‘ORDER’ NUMBER: 400
‘SVU’ hits milestone episode
NBC’s “Law & Order:
SVU” has reached its 400th episode — a milestone celebrated by just a handful of TV shows in the medium’s 70-year history.
Wednesday night’s landmark episode is, fittingly enough, directed by series star Mariska Hargitay, who’s played NYPD Det. Olivia Benson since “SVU” premiered in 1999. (Chris Meloni, who played Benson’s original partner, Det. Elliot Stabler, left the series in 2011.)
“Mariska is much more than a TV actress — she’s literally a female icon for American women from the ages of 14 to 104,” says Dick Wolf, who created the original “Law & Order” (456 episodes in 20 seasons) and its subsequent spinoffs. (“SVU” is the last of the “Law & Order” shows still in production; “Law & Order: True Crime” is on the horizon).
“[Olivia] represents an ideal, in one sense, but a person who is relatable because of her flaws,” Wolf says. “It’s an amazing achievement that Mariska has been able to maintain this degree of focus for this long.
“Emotionally, she’s got the perfect pitch.”
Wolf, 70, spoke to The Post about “SVU,” about what’s made the series so durable and what the future holds for Det. Benson.
What’s the secret to the show’s longevity?
A very simple reason. It goes back to when it was initially called ‘Sex Crimes’ and [thenNBC programming chief ] Garth Ancier didn’t want ‘sex’ in the title because of advertisers. I said, ‘You know what, Garth? It will test horribly, but who’s not going to watch?’ Along with food, sex is the most basic element of human life. We can’t get here without sex. It’s endlessly fascinating. And Mariska [as Benson] is not only representative of what’s best and what we hope for people [working on sex crimes] who have to be empathetic, but she’s a hero to cops. There are not that many people on the planet who can appeal to 18-to-49-year-old women and 60-year-old cops.
What’s your most memorable “SVU” episode?
One of ones that sticks out, even after 18 years, is the pilot [“Pay- back”], which asked so many provocative questions. When you start a series with somebody’s penis being sliced off, you’d better have a pretty good reason — that was during the Serbian and Bosnian ethnic cleansing — and we touched on a lot of subjects. Chris and Mariska truly hit the ground running in that episode. The [2003] episode on Tay-Sachs raised so many fundamental moral issues about life and death. Judd Hirsch was amazing. I tell writers that if you’re going to look at one episode after the pilot, it’s that one. A high-water mark. The best episodes are the ones that are morally dichotomous — you hear both sides of the argument and agree with both sides.
What are the chances for a 19th season?
I don’t want to tiptoe past the graveyard. I know nothing. But I think the show is doing extraordinarily well this season. I certainly don’t anticipate it being cancelled; at this stage, I’m fully anticipating [NBC] is going to want another season — at least in my mind another three seasons.