History Trivia / LawAndOrder

* TheWikiRule: [[https://lawandorder.fandom.com/wiki/Law_%26_Order_Wiki Law and Order Wiki.]]

** Noth and Creator/MichaelMoriarty were very displeased by the [[ExecutiveMeddling controversial removal of Dann Florek and Richard Brooks due to NBC wanting female characters 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 Creator/MichaelMoriarty 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.

** Creator/JoeFontana was a police officer with the Chicago Police Department before moving to New York. Creator/DennisFarina served with CPD for 18 years in RealLife before starting his acting career.
* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/JerryOrbach auditioned for Sgt. Max Greevey before being cast as Lennie Brisco.

* DyeingForYourArt: S. Epatha Merkerson prefers to keep her hair in braids and, during her stint on the show, wore a wig over her natural hair to give Van Buren a more "professional" look.
* ExecutiveMeddling: [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools A strangely positive case.]] You know Creator/SEpathaMerkerson's character? How about Creator/JillHennessy's? Both came about via NBC wanting more women on the cast. Thus, Creator/DannFlorek (Don Cragen) and Creator/RichardBrooks (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 Creator/MichaelMoriarty 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.

* MakingUseOfTheTwin: When Creator/JillHennessy was playing Claire Kincaid in a crossover with ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet,'' she was mostly absent from the L&O set in New York. The producers brought her identical twin sister Jacqueline — an occasional actress — in to play Claire in the episode "Corpus Delicti" in wide shots, reaction shots and inserts, while Jill still filmed the dialogue scenes. The "other" Ms. Hennessey received no screen credit for these brief appearances.

** Creator/MilenaGovich had a one-off role here preceding ''two'' regular roles in the franchise: first as ADA Jessica Rossi in the short-lived ''Series/{{Conviction}}'', then back in here as Detective Nina Cassaday.

** Caridad Montero in “Rebels” is presumably college-age, since she’s the girlfriend of the college-aged VictimOfTheWeek and owns her own apartment. Her actress, Creator/ElizabethRodriguez, was only fourteen in RealLife.

* NamesTheSame:
** The judge [[spoiler:who is both senile and being guided by his law clerk]] in Season 19's "Zero" is named [[Series/{{Firefly}} Malcolm Reynolds]].
** One of the victims in Season 2's "The Wages of Love" was named [[Literature/{{Twilight}} Edward Cullen]].
** Crossed with AppealToObscurity: From "House Calls," which is about the death of an aspiring model. Andee Mae Khan, who runs the modeling agency in the episode, talks about how, in modeling, "an inch here, an ounce there" means the difference between (RealLife [=supermodel=]) Creator/{{Elle MacPherson}} and "Cookie Rutigliano." Green asks who that is and Khan says, "That's my point." This episode was written by Janis Diamond, who was later one of the writers of the short-lived [=TNT=] series ''Bull,'' which included a character named Cookie Rutigliano.
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Schiff Adam Schiff]] is a [[UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem Democratic]] U.S. Representative from California.

* McLeaned: [[spoiler:WordOfGod says Creator/AnnieParisse 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.]]

** Creator/GeorgeDzundza 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, Creator/PaulSorvino, 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 ''loved'' Jerry Orbach, up to and including the ''real'' [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCityCops NYPD.]]

** Creator/GeorgeDzundza 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 ''loved'' Jerry Orbach, up to and including the ''real'' [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCityCops NYPD.]]

* ButIPlayOneOnTV: Actor Fred Thompson's reputation as a "law and order candidate" (no pun intended) came more from his time on this show as Arthur Branch than on anything he'd actually said or done.

** Noth and Creator/MichaelMoriarty were very displeased by the [[ExecutiveMeddling controversial removal of Creator/DannFlorek 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.

* ActingInTheDark: The relationship between EADA Jack [=McCoy=] and his assistant, Claire Kincaid, is strongly implied to be a romantic one, but this was never ''explicitly'' revealed until after Jill Hennessy, who played Kincaid, left the show. Reports vary on whether the actors were told about the relationship at the time. Some sources say that Sam Waterston, who played [=McCoy=], was explicitly told but Hennessy was not. Hennessy herself allegedly says both she and Waterston were kept in the dark initially, but she put two and two together and finally asked the writers about their relationship. After they confirmed it, they then decided to clue Waterston in as well. (Toward the end of Hennessy's run the hints started to get pretty blatant: in one episode Kincaid is asked point-blank if she is sleeping with [=McCoy=], and she doesn't answer.)

