Christopher Meloni to Star as "SVU's" Elliot Stabler in New Dick Wolf Series for NBC
by Nellie Andreeva
March 31, 2020


A beloved TV character is coming back. NBC has given a 13-episode series order to a new Dick Wolf crime drama series starring Christopher Meloni reprising his "Law & Order: SVU" role as Elliot Stabler.

The new drama, which marks the actor’s return to Wolf World, revolves around the NYPD organized crime unit led by Stabler. It is the first show to come out of the massive new five-year, nine-figure, multi-platform deal Wolf signed with Universal Television last month, which includes multiple series commitments.

https://deadline.com/2020/03/christopher-meloni-returns-new-dick-wolf-series-elliot-stabler-nbc-law-order-svu-1202896323/

Mariska Hargitay to Christopher Meloni: "Congratulations and welcome home Elliot Stabler (https://www.instagram.com/p/B-fbUw_HMBG)"

Hargitay wished her former Law & Order: SVU co-star a happy birthday. (Meloni turns 59 today.) Using hashtags #It’sBeenAWhile and #MissedYou, Hargitay also welcomed Meloni back to the Law & Order family following the news that he'll be starring in an SVU spinoff (https://www.primetimer.com/item/Christopher-Meloni-to-reprise-his-Elliot-Stabler-character-in-an-NBC-Law-amp-Order-SVU-spinoff-9YSMZD).

Law & Order: SVU had plans to tease Elliot Stabler's return before coronavirus shutdown (https://tvline.com/2020/04/03/law-and-order-svu-season-21-stabler-chris-meloni/)

"We were hoping to bring back (Stabler)’s wife and troubled son — in part to tee up his return," showrunner Warren Leight tells TVLine, referring to Christopher Meloni reprising his role in an SVU spinoff. The wife of Christopher Meloni's character was played Isabel Gillies. It's unclear if SVU will bring back the two characters next season.

Elliot Stabler to return for next season's Law & Order: SVU premiere (https://tvline.com/2020/05/01/law-and-order-svu-stabler-season-22-premiere-christopher-meloni/)

“It’s pretty clear that Elliot will be in the SVU season opener. I think that much I know," SVU showrunner Warren Leight said on the show's podcast (https://www.nbc.com/law-and-order-special-victims-unit/exclusives/svu-podcast/video/4036795). Leight's comments come after he said that Stabler's wife and son were supposed to appear in this season's scrapped finale. Whether they will end up appearing in the premiere is unknown. Leight also offered a few details on the Elliott Stabler SVU spinoff (https://deadline.com/2020/05/law-order-svu-ep-talks-elliot-stablers-return-in-nbc-spinoff-1202923612/). “We had heard distant thunder about Chris Meloni coming back in the fall and we were going to lay a little groundwork for that," said Leight. "We were going to see Kathy Stabler come back very upset. Her son had been rolled by a team of ne’er-do-wells and may have been drugged, and we were going to revisit Simon’s seeming overdose and we were going to get to know the stresses on the Stabler—what had happened to the Stabler family after Elliot both left SVU and apparently left them. We were just going to lay some groundwork down in anticipation of Elliot’s return of course in his own series. We had the sense that the first episode of next year for SVU was going to bring Elliot back, so we were going to foreshadow that and explain a little more what happened to Simon."

NBC plans a normal fall schedule, pairing Law & Order: SVU with Elliot Stabler spinoff (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/nbc-plots-business-as-usual-fall-schedule-1298689)

