When Adam was around, Jack was pro-death penalty and pretty lenient with the police (Adam had to push him to prosecute harder in one case)
Jack was a cop’s son. That might have something to do with it.
I think Schiff is the absolute gold standard and Branch was just a blowhard. Steven Hill (who played Schiff) could do the gruff and impatient boss, but also the proud mentor, the jokester, and the savvy motivator. The episode where he has to take his wife off of life support should have won him an Emmy - I’ll remember that little whimper for the rest of my life.
Adam: Good work. Take the rest of the week off.
Jack: It’s Friday.
Adam: So it is. See you Monday.
Completely agree! I think Steven Hawking could read lines better.
(let’s hope this link works.)
Who here <show of hands> is old enough to remember that Steven Hill as Dan Briggs was the leader of the ORIGINAL Mission Impossible team? Check out this picture!
S1.E1
Pilot
- Episode aired Sep 17, 1966
"IMF team leader Dan Briggs assembles his team for the first time. "
The only trouble with Schiff is Steven Hill’s line reading. Too many times it’s like he’s reading cue cards for the first time.
But yes, the entirety of the episode “Terminal” was great. “I’m taking the governor to court.” So deadpan! So awesome.
…
Po-TAY-toe <—> Po-TAH-toe
I’m just now watching season 7, episode 1, Jamie’s first episode. Jack is very sad to see her sitting at Claire’s old desk, and he doesn’t even really want to work with her.
But in this episode she is very aggressive! She is really pushing for the death penalty when Jack is willing to back off.
I think she mellowed a bit as time went by.
Wow. I wonder if I’d recognize his voice better than his face (on a related note, I was watching Lenny talk to a cranky hotel clerk the other day, and the whiny complaint in the clerk’s voice made me check IMDB - and sure enough, it was the guy who played “McNair” in 1776)
Everybody and their dog was a guest star on L&O at one time or another. That’s not counting SVU and Criminal Intent.
In 2012 I asked:
It seemed like they always tried to introduce a little “friction” when they introduced a new character–Lennie Briscoe used a couple of ethnic slurs in his first episode, Curtis was stuffy and judgmental–but pretty soon they’re all getting along wonderfully.
Ed was a loose cannon who stabilized (and one of the ADAs made promises to the victims’ families that she shouldn’t have).
(Fontana was a jerk, through and through).
The brand new detective on the current run was introduced with both racial/racist subtext, AND had him hide evidence that supported the defense claim of self-defense.
And so was Cosgrove. A different kind of jerk. Fontana was “old school” NYPD (rules are for crybaby liberals) but Cosgrove was old skool “why can’t I use the N-word? You people do!” clueless jerk ass.
Back to the OP, I loved how Jack tried to manipulate Jaime into giving up her client (when she was a defense atty), and she deftly outmanueverd him and got out from under the conundrum.
Agree about Cosgrove.
I think he was from Chicago. There’s an episode where they meet someone from Chicago, and Fontana starts talking like he’s from that neighborhood, and that they must know some of the same people. Ed thinks he’s just making it up to try to gain the trust of the person they’re talking with, but he says later that it’s true.
How he wound up in New York City, and could afford handmade Italian loafers, I don’t recall.
I’m that third person who liked Fontana.
Ed could be forgiven for that assumption. Fontana also once emphasized with a witness who was a war veteran by talking about his time in Vietnam. When Ed asks him later where he served in Vietnam, he says, “I didn’t.”
Love 'em all except Serena Southerlyn (played by Elizabeth Rohm). I couldn’t stand that slow, unnatural way she talked. I’m not sure if it was the actress, or the character.