NYPD Blue

Much as I love this show, I absolutely hate that the producers and writers felt compelled to kill off Andy Jr.

 

Agreed. They just kept piling on the tragedy with Sipowicz and I thought it was too much.

 

That was a pretty powerful episode. Not sure why they later figured they had to kill off Sharon Lawrence too.

 

Micro, Lawrence decided to leave the show because of the diminishing role of her character, so the writers were kind of backed into a corner. I think they had a E! program about the show and the producers talking about how they didn't want to kill her off (because Sipowicz had already dealt with enough tragedy), but they thought that was the best option over having them divorce or just referring to her off-camera.

 

I get it but they could have had her retire to raise Andy Jr. and just show up for a shower scene every 5-6 episodes.

 

I think Andy, Jr. was the one who was killed. Theo was the the young one.

It was when they killed her off that I thought they had just heaped too much tragedy on Sipowicz, coming after the loss of his son and his partner.

 

Yes you are right, Theo.

 

Yeah, during this run on Audience, we still have Sylvia's death and Bobby's death to come -- although they're 4-5 years apart. The nice thing is you only have to wait a day instead of a week between episodes.

I also note that after the grind of 261 episodes over 12 seasons, Dennis Franz has not worked since -- at least according to his imdb credits.

 

Season 4, Episode 5, Christopher Meloni checks in for a five-episode arc. I remember this well, but did not remember that it was him. Really didn't know who he was back then. He plays a hood that Diane Russell had once worked undercover. They put her on him again.

IMDB bio fun fact: Meloni did voice work over two seasons of the sitcom Dinosaurs from 1991-93. That show always made me laugh.

 

I saw the first episode with Meloni, too. I had also forgotten he appeared on the show. Did not realize he was on Dinosaurs. The first time I remember seeing him was on 1st and 10 on HBO.

 

Haven't caught up off my DVR yet -- still in Season 1. But now that you mention it, I do remember Meloni in that role. Just watched the episode with Kelly's dying buddy Jimmy, the millionaire played by Barry Newman of "Petrocelli" and original "Vanishing Point" fame.

 

Getting near one of my favorite episodes, when John Kelly goes and sees his mom, who has dementia and thinks he's his father, and then when he ends up in bed with Jimmy's widow, Robin Wexler, and says, "Here comes spring" looking out the window as the espisode ends.

As Andy rescued the kidnapped child of the used-car salesman yet? They somehow found her over in New Jersey. Another great one.