01 July 2008

Say It Ain't So Chris!




Here we go again, Chris Noth is leaving the Law & Order family...for the third time!

Chris, of course, is Detective Mike Logan, a role he so memorably played for a number of seasons on the original Law & Order. He left that show, only to return for a two-hour TV movie Law & Order: Exiled (I suspected it was converted into a TV movie after the pilot wasn't picked up for a series order), but nothing longer term came of that.

Then, the eternally strange Vincent D'Onofrio (love that guy) started acting up a bit due to "exhaustion" (code for contract re-negotiation), on Law & Order: Criminal Intent; but hard-core L&O godfather Dick Wolf called his bluff. He called up our old pal Noth to "share the load" with D'Onofrio, with each actor headlining alternating episodes.

Noth was first paired with Annabella Sciorra (very good, very interesting dynamic between the two) and then with the fantastic Julianne Nicholson (first discovered by The Better Half in the wonderful movie Tully - more on that at a later time). Then Nicholson left on maternity leave, and was replaced temporarily by the great Alicia Witt (apparently Sam Raimi's first pick for Mary Jane Watson in the Spider-Man movies).

Alicia Witt

It was wonderful - I picked up the show even when it moved to USA Network. Noth had great chemistry with the both Nicholson and Witt.

Julianne Nicholson


But, as they so often must, all good things must come to an end.

Noth is leaving again...that's the bad news.

The good news?

He's being replaced by the singular Jeff Goldblum!



Talk about inspired casting!

I love Goldblum, and thought he was really good in Raines (the Frank Darabont show that ran ever-so briefly on NBC), even if the show wasn't quite as good as I had hoped.

He'll be great on L&O:CI (as the cool kids call it), I can't wait to see him mumble his way through all those duh-duhhs!

In the meantime, Dick, buddy, any chance you could spin off into another series, but this time with Noth and Witt? C'mon man, why break up a beautiful team?

LINKS

Variety Story
Wikipedia: Raines
Wikipedia: Chris Noth
Wikipedia: Jeff Goldblum
Wikipedia: Alicia Witt
Wikipedia: Julianne Nicholson

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A show featuring Logan - I would be there - unfortunately it won't happen in the Law and Order universe.

Logan's gone from Law and Order - which ever variation - and I'm gone too.

I won't watch the franchise again -unless of course Logan makes a guest appearance - meaning I will be pretty ANGRY if they kill him off.

I have heard many people say VDO'S Goren is CI and I never got that kind of mentality BUT - now I do - to me Law and Order is Logan and without him - I have no interest in it.

Also just to let people know EXILED was never supposed to be anything more than that - a NBC movie ( it wasn't a pilot for a new Law and Order series that failed or anything ) actually I think for that year and for some years to follow EXILED had the highest number of viewers of any original movie to air on NBC.

That just shows how powerful and popular the Logan character is and was - a fact that I don't think TPTB at the show ever realized.

Way to go Chris - will look forward to watching you in all your future projects.

See ya around Law and Order and Law and Order CI - after Logan is gone you no longer hold any interest for me at all.

val said...

Actually, the Cool Kids (well the Vincent Vixens, anyway) call it LOCI; Vincent D'Onofrio AND Kathryn Erbe were being destroyed by their punishing schedules (both their marriages broke up) as Erbe's is on record as stating; and Dick Wolf didn't call anyone's bluff. Where did you get that idea?

I think perhaps you got Julianne Nicholson's and Alicia Witt's pictures muddled up.