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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (also known as Law & Order: SVU, or simply SVU) is a drama about the Special Victims Unit in the fictitious 16th Precinct of New York.

It is the first of three spin-offs of the long-running, award-winning crime drama Law & Order set in New York City, currently airing on NBC. SVU began in the United States on September 20, 1999, and stars Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler and Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson.

Law & Order: SVU can currently be seen on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC. In addition, the show is also syndicated on the USA Network. The current season, numbered 7, premiered on September 20 2005 and ran through May 16, 2006. The show has been renewed for an 8th season. *

The show originally aired on Monday nights at 10 p.m. ET for the first nine episodes, from September 20 through November 29, 1999. It was then shifted to Friday nights at 10 p.m. ET on January 7, 2000, and remained in that time slot through the end of season four on May 16, 2003. SVU was placed in its current time slot for the season 5 opener on September 23, 2003 on Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. ET and occasionally runs previous shows on Friday and Saturday nights.

SVU is currently the highest rated series of the Law & Order franchise, and is one of NBC's top rated shows. The Law & Order series also includes four other dramas: the original Law & Order, Criminal Intent, Trial By Jury, and Conviction, the latter two of which were cancelled after their first seasons.

Series overview

The following statement is spoken at the beginning of every episode:
In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories....

Investigation of sex crimes

Unlike the original Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU follows a distinct division of the New York City Police Department: the Special Victims Unit (aka the Sex Crimes division, as explained in the first episode). As its name implies, the detectives in this division investigate crimes involving sexual assault, the very young, or the very elderly, as well as any crime loosely connected with any of the three. Their unit is based out of the fictitious 16th Precinct (sometimes called Manhattan SVU).

Origins

The series was originally proposed under the title Sex Crimes, and unrelated to the Law & Order brand. NBC thought the title was too harsh, and after discussions between network executives and Dick Wolf (creator of Law & Order) it became part of the L&O brand, debuting as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Distinction from original series

SVU has the distinction of breaking from the original series' split storytelling format (where the police detectives investigate and arrest the criminals in the first half hour, and the district attorneys prosecute them in the second half), by focusing on the SVU detectives throughout the entire episode.

In many episodes, but not all, the viewers will see the case go to trial. In the first season, the program relied on a rotating mix of Assistant District Attorneys, including ADA Abbie Carmichael (played by Angie Harmon), a character on the original Law & Order, but the main focus always remains on the SVU detectives.

Character drama

In addition, the show is more character-driven than the typical police procedural, with a less-than-complete focus on the main case. For example, detectives Stabler and Benson each volunteered to work for the Special Victims Unit for different reasons: Stabler felt a moral responsibility to protect all people from the criminals that they had to deal with, especially because he had four children of his own, and later dealing with father issues and anger issues that drove away his wife and children. Benson was the child of a pregnancy resulting from the rape of her mother by an assailant whose murder was the case under investigation in one episode.

Controversial subject matter

SVU contains by far the most controversial subject matter of any of the L&O series, focusing mostly on rape and child abuse, as well as episodes based on real incidents and current hot topic issues, such as homosexuality, physician-assisted suicide, abortion, and gun control.

Episodes

Awards

Won

Nominated

  • 2006 Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Chris Meloni)
  • 2006 Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Mariska Hargitay)
  • 2006 Screen Actors Guild Best Female Actor in a Drama Series (Mariska Hargitay)
  • 2005 Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Mariska Hargitay)
  • 2004 Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Mariska Hargitay)
  • 2004 Screen Actors Guild Best Female Actor in a Drama Series (Mariska Hargitay)

Principal cast

Supporting characters

The cast also has characters from two other NBC series: Captain Don Cragen (played by Dann Florek), who was on the first three seasons of Law & Order and Detective John Munch (played by Richard Belzer), formerly a Baltimore detective on Life on the Street. This character also made appearances on Law & Order, Trial by Jury, Arrested Development, The Beat and The X-Files.

Supporting cast during season one included Dean Winters as Munch's partner, Detective Brian Cassidy, and Michelle Hurd as Detective Monique Jeffries. Cassidy was an immigrant detective, just assigned to the unit, who transferred to narcotics because he was having trouble dealing with some of the disturbing cases the division dealt with regularly.

Jeffries was originally a minor character, but when Dean Winters left the show midseason, she played a more prominent role as Munch's partner. Hurd played the role for a few episodes during the second season, after which she left the show.

