Post by missincabot on Oct 6, 2005 21:02:37 GMT -5
Just found this awesome article about SVU from the New York Times! The New York Times!! How friggin cool is that! lol. It has some interesting quotes from Neal Baer, Mr. Wolf, Mariska, etc. Enjoy ;D
Special Victims Unit is the new leader of the Law & Order pack
By Kate Aurthur
The New York Times
Posted October 4 2005
ON a summer day on the set of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" in North Bergen, N.J., the cast was shooting new opening credits. The two leads, Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay, stood as part of the eight-person ensemble, staring intensely at the camera. Trying to snap the group into character, Ted Kotcheff, an executive producer who was directing the scene, yelled, "All you perps out there, you're in danger from us!" The actors broke up with laughter.
Mr. Kotcheff tried a different approach, thanking "these eight wonderful people who made it possible for us to go into a seventh season." Nearby, a Doritos-eating crew member whispered, "I thought it was the eighth season."
Well, with three different "Law & Order" series on the NBC schedule, it can be hard to keep track - Wednesday's episode will be the 600th of the combined franchise. But last season, something unexpected happened: "Special Victims Unit" - which focuses on sexually based crimes, and is nicknamed "SVU" - became the most popular of the trio. According to Nielsen Media Research, it drew an average audience of 13.46 million, one of only two scripted NBC series to finish the season in the top 20. ("ER" was the other.) And it was the only show on the beleaguered network to increase its audience from the previous year. Its seventh season has also begun well: 16.8 million viewers watched its premiere on Sept. 20.
Neal Baer, the executive producer who has run "SVU" since its second year, described how the show has evolved into what he calls "a hybrid procedural." He compared its formula to those of other workplace dramas like "L.A. Law," and "ER," which he helped write and produce for six seasons. "You're going to solve a crime every week, you're going to be taken through a twisty, turny whodunit," he said. "But you're also going to learn about the characters just a tiny bit - or maybe a whole lot. It's not just the facts, and it's not a soap."
It took a while to find that balance. As designed by Dick Wolf, the creator of all things "Law & Order," "SVU" was meant to be much more character driven than the flagship show. He wrote the pilot episode himself for its debut in fall 1999, and included so many personal details about the two lead detectives, Elliot Stabler (Mr. Meloni) and Olivia Benson (Ms. Hargitay), that "Law & Order" viewers who were used to a don't ask/don't tell approach were jarred; it was like seeing your therapist in the steam room. Its early plots even involved the home life of Stabler, whose wife and four children were also characters. "We stopped doing that about six episodes in - even though we'd built nice big sets - because it just stopped the storytelling cold," Mr. Wolf said from Los Angeles.
By the beginning of Season 2, Mr. Wolf had gone through two different executive producers. The first, Robert Palm, left to lead "Deadline," Mr. Wolf's short-lived show about journalism - then his replacement was let go after a few months. In October 2000, he hired Dr. Baer. "Neal put his stamp on it," he said. "He moved it into a much more intellectually fruitful area."
In her office on the "SVU" set, Ms. Hargitay discussed the early missteps in trying to "find the show's voice." She said: "There was a concern: is it going to be the rape-of-the-week show? That's when Neal Baer came along and elevated it."
Dr. Baer, 50, has master's degrees in both education and sociology. He had briefly written for television in the late 1980's, but then, he said: "I started freaking out, thinking, 'What if I don't make it?' " Off he went to Harvard Medical School.
In his fourth year there, he got a call from John Wells, his childhood friend from Denver, who was producing "ER," which had been picked up by NBC for the 1994 fall season and needed ideas. "I took 100 stories that had happened to me, which became terrible things that happened to Noah Wyle's character," Dr. Baer said. "The show took off, and I ended up being executive producer." (He also completed medical school and his internship in pediatrics.)
When Mr. Wolf offered him "SVU," Dr. Baer recalled, "My wife didn't want me to take the job because she thought the show was very salacious and tawdry." But the couple stayed up all night thinking up a story about gymnasts. "I thought, 'Wow, this is exactly what I like about 'ER' - getting into the social issues, getting into the mystery,' " he said. "So I jumped right in."
