Echoes of My Father - Law & Order S1 Pilot - Retro Review & Memories
Episode Details
Season 1 Pilot Everybody’s Favorite Bagman
Released October 30th, 1990
Notes: This was released as episode 6 of season one. I’m watching season one online and the pilot is listed first, just to avoid any confusion should you look at an episode guide?
Main Cast: Sgt. Max Greevey, Det. Mike Logan, Cpt. Don Cragen, ADA Ben Stone, ADA Paul Robinette
Watching these old episodes, there are a few things I am interested in. One is the social commentary of the time these episodes were filmed and how they compare to the social commentary of today. Season one of Law & Order makes a loud point about New York being overrun with crime and the streets needing to be cleaned up. Times Square was probably still in the era of go-go bars and sex shops when this pilot episode was being filmed. New York was starting its transformation into a tourist town in the early 90s and Law & Order has a seat in the peripherals of the changes that came over the city during this time.
I’m also interested in the writing, acting, and character interaction. The format of these shows is great. The first half is the investigation, and the second half is the courtroom. The show set a clear expectation through the repetition of format that allows for fun tweaks to that format in later episodes. Some of my favorites are those that jump from the courtroom to the streets and back again. The show’s producers strike a wonderful balance between a consistent format and a sprinkle of format changes that episodes viewers are never allowed to switch on autopilot. The changes to the format are jarring in a fun way that makes you pay attention to the difference.
Finally, I’m interested in thinking about my Dad in this era and as the show goes along. We covered all this in the intro to this series. This was one of the shows we watched together. We didn’t want these early episodes, I was 8, and we only watched a few seasons together in the middle of the first 20 seasons but the music and the format and the characters and all of it makes me think about my Dad, and I’m trying to find him again.
Episode Notes
-Sgt. Greevey explains the ropes of a media trail for Det logan and get the audience up to speed through his partner. I know this was shown as episode six in season one but knowing it was filmed as the pilot tells me that the writers have the audience in mind. Very early we are given a real example of how the story is going to guide us through parts of the process that we may not be familiar with.
-The lawyer for the Halsey family has a pause in his talking and says “these…..kids”. The show takes on racism in one of those insidious ways that give racism the staying power it has over our species.
-Mink coat is used as a tool to move the story. Also, note the use of base hands-on evidence. This is all over the early episodes. In a post-CSI world, I cringe watching how the detectives handle evidence in these early episodes
-As the detectives investigate they enter a home looking for one of the boys and the grandmother says, “First time the police ever brought a search warrant” What is the larger social commentary around police activity? This demonstrates that the civilian complaints we hear about today are the same complaints characters talk about in the shows designed to reflect the experience of the people who lived 30-40+ years ago. The Detectives end up finding the watch that belongs to the councilman in the apartment.
-The capture of Themaine is well-written. Greevey goes in the front and Logan is at the back of the building waiting for Themaine to run out the back of the building. A great moment is when Logan pulls out his gun and thinks about another option. Logan ends up using the trash bin lid and smacks the runner in the face, knocking him to the ground. Such a quick detail but meaningful in that the character has this moment of realization while the chase is on. The character doesn’t feel like a two-dimensional tool the storytellers use to move the plot. Det Logan is a thinking being within the world that is being built for the audience.
-Another great bit of writing and acting where the detectives fake that the councilman died. The moment of “death” felt like it was expected but we get the twist that he is still alive and the audience goes through the same emotion Thermain went through. “Ok writers, you got me” was my thought and I really appreciate being taken to that mental space.
-The detectives speak to a truck driver who was near the scene of the crime on the night in question. They get a detailed account of the real crime but the amount of steam in the air we saw at the start of the episode doesn’t fill me with confidence the truck driver was able to see what he saw. It isn’t that big a deal and there is no way for the Detectives to think the truck driver saw more than he could have, but listening to this recount of the moment in question is hard to accept as 100% accurate.