Casting changes

The show, like its parent show, has had several cast changes, although the original four credited cast members (Christopher Meloni, Mariska Hargitay, Richard Belzer and Dann Florek) have remained with the show through the first seven seasons.

Detective Tutuola
After Hurd left the series, her Monique Jeffries character was replaced with Detective Odafin "Fin" Tutuola (played by rapper-turned-actor, Ice-T); he has been on the show since season two. While technically Munch's partner, Fin has become much more prominent on the show than Munch; while Munch usually remains at the station, with sometimes only a few lines in some episodes, Fin is much more active in aiding the main characters' investigations, and is often sent on undercover assignments as well.

Alexandra Cabot
Also in season two the show added Stephanie March, as Assistant District Attorney Alexandra "Alex" Cabot, as a permanent supporting ADA to the show. In season five, Alexandra was shot and presumed dead, but actually was placed in the Witness Protection Program for her safety. Casey Novak, portrayed by Diane Neal, replaced Cabot. However, former ADA Cabot came out of Witness Protection and returned to testify against the man who gunned her down.

In early 2006, Stephanie March reprised the character of Alexandra Cabot in the now defunct series Conviction.

Dr. George Huang
B.D. Wong, began appearing as George Huang, a forensic psychiatrist on loan from the FBI, in the next-to-last episode of season two. He was a frequently recurring character during season three before being elevated to contract status starting with season four.

ME Melinda Warner
Tamara Tunie, as ME Melinda Warner, is the division's current Medical Examiner on the show. Having played the role in virtually every episode of the last three seasons, Tunie was added to the opening credits for the show's seventh season.

Casey Novak
As of 2003, the show's most recent cast change came after the fourth episode of season five ("Loss"), when Stephanie March was replaced with Diane Neal as ADA Casey Novak.

Other Guest Stars
From season 3 on, Judith Light has had multiple appearances as Bureau Chief and Executive Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Donnelly, turned judge in season 7. One other character that was important was Detective Ken Briscoe (nephew of Lennie Briscoe), played by Chris Orbach (son of Jerry Orbach). He appeared in early episodes of the show, along with his father.

Joel de la Fuente has had some recurring roles as Rueben Morales, a computer expert who helps the detectives with online evidence. In the Season 7 episode "Web," he played a major part in the investigation of a young man who was running a web site featuring himself and other underage boys. During the investigation, Morales told Stabler that he had given his nephew a computer as a gift. The nephew had met and been molestated by an online predator via the computer and Morales joined SVU to ease his guilt and try to save other children from that fate. It seems possible that like Tunie and Wong, his role may be expanded on in the coming season. Caren Browning has had numerous appearances over the past four seasons as Crime Scene Unit (CSU) Captain Judith Siper, while Mike Doyle has appeared on numerous occasions as CSU Detective O'Halloran over the same time period.

In addition, the show has had many guest stars, including cast from Law & Order, including Jesse L. Martin as Detective Ed Green, Angie Harmon as ADA Abbie Carmichael, Sam Waterston as Executive ADA Jack McCoy, Steven Hill as District Attorney Adam Schiff, Dianne Wiest as Interim DA Nora Lewin, and Fred Dalton Thompson as District Attorney Arthur Branch. In addition to that, a number of other doctors appeared on the show from time to time, including Leslie Hendrix as her L&O character, ME Elizabeth Rodgers, Carolyn McCormick as her L&O character, psychologist Elizabeth Olivet, and J.K. Simmons as his L&O character, psychiatrist Emil Skoda. Other high-profile guests have included Henry Winkler, Bobby Flay, Dean Cain, Lewis Black, Emily Deschanel, Natalie Cole, Sharon Lawrence, Darrell Hammond, Jane Seymour, Jacqueline Bisset, John Ritter, Bret Harrison, Martin Short, Andrew McCarthy, Alfred Molina, Angela Lansbury, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Mary Steenburgen, Martha Plimpton, Doug E. Doug, Anthony Anderson, Patrick Flueger, Billy Campbell, Shannyn Sossamon, Margot Kidder, Chad Lowe, Eric Stoltz, Richard Thomas, Piper Laurie, David Keith, Gloria Reuben, Mary Stuart Masterson, Marlee Matlin, and Lea Thompson. The seventh-season opener featured Robert Patrick and Robert Walden. The season seven finale featured Brittany Snow. It was recently announced that Connie Nielsen will be making a series of appearances in the future as a detective taking over for parts originally meant for Olivia Benson but were scheduled to be taped while Mariska Hargitay is on maternity leave.