NBC is joining CBS in planning to have a "business as usual" fall schedule amid the coronavirus pandemic, though the network didn't say if its fall will kick off during the traditional late September premiere week. NBC announced it will shake up its Thursday lineup, reducing the two-hour comedy block to one-hour, pairing Superstore and Brooklyn Nine-Nine at 8 p.m., followed by Law & Order: SVU and Elliot Stabler spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime. The Christopher Meloni spinoff will be the only new show on NBC's fall schedule. Kenan Thompson's The Kenan Show and Ted Danson's Mr. Mayor will be saved for midseason, along with Dwayne Johnson comedy Young Rock and the returns of Good Girls and Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. "Thanks to the ingenuity of our creative teams and our partner studios, NBC has assembled a remarkably stable schedule at a time when stability is called for,” NBC Entertainment chairman Paul Telegdy said in a statement. “With the reopening of the Universal lot for select productions this week, we are confident that our schedule will premiere intact later this fall. We design shows for longevity and this schedule remains a powerful propulsive force for shows to start here and carry on entertaining across generations.” NBC also announced it will fund an additional writer for every scripted series writers' room in an attempt to promote diversity. "Since many of our writers’ rooms have not yet opened, we are taking this opportunity to offer all of this season’s showrunners the chance to enrich their team with an additional diverse writer at any level," said Telegdy. "It is not the solution by any means, but it is something we can do right now to take a positive step."

Elliot Stabler's Law & Order: SVU spinoff takes place "after a devastating personal loss" (https://tvline.com/2020/06/16/law-and-order-svu-spinoff-stabler-death-dies-organized-crime/)

Law & Order: Organized Crime revolves around Christopher Meloni as he "returns to the NYPD to battle organized crime after a devastating personal loss," according to NBC's official announcement.

Elliot is a HOTTY !!! Beautiful piercing eyes !!!:):eyes:

Can't wait to see the new show, hope it will have a good supporting cast.

Former Law & Order: SVU boss: If I had to go back, I wouldn't show Elliot Stabler beating up suspects (https://variety.com/2020/tv/features/cop-shows-under-microscope-1234635929/)

Neal Baer, who was SVU's showrunner for 11 seasons. says if he had to go back, he would change how some of the cop characters were portrayed. “If I were back on SVU, I would address the aspirational elements on the show,” says Baer, reflecting on how the Black Lives Matter protests have shined at spotlight on TV's positive police depictions. “I think the show is very important in depicting victims of what were once thought unspeakable crimes; now they are crimes that are talked about. It was a really important conduit for that. But on the other hand, Elliot Stabler was smacking people around, and I wouldn’t do that now.” Darnell Hunt, dean of social sciences and professor of sociology and African American Studies at UCLA, says “roughing up perps” has long been part of the territory when it comes to cop shows, and that has influenced how Americans see cops. “CBS, has CSI and NCIS, NBC has Law & Order and Chicago P.D. All those crime shows that have repeated over the years tend to skew older, tend to skew whiter,” Hunt says. “If you’re being fed a diet of television shows, crime procedurals, movies that reinforce this idea of rampant, out-of-control crime and the need for the thin blue line to keep everything together, you’re going to watch those types of shows because they’re consistent with your worldview, and you’re probably going to vote against things that might lead to more inclusion and integration because you fear being in those types of communities. It becomes this vicious cycle.”

ALSO:


A big problem with cop shows is the portrayal of bad cops as good (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-06-15/rogue-cop-shows-dragnet-law-and-order-the-shield-brooklyn-nine-nine): "The 'good rogue' cop comes in a range of flavors from disgusting to delightful but remains popular across the spectrum," says Robert Lloyd. "(They are almost always detectives; uniformed police are bit players in most shows.) On the low end, there is the thug with a badge, who breaks the rules to do the job the bureaucracy is too petrified to handle, bringing order through violence and intimidation. (Say, Michael Chiklis’ LAPD Det. Vic Mackey, in The Shield, based on L.A.’s morally fraught Rampart Division.) At the other end is a scamp, a trickster with a badge, who breaks the rules to do the job the bureaucracy is too hidebound to handle, bringing order with a wisecrack and a laugh. (See: Andy Samberg’s Jake Peralta on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, based on Barney Miller.) Most fictional police detectives occupy this space at some time, often to the frustration of their superiors, and sometimes to the thanks of a grateful citizenry, with some contextually acceptable degree of collateral damage. Our worship of the rule breaker is key to the American self-image, which so easily slides into American selfishness. (It’s why, for instance, we are so terrible dealing with COVID-19 and will never have universal healthcare.)"
Hollywood is reexamining its working relationship with cops amid calls to defund the police (https://variety.com/2020/biz/features/hollywood-police-relationship-defunding-protests-1234635745/): "Numerous industry players described to Variety a symbiotic bond between the two institutions, one born of practicality and, often, necessity," says Matt Donnelly. "Police assist in nearly all film and television shoots outside of studio sets. They provide security for top talent at home and in public, serve as backup for glitzy red carpets and look on when the town parties during awards season. #BlackLivesMatter co-founder Patrisse Cullors tells Variety that she sees leverage in that...From a production standpoint, uniformed police both on and off duty are fixtures on set, one top production coordinator says, speaking on the condition of anonymity. From basic safeguarding to street closures, cooperation with the LAPD and forces including the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Office and the Beverly Hills Police Department is mandatory. Those agencies also issue basic permits for shooting, and coordinate efforts to inform businesses and residences about movie and TV stars invading the block. Officers are compensated out of production budgets for their time and are said by many people Variety spoke with to enjoy the work as a perk of living in an industry town."