Truck Driver Witness Statement
-While there is great writing, there is also gross writing. As they are chasing down the fur coat lead there is a line “is this coat Maryl Streep or Woopie Goldberg?” and the answer is “more the ladder than the former I’m afraid.” The casual racism is gross and while this fits the character saying this line and fits the time, the line just doesn’t need to be there. This kind of casual racism is what helps racism be acceptable over the course of time. This particular line is especially gross because it is delivered quickly, and isn’t meant to be funny, it is meant to be a feature of the way people talk to one another. I would rather the example of casual racism be removed so that future viewers don’t have an example to follow because they think it is an appropriate way to speak.
-The scene with the low-end furrier is great. Shows the tools of the detectives. Building inspectors and fire marshals and the violations they see in the building are used as leverage in order to get information. The other tool the detectives demonstrate is trying to gather information with rapid questions and tangents that don’t make sense to the subject. In this case, they ask what car he drives while they are asking about the coat. Even the furrier asks why they want to know, and the detectives don’t tell him. The furrier gets to a point where he seems afraid to give more information. This is when the detectives use their violation leverage to get a name from the furrier and they get to the Mob. I love the way the writers handle this. Det Logan asks “where do I know that name?” and Det Greevey reveals that “Scalisi” (the name provided by the furrier) is connected to the Masucci Family. Masucci is a name that comes up a lot over the course of the show and the way the writers use Logan as a vehicle to give worldbuilding details to the audience is a masterclass in storytelling. The scene ends with Greevey asking the furrier why Scalisi wanted the coat and the reply is “what am I, Carnac?” I had to look up who Carnac is. Turns out it was a character played by Johnny Carson who answered unknowable questions. Let’s just say that the reference has faded with the passage of time.
-100k bail in 1988 inflates to $250k in 2023. I find the bail amounts to be interesting. I also find the dates to be interesting. Over the course of the series, it feels like there are a lot of winter episodes. My theory is that it’s easier to film in NYC when the weather is cold.
-Across seasons Law & Order does this thing when they try to introduce characters and I find it to be pointless. The show tries to set up a negative trait that the character has to overcome that is part of their past or lurks in their personality. In this episode, they refer to ADA Robinette being able to work with ADA Stone for 8 months like it was a long time when compared to the other ADAs who have worked with ADA Stone. ADA Stone is tough, but he never fits this hint made by Greevey. It’s like they wanted to write the character of ADA Stone in a certain way and they never got around to making him the hard ass they intended when they wrote that line. ADA Stone is one of my favorite characters in the whole series. It was a shame he didn’t get more seasons, but characters are played by actors, who are people and people are complicated.
-We finally meet ADA Stone and it’s another well-written scene. I watched an interview with a producer of Law & Order and they said the perfect episode was one where all six of the main characters had an individualized point of view and they were all correct. I like when the show challenges the main characters because it feels like they are challenging the audience. We pick our own to follow and they force scenarios that need to be reconciled against their understanding of the world. In this case, there is a Deputy Police Commander Robinette thinks of very highly. Cmd. Jefferson got him on the path to being a lawyer and coached his Little League team when he was a kid. There is nothing in this experience that would suggest he was a dirty cop. ADA Stone says the facts, in this case, say otherwise and that Cmd. Jefferson is wrong. Ben Stone follows the law and Paul Robinette is following his heart and the two have run into each other head first. The character juxtaposition is interesting but I’m unimpressed with how the episode handles the Jefferson connection. I’ve had to go back and forth a few times to find the Jefferson connection and it feels like it just gets dropped into the episode.
-The Jefferson question is fixed in the next scene when Stone talks about what Jefferson has done while he was a witness or during investigations. Hearing what Ben Stone says while he and Robinette are in the car clears up a lot but by the time we get to this point, I feel like the story has moved too far for me to easily recall any scenes where Cmd. Jefferson was mentioned. I just have to trust that it will all come together before the hour is over. I do like the ADA Stone draws a line in the sand for ADA Robinette about whom he is working for and where his head needs to be in order to serve their part of the legal process.
ADA Stone and ADA Robinette in the car
-There is a scene where ADAs Robinette and Stone are talking to the lawyer of Councilman Halsey and the thing that stands out is the narrow frame and how close all actors are to one another. It feels uncomfortable watching the characters exchange lines when they are 12-18 inches away from each other’s faces.
