08-15-1999

DEPARTMENT OF CONNECTIONS -- THE CREATORS OF `LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT'
HOPE FAMILIARITY BREEDS SUCCESS
By VIRGINIA ROHAN, Staff Writer
Date: 08-15-1999, Sunday
Section: YOUR TIME
Edition: All Editions -- Sunday

Richard Belzer, dressed as Detective John Munch, is standing atop a
precinct desk -- hands on hips, suspendered chest thrust forward, head
tossed back -- bellowing out a longtime co-star's name.

"C-l-a-r-k J-o-h-n-s-o-n," Belzer sings in faux operatic tones, as
if he's somehow wandered into a "Cop Rock" time warp.

Johnson, who played Detective Meldrick Lewis to Belzer's Munch on
the late NBC drama, "Homicide: Life on the Street," eventually reins in
the class clown and calls for quiet on the set. Johnson is, after all,
the director of this extravaganza -- the fourth episode of NBC's eagerly
awaited spinoff series, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (slated to
debut Sept. 20).

The whole comical interlude -- which takes place during a break in
the filming of a very serious scene -- feels a bit bizarre.

Here are Belzer and Johnson in a squad room again, except it's not
in Baltimore, but New York City -- or, rather, a North Bergen warehouse,
surrounded by Meadowlands marshes, that's made up to look like a Big
Apple precinct.

And these two familiar TV figures are surrounded by a completely
new cast.

"It was weird," Johnson says of his arrival on the new set. "To
walk in and see this squad room and see Munch walking in with Jerry
Orbach and not me ... I felt like he was being unfaithful. I felt like
he was cheating on me."

Belzer -- whose "Homicide" character had already appeared in several
"L&O" crossover episodes -- is apparently suffering no guilt.

"Very early on in this show, it seemed like we've been doing it for
a long time, so I felt pretty relaxed," he says.

If others initially find Munch's relocation jarring, his new
series, from "L&O" creator Dick Wolf, will have a familiar feel. It will
even precede scenes with the trademark "L&O" location cards and sound
effects -- or "ching chings," as Wolf calls them.

"The hope is, if you like `Law & Order,' you're really gonna like
this show," he says.

Billed as a "hard-hitting and emotional companion series" to "L&O,"
Wolf's new series chronicles the life and crimes of NYPD's elite special
victims unit, which mostly deals with sex crimes.

There are all sorts of "L&O" connections. Wolf's co-creator and
fellow executive producer, Robert Palm, was a writer-producer for "L&O"
during that show's first several seasons, and he penned the 200th
episode this past spring.

The patriarch of the "Special Victims Unit" ensemble cast is Dann
Florek, reprising his role as Capt. Donald Cragen, whom he played on the
first four seasons of "L&O," as well as in "Exiled," last year's "L&O"
television movie.

The show's other stars include the stunning Mariska Hargitay (last
seen, playing against type, as Dr. Green's mousy girlfriend Cynthia on
"ER"), who here plays veteran Detective Olivia Benson. Chris Meloni -- a
familiar face from mostly bad-guy roles in shows like "Oz," "NYPD
Blue," and a powerful "Homicide" two-parter last fall -- plays her
partner, Elliot Stabler.

Dean Winters -- who plays inmate Ryan O'Reilly on "Oz" -- plays Brian
Cassidy, Munch's new partner. And Michelle Hurd plays the recurring
Detective Monique Jeffries.

Members of "L&O" will make occasional appearances on "Special
Victims Unit," and vice versa. The series will also have some story line
crossovers. Orbach's Lennie Briscoe and Angie Harmon's Assistant D.A.
Abbie Carmichael have already filmed episodes. So has new "L&O"
Detective Edward Green, played by Jesse L. Martin, Benjamin Bratt's
replacement.

"The storytelling is very similar, except that we don't hand off to
the prosecutors and the district attorneys," Florek says. "What I like,
too, is it deals more with the victims."

Wolf also estimates that the new series will be "20 percent more
character driven" than "L&O."

The precinct set has an open and amazingly gritty and realistic
look, except perhaps for the chic seafoam-colored walls. They are,
nonetheless, dotted with wanted posters, emblazoned with mean-looking
faces and the word "rape," and the windows sport just the right tinge of
New York City grime.

On several tables, there are semen-collection jars -- reminding a
visitor that this series was originally subtitled, "Sex Crimes Unit."

Wolf declines to comment on whether the network ordered the name
change, but Meloni is more forthcoming.

"I think they just felt that with `Sex Crimes,' it would be pushing
some kind of titillation factor, and the show could not be further from
that aspect," he says. "You always enter the show with the crime having
been committed. We're dealing with obsessions and desires and human
passions. It's not this prurient, `Oh, look at this. Let's giggle'
thing."

The series does exteriors in the city, but several days out of a
shooting week, cast and crew come to this nondescript North Bergen
building, which was formerly an Adrienne Vittadini warehouse.

"You're amazed to walk in and see a whole New York City precinct set
right in the middle of nowhere," says the Rev. Al Sharpton, who is guest
starring as a character like himself. "You'd have no idea riding by that
all of this was going on."

David Chase, the native New Jerseyan who created HBO's "The
Sopranos," may wax poetic about filming in the Garden State, but it
holds no such romance for Wolf. Asked why he chose New Jersey, he simply
quotes the far-cheaper-than-Manhattan price for leasing 52,145 square
feet.