Plot inspirations

Like its predecessor, many Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes are clear references to high-profile real-life cases, and are based on thinly-veiled dramatizations of these actual events, though the particulars and outcome may end up to be quite different.
  • In the episode " Special Victims Unit episodes#Angels" the plot of young Latin boys being taken from their foreign homes and raped by their kidnapper, is quite similar to the case of Michael Skult in Arkansas.
  • Season 3's finale, " Special Victims Unit episodes#Silence", dealt with allegations of sexual abuse performed by Catholic clergymen, echoing the real-life proliferation of Roman Catholic sex abuse cases.
  • The Season 4 premiere, " Special Victims Unit episodes#Chameleon," deals with a prostitute who repeatedly murders her clients and claims it was self-defense every time. This is based on the real-life story of Aileen Wuornos (and the subsequent movie Monster.)
  • The Season 4 episode, " Special Victims Unit episodes#Appearances", has superficial similarities to the JonBenét Ramsey case, as it questions the motives of parents who put their young daughters in beauty pageants. The parents are quickly cleared of any charges, though.
  • Another Season 4 episode, " Special Victims Unit episodes#Perfect", is loosely based on two unrelated events, the scandal surrounding the mysterious death of Lisa McPherson and the abduction of Elizabeth Smart.
  • The Season 5 episode, " Special Victims Unit episodes#Sick", is a clear reference to the allegations of pedophilia against Michael Jackson, and the questionable credibility of some of the accusers. In the episode, a wealthy, eccentric celebrity comes under scrutiny for his bizarre practice of inviting little children over to his childlike mansion.
  • The Season 5 episode " Special Victims Unit episodes#Mean" about the murder of a teenage girls by her so-called clique of friends due to the jealousy of the leader was loosely based on the case of Shanda Sharer in Illinois in 1992 and a similar case in California in 1989.
  • Control, the 100th episode, is based on the John Jamelske kidnappings in DeWitt, NY.
  • Season 6's episode, " Special Victims Unit episodes#Game", features a popular, violent video game that is blamed for inspiring the hit-and-run murder of a prostitute. The game featured and the lawsuit following it closely resemble the video game franchise Grand Theft Auto, which has been blamed for several violent crimes committed by young game players.
  • " Special Victims Unit episodes#Scavenger" is about a long-unsolved cases of rapes and murders by a serial killer known only by the moniker "RDK", for "rape, dismember, kill". An actual serial killer from the 1970s was known as "BTK" for "bind, torture, kill", and his crime streak of almost 30 years went unsolved until 2005.
  • The episode, " Special Victims Unit episodes#Pure", features a wife who lures virgin girls into a dangerous situation so they can be raped by her husband. The details are almost exactly the same as the real-life case of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.
  • The Season 6 finale, " Special Victims Unit episodes#Goliath", deals with soldiers who return from a post in Afghanistan experiencing long-term side-effects from a fictional drug called "Quiniam", that soldiers were forced to take. This paralleled real-life allegations that the Lariam being given to soldiers in Afghanistan could cause psychosis and suicidal thoughts in some soldiers.
  • The Season 7 episode, " Special Victims Unit episodes#Starved", took several plot details from the Terri Schiavo case.
  • The Season 7 episode " Special Victims Unit episodes#Storm" had the search for a child molestor who had taken two girls from post-Katrina New Orleans, touching on the reports of missing molestors in the wake of the storm. It turns out he was also involved in the theft of anthrax from a government lab in New Orleans, a reporter taking info on the story from Olivia and publishing it. When he refused to name his source, he went to jail, in a nod to the Judith Miller case.
  • The Season 7 finale, " Special Victims Unit episodes#Influence", is based off of the controversy regarding actor Tom Cruise and his views on psychiatry, with the perpetrator having refused to take her medication because of a rock star's statements regarding the evils of psychiatric medication, leading to tragic results.

