Law & Order

Season 5

Second Opinion

1. Sam Waterston's first episode as ADA Jack McCoy, full name John James McCoy.
2. When Claire meets McCoy, he tells her he had relationships with three former assistants in 24 years in the DA's office. This means the character began with the DA's office about 1970, so by the time the series ended in 2010 he would have been with the office about 40 years.

Coma

Blue Bamboo

1. When Logan is going over the list of stage names/real names of the women on the victim's list of auditions, he says that Toni "with an I" Curtis was really Bernice Schwartz. Tony Curtis' birth name was Bernard Schwartz.

Family Values

1. While a guest on "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" in 2016, Sarah Paulson talked about how inexperienced she was when filming this Law & Order episode: "It was my first on-camera role, and it was back when I didn't know anything about what it was like to be on camera. I'd only ever done only a little bit of theater in New York. I'd just graduated from high school in 1993. And, yeah, it was back in the days when I didn't know you could move your body, your head on camera, so I moved a little bit like I had been in a car accident and I was wearing a neck brace. So it's very humiliating to me that you [Terry Gross] have seen this, and I hope for my $2.93 residual check and all the humiliation that goes with knowing that it's out there for people to see."
2. Chris Noth, as Det. Logan, has a scene with the victim's therapist, played by Mary Beth Peil. Years later, Peil had a recurring role on "The Good Wife" as the mother of Noth's character, Peter Florrick.

White Rabbit

1. Over the course of the show, several well known guest stars played in roles adapted from the headlines. For instance, Chevy Chase played in an episode in which his character was drunk and ranting sexually and racially insensitive comments at one of the detectives on the show. This was situation was very close to a situation that happened in real-life with Mel Gibson. Of all the guest stars on Law & Order, William Kunstler, Michael Bloomberg, and Rudy Giuliani, are the only guest stars to play themselves.

Competence

1. This is a rare occasion where Jack McCoy is shown in the "Law" portion. He is present when Lt. VanBuren is questioned by the internal affairs Captain.
2. Lenny acknowledges he has 25 years on the job. The title card dates correspond to September 1992, so Lenny began his NYPD career around 1967.
3. Lt. VanBuren states she has been on the NYPD for 12 years. The air date was November 1994. Since the title cards show Thursday September 10, this equates to the year 1992, so she began her NYPD career about 1980.

Precious

1. This episode includes elements from several cases of "Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy", but most resembles that of New Yorker Marybeth Tinning. She is thought to have killed at least 8 (and probably 9) of her children over a 14-year span. Most of the children had not yet reached the age of one year when they were killed. The deaths were originally thought to have been due to a genetic disease (Reye Syndrome) or SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), but suspicion increased after their adopted son Michael died too. Noted pathologist Michael Baden was involved in the initial investigation and subsequent trial. Tinning is still incarcerated at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women (Bedford Hills, New York) and has been denied parole four times since 2007.

Virtue

1. Joanna Merlin, who plays Councilman Talbert's defense attorney, had a recurring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) as a trial judge.

Scoundrels

1. Final performance of veteran character actor Dub Taylor.
2. The Tappan Savings and Loan Scandal and Willard Tappan, especially the tactic of convincing customers to invest in unsecured securities, is based on the Lincoln Savnings and Loan Scandal and Charles Keating.

House Counsel

1. Guest stars Ron Leibman and Jessica Walter (who play the Kopells) are married in real life.
2. When Briscoe and Logan are at the ice company interviewing the Lincoln owner, the phone number (212-675-4115) and name (Diamond Ice) of the ice company on the truck are both real and correct.
3. Defense Attorney Mark Kopell says that the tape will "go the way of all flesh" meaning it will not be seen. The Way of All Flesh (1927) was at the time of this episode (and continues to be) considered a lost film.

Guardian

1. Chris Noth (Mike Logan) & Dallas Roberts (Matthew Blanchard) go on to play brothers-in law Peter Florrick & Owen Cavanaugh respectively in "The Good Wife"

Progeny

1. This is the 100th episode.

Rage

1. Courtney B Vance would later go on to play series regular A.D.A. Ron Carver on Law & Order Criminal Intent.

Performance

1. Story based on the "Spur Posse", a group of high school boys from Lakewood, California, who used a point system to keep track of and compare their sexual conquests.

Seed

1. This episode is based on the true story of Dr Cecil Jacobson.

Wannabe

1. The subway scenes were filmed at the World Trade Center PATH Station which was filling in for the Park Place Subway Station.

Act of God

1. The characters played by Robert John Burke and Skipp Sudduth are both arrested by the NYPD. Both went on to play recurring roles as NYPD officers, Burke on both Person of Interest (2011) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) and Sudduth on Third Watch (1999).

Privileged

1. Based on the case of Paul Cox, who confessed to a four-year old double homicide during an AA meeting. He apparently forgot about it until he began having vivid dreams about the murders.
2. The song Steven is singing while under hypnosis was previously sung by the main character in the Season 4 episode "Discord"
3. The scene where Marge is conferring with the judge was shot in CCNY's Shepherd Hall. A glimpse of the mural "The Great Teachers" (1930) can be seen in the background.
4. Fran Brill, who played the mother of the accused, and Allan Miller, who played the trial judge, played husband and wife on the 1970s soap, "How To Survive A Marriage." That show ran on NBC from January 1974 until April 1975.

Cruel and Unusual

1. "Facilitated communication" (the technique of "facilitating" the communicative abilities of a person with autism by "guiding" their hands over a communication device) has largely been discredited throughout the psychiatric community. There are still occasional scholarly articles written in support of FC and it continues to be practiced, albeit rarely.
2. Steve Burns's television debut.

Bad Faith

Purple Heart

Switch

Pride

1. Towards the end of the fifth season, Executive Producer Dick Wolf decided not to renew Chris Noth's contract citing that the interaction between Logan and the similarly jaded Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) lacked enough dramatic contrast. Viewers and critics were shocked at the dismissal of the most popular and only original remaining cast member at that time. Years later, Noth convinced Wolf to produce Exiled (1998) to wrap up the story of Mike Logan, which Noth felt had been prematurely extinguished on the show.