Trivia / Law & Order: Criminal Intent

• The Cast Showoff:
  • Jeff Goldblum's piano skills were incorporated into Nichols's character, most prominently in his first and final episodes ("Rock Star" and "Three-In-One").
  • Vincent D'Onofrio's skill with magic and sleight of hand tricks shows up a few times over the course of the series ("Crazy", "Vanishing Act", "All In").
• Channel Hop: From NBC to USA with Season Seven.
• Colbert Bump: Jeff Goldblum shamelessly plugged the show whenever he appeared on The Colbert Report, and Stephen Colbert himself guest starred in Season 3!
• Creator Backlash: Vincent D'Onofrio despises how the series became completely formulaic and how that was compounded by the sheer amount of work required to churn out a weekly network series.
• Creator Breakdown: Unlike other shows in the franchise, which are ensemble affairs, CI focused nearly-exclusively on Goren, and required Vincent D'Onofrio to have a punishing workload. D'Onofrio eventually had to be hospitalized for clinical exhaustion, so the producers brought in a second detective team and began the alternating format in consideration of their lead actor's health problems. Goren's weight gain throughout the later seasons of the show is also attributable to D'Onofrio's health issues.
• The Danza: James "Jamey" Sheridan as Capt. James Deakins.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: In "Stray", Goren mentions probably inverting some numbers he wrote down, and then diagnoses a perp with dyslexia. In Real Life, Vincent D'Onofrio is dyslexic. And that's not even going into the hints about Goren potentially being autistic (as seen in "Probability"), while D'Onofrio is possibly autistic himself.
• Edited for Syndication: On some channels and during certain time periods (i.e., USA Network in daytime hours), the episodes "Slither" from season five and "Beast" from season four have had certain lines ("He didn't have a pot to piss in" and "She was a restaurant hostess who put coke up her crotch!", respectively) either muted out or removed altogether when aired in syndication, although both lines have been restored/retained elsewhere (possibly due to it being a crucial part of the episode's plot in question).
• Fake American: The British Saffron Burrows plays the American Serena Stevens.
• Friendship on the Set: Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe became the Like Brother and Sister variety while working together in the show's ten-year production.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: In the special features of the Season 1 DVD, the producers say that after hiring Vincent D'Onofrio they basically allowed him to do whatever he wanted, leading to many Funny Moments and one of the most distinctive characters in the crime genre.
• Hostility on the Set: Vincent D'Onofrio confesses to having anger issues that came to a head during the series' early years and he was lashing out even at people who were trying to help. He eventually sought treatment and calmed down.
• Like Brother and Sister: While the relationship between their characters is ambiguous to say the least, D'Onofrio has stated on several occasions that this is the real-life relationship he shares with Kathryn Erbe — something which is fairly well evident whenever they do joint interviews.
• Missing Episode: The episode "The Glory That Was..." has been taken out of rotation since after its first airing, due to causing controversy in Brazil surrounding Rio de Janeiro bid's for the 2016 Summer Olympics. The episode is not even on the season eight DVD, although now it can be found online through less than reputable means.
• Real Life Writes the Plot:
  • When Kathryn Erbe became pregnant with her second child, a pregnancy arc was written out for Eames in which she acted as the surrogate mother for her sister's child. This of course resulted in an Obvious Pregnancy later that season.
  • Also the case with Julianne Nicholson; her first pregnancy was avoided by having the character Put on a Bus for the first half of Season Seven, but the second time they wrote it in.
  • When Jamey Sheridan was affected with Bell's Palsy, so was Deakins (who donned an Eyepatch of Power). At times it was obvious the poor guy was struggling with it and was having a hard time saying his lines.
• Recast as a Regular: Counting only those who are recast as main characters here.
  • Courtney B. Vance appeared twice in the parent series before being cast as ADA Ron Carver: as a mayor's (unnamed) aide in an uncredited role ("By Hooker, By Crook"), and as a Scary Black Man perpetrator ("Rage").
  • Annabella Sciorra played a defense lawyer in Law & Order: Trial by Jury before being cast as Carolyn Barek.
  • Eric Bogosian appeared as a defense attorney in two episodes of the early L&O seasons, more than a decade before he started out as Cpt. Danny Ross.
  • Jay O. Sanders played a memorable killer-of-the-week in one episode back in 2002; he plays Capt. Hannah in the final season.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Imagine if Jeff Goldblum had decided to film a few more episodes for the series ender. Nichols and Goren cracking a case together would've just been awesome.
  • Apparently, there were plans to write an episode that revealed that Nicole Wallace wasn't dead, but said plans never came around to making it into an actual episode. However... Nicole Wallace does come up in an episode of Jo, another series by Rene Balcer, in which it's all but confirmed that she's still alive.
