Say It Isn't So.............Jerry Orbach Leaving Law & Order

I only watched the very first season of Law and Order. I don't know who Orbach is.

The show has such good writing, it has survived many cast changes. I will be sad to see Jerry go, though. As to who should replace him, I don't know. I think it would be best to go with a relative unkown, so viewer expectations aren't pulled out of whack by an acting pedigree.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/040326/7/oazz.html

Well, I did find this link to the story!

I'm with you Phoenix...a truly sad time for the show..I watch all the law & order spinoffs as well..he(wolfe) has used many actors from the Oz series...would maybe like to see another from that series transplanted...but it is the shows writing that keeps it going strong...

That is bad news Phoenix, L&O is my fav show of all time, over here we have only just got to the point of having "Green" team up with Briscoe so how far behind are we?

As has been said already the show is that well written it will probably survive a cast change - it has up to now. Fingers crossed.

Orbach is such a legend that he will be hard to replace. Believe he is mid 70s or older but just keeps going and going! Love the man!

Re: Say It Isn't So.............Jerry Orbach Leaving Law &am
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In a sentence to say: Law and Order is one of the best series ever. Just brilliant.



Unfortunaly he will be leaving Law &Order. Of course it is difficult to replace him, but I think nevertheless, even if he will go, the series hold their dominion as well as high level.

I love the job Ohrbach did, but it had become obvious that they just couldn't keep putting a fellow his age up on the screen year after year and remain believable.

It's pretty well known that in the NY City Police Department, as with most Police Dep'ts, retirement comes after twenty years. Most take it. You don't usually see guys Lenny's age working unless they are high, high up in the hierarchy.

When Ohrbach started 12 years ago, he already portrayed a grizzled old guy, mid fifties at least. At some point the loyal viewers are going to say, "Hey!"

For the past several years, whenever they want to probe an old case with a bearing on the present one, the investigating detective would be retired and Briscoe would know him from the old days. Well, if most of the people Briscoe worked with are now retired, you have to wonder why Briscoe isn't. And this has been going on for several years.

To maintain believability, the show had to make a change when it did.

Here's a little tidbit. I remember the recurring TV role Ohrbach had before Law & Order that probably got him the Law & Order part.

Ready? It was from Murder, She Wrote. For a couple of seasons, Jerry Ohrbach played a hard bitten, grizzled veteran New York City detective who in the end becomes dazzled by the heroine's abilities. There was a hint of romantic involvement there, too, not openly stated.

I don't know if was consecutive years, but within a year or two, Ohrbach went from playing a hard bitten New York City detective on Murder, She Wrote to playing one on Law & Order.

I think it is pretty obvious the Law & Order producers saw the job Ohrbach did on Murder, She Wrote and decided to cast him in their own show.

We all know that Angela Lansbury is pretty old. I think she was on Broadway in the fifties. If the character Ohrbach played 13 or 14 years ago, similar to his Law & Order character, was believable as a love interest for Lansbury......

Let's just say that the time had come for Ohrbach. He had a great run on the show, probably longer than he or anyone else on the show expected him to have.

Yep, just looked it up. His "Harry McGraw" character was a NYC private detective, not a cop, on Murder, She Wrote for several years up through 1991. The Lenny Briscoe character started the next year, in 1992. However, Ohrbach did do a guest shot, not as Briscoe, on Law & Order in 1991.

I would guess the Harry McGraw character helped him land the Briscoe part, though Ohrbach was a well known actor for years.

http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/PersonDetail/personid-1371

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001583/

nooooo!!!! not Briscoe! who will star in the ads for 8:30 Tuesday on TEN?? It would be like eating cake without flour! After Orbach leaves Law & Order ratings will fall like a snowball down a hill....gradually gaining momentum and crashing with a horrible splat!

Woooohhhhhh! all these metaphors are making me dizzy.....

I'm glad we'll still be able to see him on the new show.

I was mad when they fired Arthur Hill who played Adam Schiff, because I thought he was great as the DA.

Link to Steven Hill.

First of all, it was STEVEN Hill who played Schiff. From what I had heard, he was not fired, but left, a mutual decision between him and Wolf. Hill was 78 years old, and the commuting to the studio was beginning to get to him.

He was still marvelous in his part, and Weist was no match. The new guy is ok, but Hill really had the New York flavor. I think maybe Wolf wanted a DA that would appeal to a broader audience.

For those of you old enough to remember, the site that I posted has some pics of him in "Mission Impossible".

Interestingly enough, both Steven Hill and Arthur Hill were born in 1922.

Hah! You just took away one of my favorite trivia questions!

kelticwizard- Funny thing. I never like Hill on "Mission Impossible", but I think that he was great on "Law & Order"!

Again, I point to the interview I heard from Paul Sorvino, who along with Jerry Ohrbach was probably the biggest "name" that Law & Order ever hired. The others, (Chris Noth, Jill Hennessy, etc.), became "names" after their stint on Law & Order.

Sorvino said that everyone who left was fired. People have left since he said that, but I think it still applies to them.

The people Law & Order hires are not so big that they can turn down a regular network job. The acting profession is extremely competitive. Have you ever seen an old TV series with an actor that you felt was so good, it was inevitable that he would still be big after the series ended? How many times has it turned out that he never becomes big again?

With Hill you just had the same problem that you had with Ohrbach, only a few years earlier. When the show starts, for casting purposes you want a venerable figure, getting near retirement age. After ten years on the air, when the guy is still there.......

Steven Hill certainly landed on his feet, using his image as a smart DA to land the TD Waterhouse commercials. How many 78 year old actors have a regular gig like that?

Yeah!

And now, guess whose smiling face greets me when I go to the Waterhouse website? Sam Waterston!!!!

LOL!! That's true!!

This could be a real life version of that Priceline commercial campaign about Leonard Nimoy replacing Willian Shatner as spokesman!!