-Quick note, there is a line where ADA Stone says “I’ll have your butt” and if you read lips, you can see he says “I’ll have your ass”. The audio is also clearly re-recorded for the dialogue leading up to the use of “ass”. I love it. This was the pilot and I’m sure they didn’t want to ruffle feathers or cause any pearls to be clutched with the TV executives.
-There is a scene where Robinette and Stone are talking to a Doctor and Robinette uses the term causative connection. The Doctor stops them and says “you don’t want to ask me about that.” Stone jumps in and does a masterful job building a line of questioning that gets from Councilman Halsey was alive a week ago and now he is dead, is that not correct Doctor? It’s a wonderful touch of what the audience has to look forward to in episodes to come. Not just the writing, but the way lawyers need to speak to juries and get from point A to point B.
-There is a moment when the Grand Jury is deliberating and the attorney for Scalisi is smoking in the hallway. I remember as a kid being asked about smoking or non-smoking at restaurants and I remember when that was done away with. Seeing smoking inside, even on camera is a jolting relic of decades past.
The Episode ends in two parts. There is the “action climax” where someone wears a wire. There are officers inside the restaurant but they are not wearing radios so they can be warned. “You can’t hide the antennas” was the line from the FBI guy. I love little details like that in these older episodes. The technology we have today would have had mics under the table or hanging from the ceiling. In this case, the guy wearing the wire had the full audio pack set up under his clothes. Then, as the shooting is about to begin, ADA Stone starts to run toward the restaurant to do…..something? It’s so weird to see the ADA running into a dangerous situation like that. The episode ends with ADA Stone giving his opening remarks and we get an epilogue of how the trial ended. I’m so glad that was stopped after the pilot. I prefer the investigation side but the trial nuance we get over all the episodes to follow can be fascinating and really adds to the characters on the “Order” side of Law & Order.
Final Review
A great pilot. The overall format the show will stick to is shown in its full glory. There is nuance in the writing and the acting is spot-on for the individual roles. The story sets the bar high by introducing the Masucci family and the mob tones that will show themselves over the course of the series. Kind of sneaky, now that I think of it; I really like the crime misdirection. There is what looks like a mugging that turns into a larger crime involving more important people. This episode demonstrates that those in power will be put on trial and that includes a police Commander. The belief of the characters will be challenged, and the ideas of the audience will have to consider alternate theories and points of view while being anchored in their own beliefs. The writers may not be asking that question of the audience. When a person is into a show for entertainment are they really going to consider all the sides of an argument or just park the bus in their previously held beliefs?
I like that racism was written into the show and even if they did a poor job in that one scene, there are some real social topics that will be brought to the fore through the viewing of this show. I was heartbroken when the grandmother said, “the police have never brought a warrant here before.” I want to conclude that thought with a great wrap-up that includes humanity learning something, but we know the world we live in these days. The problems we see in this show now are not far from the issues we see today in under-supported communities. There will be episodes in the early seasons where being gay is scandalous and used as leverage against some characters.
Remembering Dad
My Dad and a Little Me
I have a couple of photo albums my mom left me. I thought starting with a photo of my dad in this pilot episode would be nice. Depending on how old you are, pictures were physical things people took on film and had developed at a place. Of the 100 or so pictures I have; he is in maybe 10. They are all from the time with lived in Canada. It dawned on me that he would not be in most of them because he was the picture taker in the family. I remember he had a camera with a top-down viewfinder. I can picture him in that hunched-over stance.
I remember going to the camera store in the shopping center that was within walking distance from our home. We must have had all our photos developed there. I can almost see the tall, narrow form that had to be filled out and the ticket that was ripped off for us to use to retrieve our photos. My sister for the photog gene from my dad. I’m indifferent to the practice at this point in my life. I think this will be a good place to start, remembering the hobbies my Dad was into. He was good about sticking to a well-defined set of hobbies. I have spent my life jumping from hobby to hobby. The mental images of what he worked on around the house are vivid and will be a fun place to start this journey through my childhood home.
CHR;)
