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Van Buren to leave L&O

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by D-3 Fan, Apr 2, 2010.

  1. fishhack2009

    fishhack2009 Active Member

    IIRC, Merkerson first appeared on the show as a crime victim ... the mother of a baby who froze to death in a building where the owners were trying to get the residents to leave so they could sell the building? That would have been mid-90s...early in the show's run.
     
  2. farmerjerome

    farmerjerome Active Member

    First season, in an episode entitled 'Mushrooms'. She was the mother of two boys who were mistakenly shot after an illiterate gunman went to the wrong appartment for a shooting. The baby, who was hanging in a swing on the back of the front door, was killed and I think the teenager was paralyzed.

    Sadly, I did not need IMDB for that info.
     
  3. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    With all of the channels on DirecTV, I keep waiting for a L&O channel to appear.
     
  4. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    Lt. Anita Van Buren is the longest continuous African-American character in TV history.
     
  5. Hank_Scorpio

    Hank_Scorpio Active Member

    That's the one where she was a janitor/cleaning lady, right?
     
  6. fishhack2009

    fishhack2009 Active Member

    That's right. I must have gotten that episode confused with another one.

    The Ben Stone era was the zenith of the show, IMO. Especially the three-parter "The Torrents of Greed."
     
  7. Bodie_Broadus

    Bodie_Broadus Active Member

    She isn't the only one to be on the show twice.

    Michael Imperioli was on as a limo driver obsessed with a model and then came back to play one of the detectives when Jesse Martin (who I really liked) was off doing Rent.

    Merkerson is great, she is awesome as Van Buren.
     
  8. fishhack2009

    fishhack2009 Active Member

    Agreed. I thought Dann Florek (Capt. Cragen) set the bar pretty high. But Merkerson is the new gold standard for that character.

    I think it's about time for this one to ride off into the sunset.
     
  9. Hank_Scorpio

    Hank_Scorpio Active Member


    Hell, Jerry Orbach had a couple of roles before he came in as Lenny Briscoe.

    He was a defense attorney a couple times, but wasn't he a defendant or victim too, real early in the show?
     
  10. wicked

    wicked Well-Known Member

    He was on a Season 2 episode as a defense attorney. That was his only role before he took over for Paul Sorvino.

    (Yes, I've watched a few too many episodes.)
     
  11. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    Watched a couple of newer episodes the other day after not having watched it much since Dennis Farina left.

    Still love Martin, Merkerson and Watterson, and Linus Roache grew on me after a while. But the woman who plays the Junior ADA now is way, way too good-looking to be taken seriously as a New York City prosecutor. Maybe in LA, but not in New York.
     
  12. doubledown68

    doubledown68 Active Member

    The hot brunette detective who lasted for just a season or two was in an episode as a bartender... and plenty of folks have played different defendants in the show's run. If you watch enough episodes you can play the L&O version of Memory.
     
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