One morning when “Law & Order” was filming an episode near Police Headquarters in lower Manhattan, a fan of the show who worked in the building encountered Chris Noth, a k a Detective Mike Logan, as he stepped out of his trailer onto Chambers Street.
Noth, attired in his character’s blue blazer and American flag lapel pin, nodded toward One Police Plaza, and asked of the episode that aired the night before: “Did you see the mistake?”
“You mean when you picked up the gun with the screwdriver?”
“Yeah,” said Noth, still upset by one of the rare technical errors in the series.
Contrary to many dramatic portrayals, investigators don’t try to avoid getting their fingerprints on a crime scene gun by inserting a screwdriver or some other instrument into the barrel. Doing so might scratch the inside of the barrel and undermine forensic comparisons of recovered bullets.
A small point, and impressive that so fine an actor would fret a detail that would escape the attention of the vast majority of the show’s large audience. Having spent most of my life in police work, I typically don’t bother with “cop shows” if only because the mistakes and misrepresentations are too tedious to endure.
“Law & Order” was an exception. And as good as it was in sweating the details, the series was all about inspired writing and great ensemble performances by New York actors. At just about any Broadway show, thumb through a Playbill and see all the cast credits for “Law & Order.” The show produced convincing detectives, prosecutors, criminals, and oddball witnesses. Even the corpses were interesting.
And who didn’t love Jerry Orbach as Detective Lennie Briscoe? If I had to pick a favorite pairing over the years it would be Orbach and Noth as Briscoe and Logan. And again, the writers who produced exchanges like this:
Logan: One of these days I’m going to pack up a Winnebago.
Briscoe: And go where?
Logan: Upstate . . . New Hampshire.
Briscoe: Right — I spent a year there one weekend.
Why did we love it? Because “Law & Order” was New York, New York.