Mariska Hargitay has a good ‘SVU’ attendance record

Q: I know that “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” is marking its 20th anniversary on the air. Has Mariska Hargitay been on the show the entire time? – Kevin Prescott, Bend, Ore.

A: Pretty much. The only time she was absent from the NBC series and the role of Olivia Benson for a significant stretch was when she was pregnant in 2006, and during her maternity leave, Connie Nielsen was brought in as a temporary partner for Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni). Nielsen reunited very briefly with executive producer Dick Wolf for this season’s CBS “FBI,” but she left that show after the pilot episode. Hargitay has worn additional hats as “L&O: SVU” has continued, becoming an executive producer of the show as of Season 18, and also directing several episodes – five as of this writing. She also used some of the information she discovered through the series to produce and host the HBO documentary special “I Am Evidence,” about rape kits (or sexual assault forensic exams) left unexamined by authorities, earlier this year.

Q: Did Beth Behrs do any other series work between “2 Broke Girls” and her new show “The Neighborhood”? – Annie Grant, via e-mail

A: She stayed loyal to CBS – be that by choice, or simply because that’s where her opportunities were – by making a guest appearance in an episode of “The Big Bang Theory,” and she also took part in last December’s 50th-anniversary salute to “The Carol Burnett Show.” Interestingly, when she did the latter special, it wasn’t known that Behrs would be returning to CBS full-time. The pilot for “The Neighborhood” was filmed with another actress in her eventual role, and a bid for Broadway hadn’t worked out for her, so she was available when the call came (facilitated in part by co-star Max Greenfield, a friend of hers) for her to move into “The Neighborhood.”