A wonderful tribute post to Law and Order, finally closing up its 20th and final season.
One of the things about the show, filmed in New York City, is that it kept actors working. Amazing talented stage actors who perhaps otherwise could not have kept afloat financially … Law and Order had a huge amazing pool to pick from, and in many ways (similar to soap operas), the omnipresent nature of Law and Order in this town meant that off-Broadway could flourish, it helped actors fund themselves, and the projects they really wanted to do. This is a professional town. It is an expensive town. There are people here who are the best in the business, and yet perhaps nobody has every heard their name. No matter. It’s the work that is important. Law and Order kept actors working, helped keep them in their unions, pay their dues, and – most important – it created a structure that, inadvertently (or, perhaps, “vertently”), kept off-Broadway alive. Soap opera actors make a ton of money. Many of them are stage-trained. They are in New York City for a reason. A couple of guest spots on a soap means they can go off to Williamstown Theatre Festival in the summer and do Cherry Orchard. Law and Order, a superior show, obviously, that has spawned a million spin-offs (it’s a structure that just works), knew that it had the best of the best to pull from. Everyone I know has been on that show at least once.
It will be missed for many reasons, but for the New York actor, that sense that an operation was out there looking for them, and specifically, is what will be missed the most.
Here’s a post I wrote about S. Epatha Merkerson.
My tribute piece to Jerry Orbach.
That’s a great point about the soap operas, Sheila. Back in the late 1970s and early 80s I watched “As the World Turns” religiously (don’t ask me why), and I still remember how surprised I was to see Larry Bryggman’s name pop up year after year on the list of Obie nominees (or winners). That part of their careers never even occurred to me.
Jeff – Awesome.
yes, soaps and things like L&O really help make the theatre in this town what it is. It’s a totally symbiotic relationship.
It wasn’t just the financial reward; it’s that the day players got to act. For 30 seconds, maybe, a minute if they were lucky–but they had actual parts to play, and when an episode was cracking you could see how much the show’s velocity* depended on everybody but the cops and prosecutors.
I love how those bit roles came packed with their own subtext, and how often the unknown (to me at least, and others who don’t follow theater) actors relished them like treats. The judges at the bail hearings greeting sardonically problems they’ve seen a thousand times before and which won’t be theirs, anyway, once they bang the gavel; the shopkeepers who can’t stop complaining about shoplifting kids or persistent vagrants long enough to tell what they saw; the bartenders and waiters whose observations are colored by casual sexism or class resentment. It made for some good jokes (Amy Poehler’s very funny SNL skit about a Law and Order acting class is worth tracking down), but the bustling, put-upon, too-busy-to-talk-now populace of the show reminded you how flat and dull other procedurals are when it comes to those links in the chain leading to the killer.
To wit: one of my favorite performances of all time came a few years back, from an actor playing the police ballistics expert. All the shells from a shooting range have been collected in a long-shot hunt for clues, and as the loaded to bursting bags are dumped on his desk, he sighs, shrugs it off, and takes the evidence back to his lab. That was it, but the frustration of a long night to be spent at work and the professional duty that tamped it down came across beautifully. I’ve no idea who the actor was, but he’s become one of the first things that comes to mind when I think of the show, right after (forgive me Orbach fans) Steven Hill’s weary frustration. For 20 seconds or so, this was his story.
*My favorite one-liner on Law and Order came from a John Leonard review of a 4th-season episode; how if anyone else had come up with the genius idea of combining the (’90s) WTC bombing and the Waco showdown, it would have required a three-hour miniseries to get through, not a fleet 60 minutes.
I’ll always love L&O for bringing Jesse Martin into my life. He’s awesome. How he hasn’t landed another big time gig yet is beyond me.
When I moved to NY, that was literally my only goal. To get on Law and Order. I still remember the day I got it…I’d auditioned several times and been called back a few before booking it. I was almost like, “Well, what do I do now? Now that I’ve fulfilled my dream???”
Got to work with Benjamin Bratt and Jerry Orbach, still my favorite combo, and they couldn’t have been nicer. I remember it was summer but it was supposed to be fall so we were all in big bulky cop clothes and I was sweating like crazy. Jerry Orbach knew the drill so he walked around with one of those tiny little battery operated hand-fans in his pockets to keep himself cool.
As we stood waiting to shoot my closeup he stood and FANNED MY FACE. Jerry Orbach.
I then went on to shoot the other two versions as well but I’ll never forget that first one.
You mean you didn’t film that in a real NYC air-conditioned apartment?! I’m shocked.
It pisses me off that L&O:SVU with its bizarre story lines and scenery-chewing actors (I think Sharon Stone bit my arm THROUGH THE TV) gets to stay on the air but the Mothership gets canceled. I still watch SVU, don’t get me wrong, but it’s like staying with a bad boyfriend. You know it’s going to be horrible, but hey, what else are you doing to do on Friday night? At least you get dinner. (And by “dinner,” I mean Chris Meloni. Yum.)
And don’t even get me started on Goldblum.
Bren – Jerry Orbach. Wow. What a class act.
Didn’t you have some nice moment with Benjamin Bratt too?
Bruce – Yes, there was substance to it, and also atmosphere – a truly new York atmosphere. My brother (who was on the show a number of times) does a VERY funny spoof of the L&O acting style. The joke being: I’ve lived in New York for 15 years and I’ve never been questioned by a homicide detective, and I hardly think I would be as blase as all of these greengrocers and nurses’ assistants … It’s that “I’m too busy to talk to the cops” thing that is so funny and so specific, and gives the show its harried feel. Its New York feel. It’s a fantasy. Murder is murder – people have lived here their whole lives without having a murder occur in their hallways … but still: everyone is like, ‘Look, is this gonna take long? I have to pick my kid up from school.”
There should be a Law & Order companion book – with stories from all of the actors who played bit parts on the show.
My point about the financial reward, however, is key. Actors don’t live on air. Doing some cool Neal Labute play off-Broadway is awesome, but you get paid scale, and you can’t make a living. Things like soap operas, voiceovers, and regular Law & Order work helps create an environment where OTHER art can happen. Most everyone on that show would rather be playing Mercutio, believe me – and while you also couldn’t make a living from guest spots, it helped actors stay in their unions, and get health benefits – which, in turn, helped them to be able to “indulge” themselves once in a while by doing regional theatre, and off-Broadway. It was that financial-circle aspect of it that really had the greatest impact on New York actors.
Thanks for all the great comments, everyone. Nice to see the love for L&O.