Results tagged “detectivelenniebriscoe”

There's Joey Ramone Place and Peter Jennings Way. But getting a street named after the city's arguably most famous TV detective who was also a Broadway legend is no easy task. The NY Times has the full story about the quest for Jerry Orbach's name to grace a street corner. Specifically the corner of West 53rd and 8th Avenue, where he and his wife Elaine Orbach lived.

It's not the same as an invisible Snuffleupagus, but there is something very exciting happening with Sesame Street. On August 14, a segment called "Law and Order Special Letters Unit" will premiere, starting with "The Missing M." Hal Boedeker at the Orlando Sentinel reports that the actual cast voices will be used, and Dick Wolf himself said, "I feel like a tobacco company executive, because hopefully we will hook 4- and 5- and 6-year-olds on the brand now." A Sesame Street press release says that there's definitely a Richard Belzer muppet and that plot includes detectives finding "things that start with the letter 'M' such as a cow named Murray that makes mmooo sounds." Hmm, Law & Order: Playground Control Team, anyone? And as we did some searching, we found this cool video of "Law & Order: Special Muppets Unit" on YouTube!

Yesterday, people from TV, film, and Broadway, as well as the public, gathered to pay tribute to the dearly missed Jerry Orbach. The attendees included Angela Lansbury, Al Pacino, Benjamin Bratt, Chris Noth, Jill Hennessy, Jane Alexander, Karen Ziemba, and Dick Wolf, plus many regular New Yorkers who cherished Orbach's contribution as an actor. Former Mayor David Dinkins was there, and Mayor Bloomberg spoke to the crowd, saying, "Briscoe exuded the life of the city in all its moxie...Jerry came to personify New York in both body and soul." NBC President Jeff Zucker and L&O producer Dick Wolf presented Orbach's widow Elaine with a $1 million check for Sloane Kettering's Cancer research fund as well.

Oh, Jerry. The Screen Actors Guild has given you a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series, a now-posthumous tribute to your work as Detective Lennie Briscoe on Law & Order. Though you face some tough (James Gandolfini in the Sopranos, Kiefer "Job/Sisyhpus" Sutherland in 24) competition, Gothamist feels your work ruled, because you created a character whose interior life we could imagine with just a wiggle of your eyebrow. We're just curious if the SAG voters will be swayed by your recent death and will hand you a trophy; we're unsure if that'd be crass or a fitting tribute.

It's unfortunate that we have to read all these wonderful stories about Jerry Orbach in the many obituaries today, but Gothamist is heartened by the fact that many people, from fans to critics, as well as his peers, found him to be a great actor and a wonderful person. Gothamist thinks that was part of why we love Jerry so much, whether he was Detective Lennie Briscoe or Lumiere or Harry McGraw: He was wise and approachable. A few of the quotes we like:

Last night's season finale of Law & Order featured the final appearance of Jerry Orbach as eternally wisecracking Detective Lennie Briscoe. In a divergence from the usual L&O practice of not dwelling on the police-or-law characters, attention was drawn to how Briscoe was leaving the precinct, Green's reaction, opening the door for working with the D.A.'s office, and Briscoe packing up his desk. As a result, Gothamist feels the cases were a little rushed (a couple loose ends and, Elizabeth Rohm, even though your hair is looking fabulous these days, could you be any more shrill?), if fun for the Strangers on a Train reference. And Lennie's pithy one-liner to the woman having an affair with the delivery guy - "Guess he was delivering more than just packages, huh?" - was a great last shot.

What about the show, you ask. There is speculation that Detective Green will get promoted and will take on the "wise veteran" dynamic of the group. While Gothamist has utmost faith in Dick Wolf and his producers decisions (even though we don't forgive them for giving us Serena Boring Bones Southerlyn), we foresee a rocky start for the newbie to fill Lennie's shoes.

Though it seems too obvious to even try, apparently many people impersonate the NYPD by wearing NYPD hats or shirts. Newsday looks at the problem of selling NYPD-logo emblazoned clothing, as the NYPD recently shot an armed man in NYPD gear in the Bronx. The conundrum is that the NYPD is trying to beat cheap imitations of NYPD clothing, which has been popular post-September 11, but the clothing also becomes must-haves for "criminals who commit home invasions and robberies by passing themselves off as cops."

Hyperbolic, Miramax bandying, egotistical and frankly hysterical gossip columnist Roger Friedman reports that Jerry Orbach may be moving over to a potential fourth Law and Order spin-off, which would be about juries. A fourth L&O comes as no surprise, but Gothamist wonders what Detective Lennie Briscoe would be doing with juries all the time - is he constantly on the stand, trying to convince juries that even though he didn't have a warrant, the search's evidence, though inadmissable, is very damning? But we do agree with Friedman about Tamara Tunie who we got to know as Jessica Griffin on As The World Turns and plays the coroner on L&O SVU: She deserves a spin-off of her own - Law and Order: Medical Examiner's Office. [Via readers Samae & Alison]