouldn't have to resort to illegal acts to get a murder conviction

** Series/Law&Order ran for 20 years from 1990 to 2010.
** Series/Law&OrderSpecialVictimsUnit is on the air since 1999 and is currently on its 22nd year.
** Series/Law&OrderCriminalIntent ran for at least 10 years, from 2001 to 2011.

* TheCastShowOff: Jerry Orbach's talent at pool surfaces numerous times during the series. Notably, in "Everybody Loves Raimando's" Lennie Briscoe does cool trick shots to convince a [[spoiler: hitman]] that he's not a cop, then arranges a [[spoiler: meeting with said hitman to nail him]].

** George Dzundza disliked commuting from Los Angeles to shoot in New York and bristled at the show's focus on the ensemble over its leads (namely, him). This didn't endear him to said ensemble and he left after the first season. Allegedly he and his onscreen partner Creator/ChrisNoth had a particular antipathy which, fortunately, [[EnforcedMethodActing added depth and realism to the squabbles between their characters]]. His replacement, Paul Sorvino, got along better with the cast but had trouble keeping up with the show's grueling filming schedule and asked to be released from his contract after just a season and a half. He was replaced by Creator/JerryOrbach. Fortunately, everybody (up to and including the ''real'' NYPD) ''loved'' Jerry Orbach.

** [Series/Law&Order] ran for 20 years from 1990 to 2010.
** [Series/Law&OrderSpecialVictimsUnit] is on the air since 1999 and is currently on its 22nd year.
** [Series/Law&OrderCriminalIntent] ran for at least 10 years, from 2001 to 2011.

* McLeaned: [[spoiler:Rumor has it that Alexandra Borgia's particularly brutal death was a result of actress Annie Parisse refusing to sleep with one of the show's writers. Though it's since been debunked. WordOfGod says she left because she felt unfulfilled in her role and wanted to explore different acting opportunities, and the reason she was killed off was because the writers had always wanted to murder an A.D.A.]]

** Michael Gross played Carl Braddock on the ''L&O'' episode "Trade This!," Arthur Esterman on the ''SVU'' episode "Lust," Jeffrey Prince on the ''SVU'' episode "Assaulting Reality" and Dr. Charles Webb on the ''CI'' episode "Crazy."

* LifeImitatesArt: Both Jamie Ross and her actress, Carey Lowell, left for the same reasons: they wanted to spend more time with their daughters.

** Joe Fontana was a police officer with the Chigaco Police Department before moving to New York. Dennis Farina served with CPD for 18 years in RealLife before beginning his acting career.

*** [[RetroactiveRecognition Future Daily Show correspondent]] Aasif Mandvi played numerous characters across ''Law & Order'' as well as its spin-offs: a hot dog vendor, a pornography store owner, a university professor, and finally a judge on ''Trial By Jury.'' [[WordOfSaintPaul Mandvi has gone on record]] as saying they're all the same guy, and he's very proud of that guy for working his way up in the world.

* BannedEpisode: "Sunday in the Park with Jorge" was pulled by NBC after Puerto Rican groups complained about its depiction of the Puerto Rican community.

** A particularly tragic case of RealLifeWritesThePlot: In early 2001, Dick Wolf was planning a large-scale miniseries event involving the casts of ''Law And Order'', ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'', and ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' teaming up to investigate a terrorist attack on New York City. Then [[TheWarOnTerror September came along,]] and... (Sadly, as a result, they never did get around to doing a three-way crossover of any type with the original L&O trio.)

* TomHanksSyndrome: Creator/JerryOrbach was originally known as a song-and-dance man (Lumiere in ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' is a good example of the sort of roles he took prior to ''L&O'') and was an immensely respected stage actor. Being cast as Lennie Briscoe, however, greatly changed the trajectory of his career.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: In "Under the Influence", Jack conspires with a corrupt judge to have a drunk driver charged with murder. Both the cops and Ross are against this because, by the laws present at the time this episode aired, the driver would be guilty of manslaughter since he couldn't form the required mens rea due to being drunk. In the 20 years since this episode, many drunk drivers have been charged with murder under the ''depraved indifference'' statute[[note]]You knew that driving drunk posed a danger to human life, didn't care, and got behind the wheel of a car anyway.[[/note]] Had this episode aired today, [=McCoy=] wouldn't have to resort to illegal acts to get a murder conviction

* Tied with ''Series/{{Gunsmoke}}'' as the longest-running, non-animated, scripted series in American primetime television at 20 seasons in 2009-10. This record would be matched by SpinOff ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' in 2018-19.

