# Aw damn! Lenny's gone! Plus, Cronchies (a couch potato twofer.) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 20, 2004, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-damn-lennys-gone-plus-cronchies-a-couch-potato-twofer/246113 "2004-05-20T03:22:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-damn-lennys-gone-plus-cronchies-a-couch-potato-twofer/246113/21 "2004-05-21T11:39:52Z")
After being busted, Logan was featured in a made-for-TV movie called [_Exiled_](http://imdb.com/title/tt0164023/), in which he tries to get back onto the Manhattan Detective Squad. I never saw it, so I don’t know if he succeeded. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-damn-lennys-gone-plus-cronchies-a-couch-potato-twofer/246113/22 "2004-05-21T12:11:07Z")
Not to break anyone’s heart or anything (it broke mine), but Lenny’s spin-off show has been shit-canned. I read that on one of the news internet pages this week. I’m totally bummin’. (Lovin’ the Lenny) ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-damn-lennys-gone-plus-cronchies-a-couch-potato-twofer/246113/23 "2004-05-21T12:43:52Z")
Claire Kincaid was killed by a drunk driver while she was driving Lennie home from someplace (I want to say a bar, but I can’t remember all the details). ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-damn-lennys-gone-plus-cronchies-a-couch-potato-twofer/246113/24 "2004-05-21T22:13:30Z")
> [@h.sapiens](#): > > Claire Kincaid was killed by a drunk driver while she was driving Lennie home from someplace (I want to say a bar, but I can’t remember all the details). It was a bar. At the beginning of that episode, the two detectives, Kincaid and McCoy witnessed the execution of some slime they’d investigated and prosecuted (two seperate, yet equally important roles). This set the characters off a long contemplation of life and death and whatnot, much of which took place in a bar where Lenny’s sobriety slipped. Kincaid was driving him home when their car got nailed by a drunk. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-damn-lennys-gone-plus-cronchies-a-couch-potato-twofer/246113/25 "2004-05-21T22:24:56Z")
Lennie and Rey also witnessed the execution, and this led to Rey falling off the fidelity wagon and Lennie getting drunk. We also met Claire’s step dad. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-damn-lennys-gone-plus-cronchies-a-couch-potato-twofer/246113/26 "2004-05-23T04:35:25Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > We also met Claire’s step dad. Oh? When did he get out of the Navy? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-damn-lennys-gone-plus-cronchies-a-couch-potato-twofer/246113/27 "2004-05-23T05:16:51Z")
Don’t know about navy - he was a law prof at one of the law schools in New York City. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-damn-lennys-gone-plus-cronchies-a-couch-potato-twofer/246113/28 "2004-05-23T06:04:36Z")
> [@Northern Piper](#): > > Logan’s second partner was Phil. He got shot by a semi-crazy gunrunner at the end of a season. Phil survived, but was seriously injured. > > Lenny was introduced as a temporary replacement for Phil, and Logan didn’t want him - saw him as intruding into Phil’s space, wouldn’t let him unpack his cardboard box of stuff on Phil’s desk, and so on. He also was suspicious that Lenny was on the take. For example, they ate at a diner and walked out without paying, and Lenny thanked the guy behind the counter. Logan criticised him for not paying and asked if he was on the take. Lenny says no, the guy behind the counter is one of his snitches, who trusts Lenny because he thinks Lenny’s crooked, so Lenny has to make him think that. It’s the kind of ambiguity that Lenny was great at. > > Logan kept talking about when Phil would be back. But then he vistis Phil in the hospital and Phil tells Logan that he’s not coming back. He’ll never be 100% again, and he’s been offered a desk job in another precinct. He’s decided to take it, in part because he doesn’t want to jeopardise any of the other cops by not being completely physically fit in a crisis. > > At the end of that episode, Logan rags on Lenny for leaving his box o’stuff on the floor where people can trip on it - isn’t he ever going to put it away? > > Lenny gives the camera a classic Lenny look, about his new partner who can only welcome him by ragging on him. > > And, when Lenny left the other night, it looked like much the same cardboard box … Yep, that’s the one I was thinking of-wasn’t Jane Kaczmarek from _Malcolm in the Middle_ in that episode? I just saw in syndication the one where they cross over with _Homicide_ (is that how Munch came to be on _SVU_?), and the one guy was moaning because it turns out Lenny slept with his wife. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-damn-lennys-gone-plus-cronchies-a-couch-potato-twofer/246113/29 "2004-05-23T14:53:43Z")
> [@Northern Piper](#): > > Don’t know about navy - he was a law prof at one of the law schools in New York City. You should watch more reruns. The same actor (Len Cariou, who was also in _About Schmidt_) earlier played a Navy Captain convicted of murdering one of his Lieutenants. Kincaid wasn’t the ADA, though. That would be a little too Freudian. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-damn-lennys-gone-plus-cronchies-a-couch-potato-twofer/246113/30 "2004-05-23T15:02:16Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Yep, that’s the one I was thinking of-wasn’t Jane Kaczmarek from _Malcolm in the Middle_ in that episode? Nope. The first appearance of Lenny Briscoe was in [“Point of View”](http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/GuidePageServlet/showid-180/epid-9513/), in which a woman who shot an attempted rapist (though there’s more to the story, natch) is investigated. Noted Broadway actress Elaine Stritch played the defense attorney (and won an Emmy). Kaczmarek would appear in [“Censure”](http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/GuidePageServlet/showid-180/epid-9540/) over a year later. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-damn-lennys-gone-plus-cronchies-a-couch-potato-twofer/246113/31 "2004-05-23T21:50:41Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > You should watch more reruns. The same actor (Len Cariou, who was also in _About Schmidt_) earlier played a Navy Captain convicted of murdering one of his Lieutenants. Kincaid wasn’t the ADA, though. That would be a little too Freudian. But that’s a different issue. L&O re-uses actors in different roles. Kincaid’s step-dad wasn’t in the Navy, even though the actor who played him also played another character who was in the Navy. For example, Jerry Orbach’s first appearance on L&O was as a defence lawyer. That doesn’t mean Lenny was ever a defence lawyer. ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-damn-lennys-gone-plus-cronchies-a-couch-potato-twofer/246113/32 "2004-05-23T22:08:30Z")
Although Orbach/Lenny _is_ getting a little long in the tooth for a police detective (IRL he probably would have been retired by the PD before he got that old), I’m really going toi miss his character. I don’t know about a L&O spinoff about juries, but I’d really like to see a new show with the Lenny Briscoe character as a private detective. He could still turn up on the old show once in a while, helping his old mates with a case. Dennis Farina will probably do fine. It will just take some adjustment to a cop of a different personality. I hope they make Jesse Martin the lead detective, whoever replaces Lenny. Personally I would have liked to see Ed O’neal take the spot. They did cancel _Dragnet_, didn’t they? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-damn-lennys-gone-plus-cronchies-a-couch-potato-twofer/246113.md?page=1)