** Joe Fontana was a police officer with the Chicago Police Department before moving to New York. Creator/DennisFarina served with CPD for 18 years in RealLife before starting his acting career.

* TheCharacterDiedWithHim: After Creator/JerryOrbach's death in 2004 it was made clear on several occasions that (now-retired) Lennie Briscoe has passed on offscreen as well. In a sweet touch, it's acknowledged by all three of his onscreen partners: Green discusses it during his later years on the show, Logan mentions it on ''Criminal Intent'' (apparently he took it pretty hard), and Benjamin Bratt even returned for a brief guest appearance as Curtis, where he discusses Lennie's passing with Lt. Van Buren at his wife's funeral.

* ExecutiveMeddling: [[Administrivia/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.

** Jill Hennessy is Canadian. Hennessy's character (Claire Kincaid) does have a slight accent.
** Same with Linus Roache, who has a very thick English accent but pulls off a compelling Brooklyn accent in his portrayal of Mike Cutter.
** It is sometimes erroneously stated that Michael Moriarty is also Canadian; in fact, he was born and raised and began his career in the United States, but later became a Canadian citizen after leaving Law & Order.

** 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 ''loved'' Jerry Orbach, up to and including the ''real'' [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCityCops NYPD.]]
** Noth and Creator/MichaelMoriarty 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.
** Noth stayed on an extra year, partly because he was [[MrFanservice very popular with female viewers]], and partly because unlike Moriarty, he avoided tilting at windmills and focused his ire on Wolf himself. Noth even claimed the show was better with an all-male cast. After his contract was up at the end of the fifth season, Wolf declined to renew it and Noth was fired - and replaced with another MrFanservice in Benjamin Bratt as the new junior detective. However, Noth and Wolf patched things up surprisingly quickly - just three years later Noth's character of Det. Mike Logan returned as the lead character of the only telefilm in franchise history, ''Exiled: A Law & Order Movie'', and went on to costar on ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' after star Creator/VincentDOnofrio started to experience burnout due to the latter series' grueling schedule.

* MakingUseOfTheTwin: When Jill Hennessey was playing Claire Kincaid in a crossover with ''Homicide: Life On The Street,'' she was mostly absent from the L&O set in New York. The producers brought her identical twin sister Jacqueline — an occasional actress — in to play Claire in the episode "Corpus Delicti" in wide shots, reaction shots and inserts, while Jill still filmed the dialogue scenes. The "other" Ms. Hennessey received no screen credit for these brief appearances.
* McLeaned: [[spoiler:WordOfGod says Annie Parisse 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.]]

* ThePeteBest: The original DA was not Adam Schiff, but Alfred Wentworth, who appeared only in the pilot. By the time the show was picked up as a series, Wentworth's actor, Roy Thinnes, had taken a co-starring role in ''Series/DarkShadows1991''.

** Comedian Anthony Anderson as Kevin Bernard, a ByTheBookCop.
* StarMakingRole: For Creator/ChrisNoth, Jill Hennessy, Creator/SEpathaMerkerson, Creator/BenjaminBratt and Creator/AngieHarmon. It served as more of a CareerResurrection for Creator/JesseLMartin.

** One of the major problems was actor George Dzundza's dissatisfaction 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.
** Michael Moriarty, who played the original district attorney Ben Stone, also caused difficulty for his co-stars and the producers. Among other things, Moriarty had a habit of publicly ranting and name-calling at public figures, most famously calling then-Attorney General Janet Reno a "psychopathic Nazi" for her attempts to cap violence on television; when the producers asked him to tone it down, he responded by quitting the show. [[note]]Moriarty did later admit that he had had an alcohol problem during his time on the show, although it's unclear if this was related to his behavior, as he continued to be known for his bizarre and unusual political rants long after he claimed he was sober.[[/note]]

** Dennis Farina, as mentioned before, was a cop in the Chicago PD, so he played numerous police roles before and after his stint as Joe Fontana.

** Alana de la Garza's pregnancy would have been written into Season 21 if the show had not been canceled.

** A new commanding officer at the 2-7 would have been introduced in Season 21, had there been one. S. Epatha Merkerson announced her departure from the show well in advance of its cancellation.

