Series Finale

What a sad night last night was-the finale for the original Law and Order.  The New York Times had several articles on the economic and artistic impact that Law and Order has had in New York since it began filming here twenty years ago and the "gaping hole for the economy" that its cancellation creates.   Hundreds of actors and actresses have credentials that include appearances in one of the "ripped from the headlines" Law and Order episodes. A mini industry sprung up around the series that employed caterers, designers and producers, technicians and even trucking companies for the logistics. According to the local NBC News station (4) 3000 actors were employed and $79 million spent in NYC each season!  At first I thought I had noted it wrong, as it was on the news ribbon that runs along the bottom of the screen, but I rewound and double checked it.  Then last night watching the finale I figued that with the students in the school and the jurors and spectators in the courtroom there were easily over 100 actors in one episode.We became aware of this mini-industry every time a sign was posted on one of the Brooklyn Heights streets that indicated a series episode, commercial or movie scene was to be filmed there the next day.  We only would  get excitied, however, for either Law and Order or The Good Wife.  The Good Wife,  while ostensibly taking place in Chicago, is filmed in Brooklyn and many hope it will take up the slack that the Law and Order cancellation will create. 

I didn't expect to see Sam Waterson but had hoped to see  S. Epatha Merkerson when they filmed an episode on the night of February 19 at the brownstone on Columbia Heights around the corner. I reported on this in my blog entry on February 22  titled "Cue: Gavel Sound" I spoke with a crew member earlier in the day and he told me she would be here that evening filming.  However, we had dinner plans that night with friends and I had to show some restraint.  After dinner I suggested they come by to see our apartment and that we walk down Columbia Heights.  The kleig lights were still on and I got my camera ready and even took one blurry shot (above).  But just as I got close enough for a better shot the lights went out and the crew called it a night.  Darn.  We haven't found this episode yet. Perhaps we'll catch up with it in reruns, or perhaps it was for next season and we'll never see it.

I had a little more luck on April 23 when I went out to do some grocery shopping, turned the corner and discovered the filming was in progress at Court Street and Montague.  This time I got to see Jeff Goldblum and Saffron Burrows film a Law and Order Criminal Intent scene involving a Hispanic candidate at a campaign rally with Burrough Hall and the Courthouse in the background.  The flag-waving "supporters", who wore red t-shirts reading Caldera Family Power, were also crew members and very quick to yell at me if I got too close with my camera, or if my flash went off which it did periodically.  Hence out of 25 shots I didn't get many good examples.  It's tough to be a papparazzi. I also reviewed theCriminal Intent plot summaries for the entire season and can't find one that would appear to have this episode.  Once again, perhaps it was for next year?

I find it appropriate that this is the week of the season finale, since it is also our New York City finale and Greg and I will also end our relationship with this wonderful city.  If I were Lenny I would have a great wisecrack, but I can't think of one, said failure helps me appreciate the Law and Order writers even more.  However, given the plot of the finale episode, I did think that TS Eliot had an appropriate wise observation (just not a crack) in The Hollow Men:

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.