Dun-Dun
On April 1, 2021, Detective Elliot Stabler finally came back—this time as part of the Organized Crime unit in another series in the Law & Order-verse, Law & Order: Organized Crime. These are the behind, and in front of, the scenes facts about the series you might not know.
Delays
Law & Order: Organized Crime was initially set to make its debut in 2020—setting things up with Stabler's wife and son returning in the season 21 finale of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. But delays related to the Covid-19 pandemic forced NBC to push the show's premier to 2021.
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Crossover
Given that Stabler had been a part of the SVU crew for so many years, it seemed like the perfect move to launch his return via an Organized Crime/SVU crossover event—which took place on the ninth episode of SVU's 22nd season.
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10 Years Coming
Christopher Meloni's final SVU episode had come in the season 12 finale where Stabler had retired from the NYPD after the trauma caused by his actions in having to take down a teenage girl. Meloni hadn't returned to the series even once in the subsequent 10 years.
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Meloni Thought It Would Be A Short Return
When Christopher Meloni's reps first got the call, they all assumed they wanted Meloni back for a few SVU episodes to, as he told Variety, "kind of wrap up his story". Instead, "they just came out of the blue with a new show".
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Meloni Was Ready To Settle Down
When the call came about the new show, Meloni jumped at it. He had done some great work in movies and television in the years since his time on SVU, but he was ready to be in one place for a while: "I think I maybe wanted to be less of a journeyman or a nomad because I’ve been doing that. It’s been great…but after a while you’re like, 'Let’s look for a home base again for a while'".
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Number Seven
Organized Crime is the seventh series in the Law & Order franchise.
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Fourth Longest
Having run for four seasons at this point, Law & Order: Organized Crime has already become the fourth longest running series in the history of the franchise, behind: Law & Order, SVU, and Criminal Intent.
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Move To Peacock
The series has already been renewed for a fifth season, with the announcement also being made that it will be moving to the Peacock streaming service.
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The Opening Narration
An iconic staple of every Law & Order series is that awesome opening narration. Different for every series, the one for Organized Crimes goes like this:
"In the nation's largest city, the vicious and violent members of the underworld are hunted by the detectives of the Organized Crime Control Bureau. These are their stories".
Fans will probably be able to quote it with their eyes closed, but did you know who the voice behind that narration is?
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The Voice
Steve Zirnkilton. It's probably not a name you've ever heard before—unless maybe you lived in Maine in the '80s and '90s, where Zirnkilton served in the Maine House of Representatives for eight years. But how did he go from politician to L&O voice guy?
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The Voice
Well, he also had his real estate brokers license back in the day, and when Dick Wolf came to the state to buy a house, Zirnkilton offered to be his agent. After the house buying was over, he gave Wolf his voice-over demo tape.
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The Voice
During the pilot process for the original Law & Order series, Zirnkilton was actually an actor, playing a detective. But while that never went anywhere, after the show got picked up, Wolf gave him a call and asked him to come down and read something. The rest is dun-dun history.
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Kids All Together For The First Time
While a few of Stabler's children had appeared in various SVU episodes, all five were never seen together until the heartbreaking funeral for their mother in the first episode of Law & Order: Organized Crime.
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Re-Casting The Kids
Given how long the Stabler character has been around, the ages of the children have also obviously changed as the years have gone by. This has led to a re-casting of every child except for one.
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Re-Casting The Kids
Stabler's oldest son Dickie was played by Jeffrey Scaperrotta in the first season of SVU and Scaperrotta is still playing Dickie all these years later on Organized Crime.
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Doing Things A Little Differently
The classic Law & Order format is the procedural one in which each episode is a stand-alone story with a beginning, middle, and end. With Organized Crime, Wolf and the team switched things up and went for longer story arcs that took multiple episodes to resolve.
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No Ripped Headlines
The OG Law & Order and SVU both often used ripped-from-the-headlines stories. But not Organized Crime. Because of the show's longer-arcing story-telling style, the series has stayed away from that ripped formula.
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Deeper Character Dive
Another staple of the classic Law & Order franchise is the lack of much backstory and deep dives into the characters. You got a few bits and bites here and there, but it was always that week's story that was king. With Organized Crime and the longer story arcs, there have also been deeper dives into Stabler's backstory and his family—from his relationship with his eldest son Dickie, to his brothers and the family history regarding his father.
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The Kiss...Finally
For 12 years, Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler were partners on SVU and although Stabler was a married man, fans couldn't help but wonder if he and Benson would ever hook up. Spoiler Alert: They never did. But finally, in a season 24 episode of SVU, the kiss we'd all been waiting for...happened.
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Ainsley Seiger's Debut
Ainsley Seiger—who plays Jet Slootmaekers on Organized Crime—had only been in two short films prior to being cast on the series. It was her first TV role ever.
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Rick Gonzalez
Unlike his costar Seiger, actor Rick Gonzalez had been working in film and television for over 20 years when he was cast as Detective Bobby Reyes on Law & Order: Organized Crime. If you're wondering where you know him from, it could be anything from Timo Cruz in the film Coach Carter to Rene Ramirez / Wild Dog on the Arrow television series.
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Stabler's DEA Brother
Okay, so Stabler's brother isn't really a DEA agent—but the actor, Dean Norris, who plays one of his brothers, played DEA agent Hank Schrader on Breaking Bad.
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Danielle Moné Truitt Finally Got On A Successful Cop Show
Truitt plays NYPD Sergeant Ayanna Bell on Organized Crime, but it wasn't her first go around on a police procedural. Back in 2017, she landed the lead role in the BET police drama, Rebel. But it was canceled after one season. The same fate came for 2020's Deputy—on which Truitt was also part of the main cast. And another fun fact about Truitt...
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Danielle Moné Truitt: From Belle To Bell
Truitt landed the role of Belle in her 6th grade production of Beauty and the Beast and all these years later, she is once again playing Bell: "I auditioned to play Belle and I got the role of Belle and look at me now, I'm Bell again!"
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Lost A Member Of The Crew
At 5:15am on July 19, 2022, Johnny Pizarro—a parking enforcement worker—was sitting in a car on the Organized Crime set when he was fatally shot by an unknown assailant.