But his wife's initial condemnation still stings, especially since criminal procedurals have become an epidemic, and shows like "CSI" have increased the amount of gore on television. "We did a show I think in Year 3 where there was a woman tied up to a lamppost and had her foot cut off," he said. "I decided after that show not to do anything more that was really violent." Pointing at "CSI," as well as Fox's medical show "House," he said: "We don't go inside anybody's body, through any orifice. You don't see blood gushing out of people or heads cut off."
Dr. Baer has also increasingly relied on the strengths of his actors, particularly Mr. Meloni and Ms. Hargitay. "It's all about the victims and Mariska and Chris's reaction to it - Mariska's compassion and Chris's abhorrence," he said. "And the two together make a compelling stew."
Ms. Hargitay, who has been nominated for two Emmys and won last year's Golden Globe, said that being on the show is "a personal, emotional investment." Her eyes welled with tears at several points when talking about her character, and fans' reactions to "SVU." "People will hug me on the street and say, 'I wish you were the detective on my case,' " she said. "I had a cop just yesterday - a cop! - say, 'I wish I worked with you.' I think the lines get blurry."
Mr. Meloni described similar encounters, which he called "intense and gratifying." Last season, his character began approaching a mental breaking point when his marriage ended - in an "SVU" way, that is, one minuscule hint at a time. "I'm a big fan of the subtle," Mr. Meloni said. "If my wife serves me with divorce papers, that's all you're going to get for now." Nevertheless the storyline has left him feeling, he said, "like a wrung-out dishrag."
This fall, "SVU" will go up against ABC's "Boston Legal" and CBS's "Close to Home," a new crime show from Jerry Bruckheimer, the originator of the "CSI" franchise. Dr. Baer will counter by tackling matters like hate crimes and H.I.V. among gay crystal meth users. He said, "We don't look to other shows - we try to be faithful to the kinds of stories the 'Law & Orders' tell." And the "SVU" characters will inch along as well. "You just start to put together the pieces, as you would in a normal life, in your workplace," Dr. Baer said. "You just have to watch it, because you never know."
www.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/arts/television/02aurt.html?pagewanted=1
Special Victims Unit is the new leader of the Law & Order pack
By Kate Aurthur
The New York Times
Posted October 4 2005
ON a summer day on the set of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" in North Bergen, N.J., the cast was shooting new opening credits. The two leads, Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay, stood as part of the eight-person ensemble, staring intensely at the camera. Trying to snap the group into character, Ted Kotcheff, an executive producer who was directing the scene, yelled, "All you perps out there, you're in danger from us!" The actors broke up with laughter.
Mr. Kotcheff tried a different approach, thanking "these eight wonderful people who made it possible for us to go into a seventh season." Nearby, a Doritos-eating crew member whispered, "I thought it was the eighth season."
Well, with three different "Law & Order" series on the NBC schedule, it can be hard to keep track - Wednesday's episode will be the 600th of the combined franchise. But last season, something unexpected happened: "Special Victims Unit" - which focuses on sexually based crimes, and is nicknamed "SVU" - became the most popular of the trio. According to Nielsen Media Research, it drew an average audience of 13.46 million, one of only two scripted NBC series to finish the season in the top 20. ("ER" was the other.) And it was the only show on the beleaguered network to increase its audience from the previous year. Its seventh season has also begun well: 16.8 million viewers watched its premiere on Sept. 20.
Neal Baer, the executive producer who has run "SVU" since its second year, described how the show has evolved into what he calls "a hybrid procedural." He compared its formula to those of other workplace dramas like "L.A. Law," and "ER," which he helped write and produce for six seasons. "You're going to solve a crime every week, you're going to be taken through a twisty, turny whodunit," he said. "But you're also going to learn about the characters just a tiny bit - or maybe a whole lot. It's not just the facts, and it's not a soap."