Trivia

  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit follows the same opening style of its parent Law & Order.
  • SVU, like every other spinoff, uses a re-mixed version of the theme music from its parent show Law & Order.
  • Prior to September 2001, SVU's opening sequence featured two separate shots of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. After September 11, the show's opening sequence changed, with generic city shots replacing the World Trade Center. The original shots can be seen in syndicated episodes.
  • From the second season on, the franchise convention of the characters walking towards the camera at the end of the opening sequence was ditched and replaced by the cast gathered in front of a desk. Except for the now cancelled Trial by Jury, this was a characteristic unique to SVU and is symbolic of the large credited cast (8 members as of 2006).
  • The photo in the opening credits for Dann Florek (from the beginning of the show) and Ice-T (starting with the second episode of season 2) have not changed since they first appeared on the show. The photo for Mariska Hargitay has changed four times (Season 1 has one photo, seasons 2-4 and the first four episodes of season 5 have another, the rest of season 5 has a third, and seasons 6 and 7 have a fourth). Christopher Meloni, Richard Belzer and B.D. Wong got new photos starting with the fifth episode of season 5 (coinciding with the debut of Diane Neal as ADA Casey Novak), while Diane Neal had one photo for season 5 and another for seasons 6 and 7.
  • This is one of seven series in which the character Detective John Munch, played by Richard Belzer, has appeared. Others include Life on the Street, Law & Order, The X-Files, The Beat, Trial by Jury and Arrested Development.
  • Jerry Orbach (Detective Lennie Briscoe), Jesse L. Martin (Detective Ed Green), Fred Dalton Thompson (District Attorney Arthur Branch) and Leslie Hendrix (Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers) are the only actors to play the same character on all four Law & Order series (Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Criminal Intent and Trial by Jury).
  • Two years prior to being hired for the show as ADA Casey Novak, Diane Neal played a woman on the show who is investigated by the detectives for raping a male stripper in the episoode "Ridicule".
  • Tamara Tunie also appeared as an attorney on the original series before being cast as Dr. Warner.
  • George Huang's FBI badge number is 2317616, as told in the episode "Charisma." This is the same badge number as Agent Dana Scully of The X-Files.
  • Mariska Hargitay's (Detective Olivia Benson) real-life father, Mickey Hargitay, appears in the episode "Control". He plays a man on an escalator, who is seen speaking to her character.
  • Many actors previously starred on the HBO show Oz including Dean Winters and B.D. Wong. Ironically Chris Meloni (Detective Stabler) played a sadistic rapist and murderer on Oz, and now hunts them on SVU.
  • SVU has surpassed, in both ratings and popularity, the original Law & Order television program. This is a rare occurrence in the television industry.
  • Stephanie March reprised her role as Alexandra Cabot as a Bureau Chief in Dick Wolf's short-lived drama Conviction (2006), despite her character's entry into the Witness Protection Program on SVU.
  • It is believed that the characters of Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler were named from creator Dick Wolf's three real life children: Olivia, Elliot and Sarina (the latter namesake of Olivia Benson's mother, seen in the series pilot, as well as Law & Order ADA Serena Southerlyn).
  • Title theme for the UK terrestrial channel five version: "I'm Not Driving Anymore", the instrumental version from Rob Dougan's Furious Angels (Disc 2) *
  • Mariska Hargitay keeps a photo of her mother, Jayne Mansfield, on her desk on the set.
  • The precinct is sometimes erroneously reffered to as "Manhattan SVU".
  • In 2003, Law & Order: SVU attracted some heavy criticism from the Media in Australia, where a baby girl was kidnapped similar to an episode of Law & Order shown a week earlier. The baby girl was kidnapped in a shopping mall, whose hair was cut and clothes changed to avoid attention and disguise her (as done in an episode in SVU). The baby girl was found later and safely returned. After the event, Australian Police have stated that criminals have gotten smarter from watching crime shows.

Technical information

Law & Order: SVU has been shot on film in 16:9 format since at least 2003 (the year first run episodes also began airing in HDTV). This presents the unique oddity of reruns in this format providing more (previously cropped) material than when the episodes were first run broadcast in 4:3. Since 2006, all new episodes of the multiple Law & Order series have aired in widescreen for 4:3 screens, following other NBC shows such as The West Wing, ER, and Crossing Jordan.

DVD releases

DVD Name
Release dates
Region 1
Region 2
Region 4
The Complete 1st Season October 21 2003 February 28 2005 N/A
The Complete 2nd Season September 27 2005 November 21 2005 March 6 2006
The Complete 5th Season September 14 2004 N/A N/A

Season 1 and Season 7 are available for purchase on Apple's iTunes Music Store as individual episodes or full seasons.

International

External links

1990s TV shows in the United States | 2000s TV shows in the United States | Crime television series | Law & Order | NBC network shows | Television spin-offs | USA Network shows | Legal television series | NBC Universal Television shows | Television shows set in New York

Law & Order: New York | New York unité spéciale | Law & Order - Unità vittime speciali | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit".

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