How Christopher Meloni ended up back in the Law & Order universe (https://nypost.com/2020/07/06/christopher-meloni-on-returning-to-the-law-order-universe/)

When Meloni exited Law & Order: SVU after Season 13, he says, "I left with zero animosity, but I did leave clearly and open-eyed in going forward and finding new adventures. I had done the Law & Order way of storytelling, which they do really well, and I was interested in telling stories from a different angle — whether comedic or inhabiting a new world or doing it on different platforms.” So Meloni says he was "shocked" when Wolf approached him about reprising his Elliot Stabler role for Law & Order: Organized Crime. “I never thought this was going to happen, but the circumstances for me changed,” he says. “So ‘yes’ became the correct answer.”

Great articles. It shows I don't watch cop shows anymore.

Mariska Hargitay teases her Law & Order: SVU reunion with Christopher Meloni (https://tvline.com/2020/07/19/chris-meloni-mariska-hargitay-reunion-law-and-order-svu-photo)

"It's on," Hargitay captioned their image (https://www.instagram.com/p/CC2epMgnqpe/) on Instagram. In addition to reprising his Elliot Stabler role on Law & Order: Organized Crime, Meloni is expected to reunite with Hargitay's Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU.

Christopher Meloni: Mariska Hargitay will appear on my Law & Order: SVU spinoff (https://people.com/tv/christopher-meloni-confirms-mariska-hargitay-will-appear-on-upcoming-svu-spinoff/)

Meloni previously said he'll reprise his Elliot Stabler role on SVU. Now he's confirmed on The Talk that Hargitay's Olivia Benson will appear on his Organized Crime spinoff. "How much? I don't know, because I hear she has her own day job," he said. "I think whatever we can slice away, whatever the writers come up with. I think we will both be looking forward to playing with each other in each other's sandbox."

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni share their first reunion photos from the Law & Order: SVU set (https://www.etonline.com/chris-meloni-shares-first-law-order-svu-photo-with-mariska-hargitay-from-set-159104)

"We are a little bit closer," Meloni teased on his Instagram. "Now even closer," she wrote on her Instagram.

Law & Order: SVU-Law & Order: Organized Crime crossover will feature the entire Stabler family (https://www.givememyremote.com/remote/2021/03/12/svu-organized-crime-crossover-kathy-return-kathleen-dickie/)

Christopher Meloni's Elliot Stabler will be joined by Isabel Gillies as his wife Kathy Stabler, Allison Siko as daughter Kathleen and Jeffrey Scaperrotta as son Dickie.

Stabler will Return to "SVU" after "Organized Crime" Crossover
by Kimberly Roots
March 21, 2021


Stabler will show up on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" beyond his Thursday, April 1, appearance, the procedural’s showrunner recently revealed.

On Friday, executive producer Warren Leight tweeted that his show had shot “three Benson/Stabler scenes today.” When a viewer asked when those scenes would air, Leight responded, “Yesterday’s scenes were for an SVU down the road.”

https://tvline.com/2021/03/21/law-and-order-svu-chris-meloni-return-season-22-more-episodes/