** A particularly weird case: While Lennie Briscoe became the face of the franchise for the better part of the series, actor Creator/JerryOrbach first appeared in the second season as defense attorney Frank Lehrmann. Every bit as much of a DeadpanSnarker as his later detective character, Orbach's attorney character is remembered for the line "It's called plea bargaining, not plea scalping!"
** An equally strange example includes S. Epatha Merkerson playing the bereaved mother of a murder victim years before she was cast as Lieutenant Van Buren.
** Annie Parisse played the stripper girlfriend of a defendant shortly before being cast as ADA Borgia. Parisse allegedly wanted to play the same character and claim that she had been working as a stripper to pay for law school, but Dick Wolf wasn't keen on the idea, and not without reason; in story, initially Jack wasn't keen on Abby becoming his assistant due to her inexperience- she'd been an ADA for five years at that point. Given the short timespan between Annie Parisse's appearance as a stripper and her debut as Borgia, it would stretch credibility that she went from paying her way through law school to climbing the ranks of the DA's office in such a short amount of time.
** Additionally, a clean-shaven Jeremy Sisto appears as defense attorney Clint Glover in the season finale of the 17th season. In the very next episode, he returns as a scruffy Detective Cyrus Lupo and continues this role for the rest of the series. It's explained that Lupo had been working for the NYPD Intelligence Division in Iraq for the previous four years.

** [[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.

** Tamara Tunie appeared as a defense attorney in the L&O episode "Deadbeat" before she landed a role in ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' as Dr. Melinda Warner.

** Joanna Merlin had recurring appearances in several episodes of L&O as, weirdly enough, ''two different'' defense attorneys, Carla Bowman and Deirdre Powell, before she was established as Judge Lena Petrovsky in ''[[Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit SVU]]''.

* FanNickname: "The Rohmbot", an "affectionate" reference to Elisabeth Rohm's [[DullSurprise acting style]] as Serena Southerlyn.

* QuoteSource:
** AssholeVictim

* AdoredByTheNetwork: The show fell off in popularity after its cancellation in favor of ''SVU'' and the rise of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', but the latter half of the 2010's, the show gained renewed interest. Bounce TV, Court TV Mystery, Sundance Channel, [[Creator/TheBBC BBC America]], and WE TV, among others, heavily advertised their marathons of the show, eventually leading to the announcement of a series revival in 2021.

** 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.

* UnderageCasting: Jill Hennessy was twenty-four when she was cast as Claire Kincaid. In the United States the minimum age at which one can graduate from law school is twenty-five. But, if don't take any time off and have a birthday after May, you would graduate at twenty-four (high school graduation at seventeen, college at twenty-one, law school at twenty-four). It's not common, but it's possible, especially if you commit to becoming a lawyer young. Alternatively the physical differences between someone aged 24 and 25 are close to nonexistent so almost no one in the audience would notice.Had she been 19 then it would stick out a bit more proeminently.

** Creator/ZeljkoIvanek made one appearance on ''Law and Order'' as a smug corrupt businessman, convicted for murdering an elderly man who swindled money from him (which he had, in turn, swindled for his wealthy friends) who managed to get acquitted after the police actually find the body years later. After that, he made at least two appearances as his ''[[Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet Homicide]]'' character before making another appearance as a different character. Ivanek also appeared on SVU alongside [[JustForFun/JohnMunch Richard Belzer]], who he had previously starred with in ''Homicide''.

** Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit is on the air since 1999 and is currently on its 22nd year.

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

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

** Anthony Anderson had first appeared in the ''[[Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit SVU]]'' episode "Fat" as Elliot Stabler's temporary partner a rule-bending, hotheaded detective named Lucius Blaine, before playing a lead in the last 3 seasons of Law and Order.
** Eric Bogosian appeared as a defense attorney in two episodes of the early L&O seasons, more than a decade before he started out as Cpt. Danny Ross in ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent''.

** Before Michelle Hurd was cast as Det. Monique Jeffries in ''[[Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit SVU]]'', she made a guest appearance as dubious informant in L&O episode "Entrapment".

** Cynthia Nixon played Laura [=Di Biasi=] on the ''L&O'' Season 1 episode "Subterranean Homeboy Blues" and Janis Donovan on the ''SVU'' Season 9 episode "Alternate."

* AdoredByTheNetwork: The show fell off in popularity after its cancellation in favor of ''SVU'' and the rise of ''Series/NCIS'', but the latter half of the 2010's, the show gained renewed interest. Bounce TV, Court TV Mystery, Sundance Channel, [[Creator/TheBBC BBC America]], and WE TV, among others, heavily advertised their marathons of the show, eventually leading to the announcement of a series revival in 2021.

** 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'' Creator/JerryOrbach.