"We're very appreciative of the space, but I'm not a big fan of the
Lincoln Tunnel," Wolf says. "I left here at 10:05 one day, and it took
57 minutes to get into the tunnel."

On the set this August morning, Wolf is in a garrulous mood,
especially when asked about the connections to his pal Tom Fontana's
"Homicide" -- Munch's resurrection as well as Johnson's directing stint --
and the hiring of two actors from yet another Fontana series, "Oz."

"Tom Fontana is my casting agent," Wolf says, chuckling. "Basically,
Tom breaks them in and gets them set for the big time."

Actually, the deal came together when the two were at a party in
May.

"In a fit of sort of postprandial bliss, we both started discussing
could I have Richard as Munch in the new show, and luckily it was an NBC
Productions show, so they were very anxious for it to work," Wolf says.
"Everybody was remarkably collegial and cooperative, and obviously,
Richard was very pleased to keep the character alive."

Another interesting casting stroke was Florek's rehiring.

"The worst call I ever had to make in my entire professional career
was firing Dann Florek after three years on `Law & Order,'"
Wolf says. "But that was a network decision. We were given a mandate.
We had to put women in the show or else it was going to be canceled."

After leaving "L&O," Florek directed a number of episodes of that
show, and then, last fall, he made "Exiled."

The actor -- who played Abraham Lincoln in last season's short-lived,
critically lambasted UPN sitcom, "The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer"
-- says he was set to do another sitcom. But that got delayed, and, "out
of the blue," Wolf called about the spinoff.

Florek was concerned that there be a good reason why Cragen -- who'd
been with the city's organized crime task force since he departed as the
"L&O" squad commander -- had moved to the sex crimes unit. (The writers
came up with a back story, involving the death of Cragen's wife.)

"I also wanted to see that he's much more involved," Florek says. "I
didn't want to come back and do the same thing, the crusty yet benign
captain, sitting in the room saying, `I don't have enough evidence,'
`I'm getting my butt barbecued.' I wanted him to be listening and often
coming up with, `Well, what about this angle,' and actually, show good
police work."

The central partnership in the series will be the Hargitay and Meloni
characters -- dedicated detectives Benson, who's single, and Stabler, a
happily married father of four.

But don't expect any romance to bloom between them. Many a show, by
capitalizing on the main characters' "urst," or unrelieved sexual
tension, has written itself into a corner -- or into cancellation.

Meloni recalls with a laugh, "We asked Dick Wolf, `Is there going
to be any kind of relationship between us, and he goes, `I got one word
for you -- "Moonlighting'"
-- and he walked away."

Barely a month before the show's debut, Wolf is still campaigning to
get NBC to move his new series -- scheduled for 9 p.m. Mondays -- to a
later slot.

"It's adult drama with adult themes and adult ideas that I would
not allow my younger children to see," Wolf says. "It was designed to be
a 10 o'clock show, and I sincerely do hope that the network puts us on
at 10 o'clock."

(SIDEBAR)

Detective Munch makes a clean break in crossover

One of the most striking memories of the premiere episode of
"Homicide: Life on the Street" was when Richard Belzer's eccentric
Detective John Munch started screaming at a perp, "I am not Montel
Williams!"

So, how is Munch gonna make his grand entrance on "Special Victims
Unit?"

"The intro here is very much in the pure John Munch mold, talking
about the Kennedy coffin conspiracy," says Dick Wolf, who was not only
familiar with Belzer's work from "Law & Order" crossovers, but from Tom
Fontana's Baltimore-based detective series.

"I watched `Homicide' every week, are you kidding?" Wolf says.

In the first episode of "Special Victims Unit," we'll also learn why
Munch left Baltimore -- and the status of his brand-new marriage, which
wasn't faring so well when "Homicide" ended in May.

"In the first episode, you find out that after a single night of
connubial bliss, his wife ended up in the arms of not only a fellow
officer, but a fellow squad member, so he's never setting foot in the
city of Baltimore again," Wolf says, adding, "We never reveal which one
it is." (Belzer won't say either, but rumor has it that Detective Stu
Gharty is the home-wrecker.)

Belzer proudly holds the distinction of having played Munch in four
different series -- "Homicide," "Law & Order," "The X-Files," and now,
"Special Victims Unit." He is tied with Danny Thomas, whose Danny
Williams band-leader character also had a four-show streak.

Next month, Belzer is slated to film an episode of Fontana's new
UPN cop series, "The Beat," appearing once again as Munch.

"It will be the first time that a character has been in five
different shows," Belzer claims. "Munch will break the record."

Illustrations/Photos: 6 PHOTOS BY PETER MONSEES / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER 1 - COLOR
PHOTO - Richard Belzer playing class clown between takes on the set of "Law
& Order: Special Victims Unit." 2 - COLOR PHOTO - The eagerly awaited spinoff
features a mix of what's new and what's not, from top: co-stars Dean Winters
and Mariska Hargitay; 3 - COLOR PHOTO - director Clark Johnson, 4 - COLOR PHOTO
- and co-creator Dick Wolf. 5 - On the set of "Law & Order: Special Victims
Unit," which is taped in a North Bergen warehouse. 6 - RICHARD BELZER - One
role in many series

Copyright © 1999 Bergen Record Corp. All rights reserved.