Law and Order: SVU

 One of my favorite shows. I love watching shows about criminal justice. It's one of my biggest interests.

Summary

-This show follows the work of the Special Victims Unit, whose detectives are trained in the work of sexual crimes

Cast

-Mariska Hargitay: Olivia Benson

-Christopher Meloni: Elliott Stabler

-Ice-T: Odafin "Fin" Tutuola

-Richard Belzer: John Munch

-B.D. Wong: Dr. George Huang

-Tamara Tunie: Dr. Melinda Warner

-Dann Florek: Capt. Donald Cragen

-Kelli Giddish: Amanda Rollins

-Raul Esparza: Rafael Barba

-Diane Neal: Casey Novak

-Stephanie March: Alexander Cabot

-Danny Pino: Nick Amaro

Did You Know?

-Mariska Hargitay, who plays Det. Olivia Benson, is a fully trained rape crisis counselor when she's not acting

-In 2004, Mariska Hargitay created a foundation called The Joyful Heart Foundation. This organization is dedicated to help heal survivors of sexual crimes and start testing the overwhelming amount of untested rape kits and processing the overwhelming amount of unprocessed rape cases

-In an article in TV Guide, many survivors of sexual assault/abuse have approached cast members to personally thank them for showing their stories correctly on TV

-Richard Belzer, who played Det. John Munch, has carried his character over from Homicide: Life on the Street, from 1993, the 2000-era film called Homicide: The Movie and on Law & Order, where he played Det. John Munch. He had several crossover appearances as this character, ranging from an episode of The X-Files to an episode of The Beat, to an episode of Law & Order: Trial by Jury to the season three finale of Arrested Development and an episode of The Wire.

-Originally contracted to only appear in four episodes, Ice-T enjoyed appearing on the show so much he asked to become a permanent member of the cast

-Mariska Hargitay's real life husband, Peter Hermann, who plays Defense Attorney Trevor Langan, appeared in 33 episodes

-On Mariska Hargitay's desk is a photo of her real life mother, Jayne Mansfield

-Prior to landing her role as Det. Amanda Rollins, Kelli Giddish appeared as a rape victim named Kara Bawson in the 2007 season 8, episode 12 "Outsider"

-Det. Fin Tutuola's last name means "the gentle one" in Yoruba

-Two years prior to appearing as Casey Novak, actress Diane Neal appeared on the show in an episode as a woman accused of raping a male stripper

-Out of all the assistant district attorneys the show has had, which were all female, Raul Esparza, who plays Rafael Barba, is the first male assistant district attorney

-Season nine was said to have the largest number of main cast members in the show's entire history. The cast consisted of Mariska Hargitay, Christopher Meloni, Richard Belzer, Diane Neal, Ice-T, Adam Beach, B.D. Wong, Dann Florek, Tamara Tunie

-This show is the longest running spinoff of the original 1990 Law & Order series. Other shows in this large group include Law & Order (1990), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001), Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005), Law & Order: UK (2009), Law & Order: LA (20107), Law & Order: True Crime (2017)

-Olivia and Elliott were named after producer Dick Wolf's children

-From season one to season twelve, episode four "Merchandise", the precinct scenes were filmed in North Bergen, New Jersey. After this episode aired, the precinct scenes started getting filmed to the Chelsea Piers section of Manhattan, which was where the precinct scenes for the original Law & Order were filmed

-Several of the main characters had served in the military at one point or another. Dr. Warner (Tamara Tunie) had been in the Air Force, Det. Stabler (Christopher Meloni) was in the Marines, Captain Cragen was in the Green Berets, which was mentioned on an episode of Law & Order and Det. Tutuola was an Army Ranger

-Gary Sinise was the first choice to play Det. Elliott Stabler. But Christopher Meloni accepted, freeing Sinise to later appear as New York City crime scene investigator Det. Mac Taylor on CSI: NY and later as Senior FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jack Garrett on Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders

-In season fourteen, Det. Olivia Benson is seen wearing a necklace that looks a little like a small dogtag of a design seen earlier in the show. She received it from her psychiatrist after she was kidnapped and tortured, where the original model had been kept in evidence

-Longtime viewers often wondered about the sexuality of the show's resident psychologist, Dr. George Huang (B.D. Wong). His homosexuality was not confirmed until the episode "Hardwired", from season eleven, episode five.

-In real life, New York City does have a Special Victims Unit, but it's called Special Victims Division

-The show bases many episodes on real life events. One episode, "Glasgowman's Wrath", was based on the 2014 case "The Slenderman Stabbing" in Wisconsin. The show also brings awareness to concepts such as fat shaming, anti-vaccine people, cyberbullying, teen pregnancy pacts, human trafficking.

-Jeremy Irons started appearing as Dr. Captain "Cap" Jackson, a self-proclaimed sex addict who was changing his ways and tried and later succeeded in earning trust from Benson and Stabler. He helped them in a child molestation/murder case. The character admitted he slept with his lesbian daughter's object of affection, who came with them on a summer vacation. This similar situation also happened in the 1990s film Lolita, where he played a character named Humbert. He was a well-educated man with a strong, uncontrollable lust for his teenaged stepdaughter

-Many times during the trial, the person on the stand is asked if they recognize the person they're there on behalf of. The ADA will then say "Let the record reflect the witness has identified the defendant." In real life trials, the person testifying is asked to identify where the defendant is sitting and what they're wearing to provide accurate information