** Noth and Creator/MichaelMoriarty were very displeased by the [[ExecutiveMeddling controversial removal of Dann Florek and Creator/RichardBrooks due to NBC wanting females added on the show]], and their relationships with Creator/DickWolf went downhill as a result. Moriarty also became increasingly hostile to the show's "liberal" political bent (ironically, Wolf supported the presidential campaigns of UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush and other ''L&O'' cast member Senator Fred Thompson, both conservative Republicans), and wasn't pleased when UsefulNotes/BillClinton won the Presidential election in 1992. He constantly and ''very'' publicly attacked US Attorney General Janet Reno, accusing her of actively censoring network television and "forcing" shows like ''Law & Order'' to promote the agenda of the Clinton administration. Moriarty left at the end of the show's fourth season, and vowed never to return unless NBC fired Wolf (which as of this writing, they have yet to do). Tellingly, unlike Florek and Brooks and even Chris Noth, all of whom left the show on unpleasant terms, Moriarty has never returned to the franchise, and indeed, his character was [[BusCrash killed offscreen]] on the SpinOff ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' in 2018.

** Noth and Michael Moriarty were very displeased by the [[ExecutiveMeddling controversial removal of Dann Florek and Richard Brooks due to NBC wanting females added on the show]], and their relationships with Creator/DickWolf went downhill as a result. Moriarty also became increasingly hostile to the show's "liberal" political bent (ironically, Wolf supported the presidential campaigns of UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush and other ''L&O'' cast member Senator Fred Thompson, both conservative Republicans), and wasn't pleased when UsefulNotes/BillClinton won the Presidential election in 1992. He constantly and ''very'' publicly attacked US Attorney General Janet Reno, accusing her of actively censoring network television and "forcing" shows like ''Law & Order'' to promote the agenda of the Clinton administration. Moriarty left at the end of the show's fourth season, and vowed never to return unless NBC fired Wolf (which as of this writing, they have yet to do). Tellingly, unlike Florek and Brooks and even Chris Noth, all of whom left the show on unpleasant terms, Moriarty has never returned to the franchise, and indeed, his character was [[BusCrash killed offscreen]] on the SpinOff ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' in 2018.

* PlayingAgainstType: Comedian Anthony Anderson as Kevin Bernard, a ByTheBookCop.

* ExecutiveMeddling: [[TropesAreTools A strangely positive case.]] You know [[DaChief S. Epatha Merkerson's]] character? How about [[HelloAttorney Jill Hennessy's]]? Both came about via NBC wanting more women on the cast. Thus, Dann Florek (Don Cragen) and Richard Brooks (Paul Robinette) were written out of the series, since the show's formula could only handle six principals. (Although this was a negative from the point of view of the two actors and their fans, Brooks was able to reprise the his role in a later episode to give closure to the character, while Florek received a not-bad consolation prize - he was cast in a central role on the long-running SVU spin-off. Both Michael Moriarty and Creator/ChrisNoth were bitter about NBC's meddling; the former even went on rants in public about the whole deal and proved to be a liability for Dick Wolf. Thus, both actors were canned (or resigned) in Seasons 4 and 5, respectively.

* YouLookFamiliar:

* TroubledProduction: Though the series was ultimately a huge success, it had a bit of a rough start. One of the major problems was actor George Dzundza's disastisfaction with the show; Dzundza had believed he was to be the show's singular main character, and was disgruntled to find himself as part of an ensemble main cast, reinforced by the fact that his character was often important only in the first half of an episode. Dzundza departed the show after the first season, alleviating much of the conflict.