It took a while to find that balance. As designed by Dick Wolf, the creator of all things "Law & Order," "SVU" was meant to be much more character driven than the flagship show. He wrote the pilot episode himself for its debut in fall 1999, and included so many personal details about the two lead detectives, Elliot Stabler (Mr. Meloni) and Olivia Benson (Ms. Hargitay), that "Law & Order" viewers who were used to a don't ask/don't tell approach were jarred; it was like seeing your therapist in the steam room. Its early plots even involved the home life of Stabler, whose wife and four children were also characters. "We stopped doing that about six episodes in - even though we'd built nice big sets - because it just stopped the storytelling cold," Mr. Wolf said from Los Angeles.
By the beginning of Season 2, Mr. Wolf had gone through two different executive producers. The first, Robert Palm, left to lead "Deadline," Mr. Wolf's short-lived show about journalism - then his replacement was let go after a few months. In October 2000, he hired Dr. Baer. "Neal put his stamp on it," he said. "He moved it into a much more intellectually fruitful area."
In her office on the "SVU" set, Ms. Hargitay discussed the early missteps in trying to "find the show's voice." She said: "There was a concern: is it going to be the rape-of-the-week show? That's when Neal Baer came along and elevated it."
Dr. Baer, 50, has master's degrees in both education and sociology. He had briefly written for television in the late 1980's, but then, he said: "I started freaking out, thinking, 'What if I don't make it?' " Off he went to Harvard Medical School.
In his fourth year there, he got a call from John Wells, his childhood friend from Denver, who was producing "ER," which had been picked up by NBC for the 1994 fall season and needed ideas. "I took 100 stories that had happened to me, which became terrible things that happened to Noah Wyle's character," Dr. Baer said. "The show took off, and I ended up being executive producer." (He also completed medical school and his internship in pediatrics.)
When Mr. Wolf offered him "SVU," Dr. Baer recalled, "My wife didn't want me to take the job because she thought the show was very salacious and tawdry." But the couple stayed up all night thinking up a story about gymnasts. "I thought, 'Wow, this is exactly what I like about 'ER' - getting into the social issues, getting into the mystery,' " he said. "So I jumped right in."
But his wife's initial condemnation still stings, especially since criminal procedurals have become an epidemic, and shows like "CSI" have increased the amount of gore on television. "We did a show I think in Year 3 where there was a woman tied up to a lamppost and had her foot cut off," he said. "I decided after that show not to do anything more that was really violent." Pointing at "CSI," as well as Fox's medical show "House," he said: "We don't go inside anybody's body, through any orifice. You don't see blood gushing out of people or heads cut off."
Dr. Baer has also increasingly relied on the strengths of his actors, particularly Mr. Meloni and Ms. Hargitay. "It's all about the victims and Mariska and Chris's reaction to it - Mariska's compassion and Chris's abhorrence," he said. "And the two together make a compelling stew."
Ms. Hargitay, who has been nominated for two Emmys and won last year's Golden Globe, said that being on the show is "a personal, emotional investment." Her eyes welled with tears at several points when talking about her character, and fans' reactions to "SVU." "People will hug me on the street and say, 'I wish you were the detective on my case,' " she said. "I had a cop just yesterday - a cop! - say, 'I wish I worked with you.' I think the lines get blurry."
Mr. Meloni described similar encounters, which he called "intense and gratifying." Last season, his character began approaching a mental breaking point when his marriage ended - in an "SVU" way, that is, one minuscule hint at a time. "I'm a big fan of the subtle," Mr. Meloni said. "If my wife serves me with divorce papers, that's all you're going to get for now." Nevertheless the storyline has left him feeling, he said, "like a wrung-out dishrag."
This fall, "SVU" will go up against ABC's "Boston Legal" and CBS's "Close to Home," a new crime show from Jerry Bruckheimer, the originator of the "CSI" franchise. Dr. Baer will counter by tackling matters like hate crimes and H.I.V. among gay crystal meth users. He said, "We don't look to other shows - we try to be faithful to the kinds of stories the 'Law & Orders' tell." And the "SVU" characters will inch along as well. "You just start to put together the pieces, as you would in a normal life, in your workplace," Dr. Baer said. "You just have to watch it, because you never know."
www.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/arts/television/02aurt.html?pagewanted=1