  • There were plans for L&O, SVU, and CI to have a major crossover with Goren being the central character investigating a potential terrorist plot. Then 9/11 happened and the plans were abandoned and never revisited while the Mothership and CI were still on the air.
  • Chi McBride was initially considered for the role of ADA Ronald Carver.
  • Bill Moseley was considered for the role of Captain James Deakins.
  • Captain Zoe Callas' original name was Sarah Brooks.
• Written-In Infirmity: For Nicholson's second pregnancy.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Jenna Stern appeared on four different episodes as four different characters; in "Crazy" as Julie Feldman, "My Good Name" as Janice Steiner, "Endgame" as Miss Hayworth, and "Cadaver" as Lauren Langston.
  • Carrie Preston has appeared in three different episodes as three different characters; in "Zoonotic" as Megan Colby, "Magnifact as Doreen Whtilock, and "Bedfellows" as Lena Copeland.
  • Susan Misner was in "Smothered" as Becky Stark, "Acts of Contrition" as Sister Olivia, and "Family Values" as Mary Devildis.
  • Kelly Deadmon was in "Phantom" as Charlotte's friend, "Please Note We Are No Longer Accepting Letters of Recommendation from Henry Kissinger" as Kelly Lowe, and "Delicate" as Mrs. Kerr.
  • John Bolger was FBI Agent O'Dell in "The Pilgrim", Russ Corbett in "Slither", and Connor James in "Traffic".
  • Danny Johnson was Walter Tate in "Baggage", Al De Marco in "Folie de Deux", and a beach cop in "Lady's Man".
  • Robert C. Kirk was in "A Person of Interest", "To the Bone" and "On Fire" as Yarrow; appeard uncredited as Sergeant Murray in "Undaunted Mettle", and as a custodial worker in "Abel & Willing".
  • Samuel Ray Gates was Detective Tamblyn in "Eosphoros", a detective in "Dramma Giocoso", and Det. Becker in "Vanishing Act".
  • Katheryn Winnick was the serial killer groupie Karen in "Seizure" and in "Faithfully" as Carrie Conlon.
  • David Harbour was Wesley John Kenderson in "Silver Lining" and Paul Devildis in "Family Values".
  • Griffin Dunne was in the Season 1 episode "Jones" as Henry Talbott and two episodes of Season 6 as Seamus Flaherty.
  • Fisher Stevens was Ray Garnett in "Semi-Detached" and Gareth Sage in "Self-Made".
  • Lee Tergesen was Keith Ramsey in "Baggage" and Josh Lemle in "30".
  • Liam Aiken was Robbie Bishop in "Bright Boy" and Jason in "Salome in Manhattan".
  • Nikkie M. James was Tamara Bates in "Stray" and Jackie in "Salome in Manhattan".
  • J. Smith-Cameron was Trudy Pomeranski in "Poison" and Miss Hill in "Endgame".
  • Aleksa Palladino was Lilly Carlyle in "The Insider" and Angela in "All In".
  • Adam Trese was John Hampton in "The Insider" and Detective Atwater in
  • Kevin Conway was Frank Mc Nare in "Shibboleth" and Jackie Dooley in "Broad Channel".
  • Jim True-Frost was Jay Lippman in "Yesterday" and David Novack in "Gods and Insects".
  • Kathleen Chalfant was Priscilla Van Acker in "Smothered" and Bessie Holland in "Bombshell".
  • Haviland Morris was Karen Cove in "The Extra Man" and Mrs. Wellsley in "Salome in Manhattan".
  • Geoffrey Nauffts was Dale Van Acker in "Smothered" and Brendan Keele in "Maltese Cross".
  • Mark Blum was Dr. Philip Oliver in "Con-Text" and Professor Larry Lewis in "Proud Flesh".
  • E.J. Carroll was Desmond McCarthy in "Baggage" and Jerome in "Wrongful Life".
  • Colleen Clinton was Jenny Sullivan in "Baggage" and Charlotte Kappel in "In the Wee Small Hours: Part 2".
  • James Colby was Lucas Colter in "Homo Homini Lupus" and a bouncer in "Ten Count".
  • Thomas G. Waites was Mo Turman in "Jones" and Lance Brody in "A Murderer Among Us".
  • Linda Gehringer was Mrs. Jackson in "Art" and the innkeeper in "Frame".
  • Elizabeth Marvel was Sylvia Moon in "Art" and Jenny Hendry in "Prisoner".
  • Lenny Venito was Jake Nathan in "One" and Dominic 'Dom' Fabrigazzi Jr. in "The Mobster Will See You Now".
  • Phyllis Somerville was Mrs. Mc Leish in "The Third Horseman" and Louise Politano in "The Saint".
  • Karen Ziemba was Isabel Dawson in "D.A.W." and Vilma in "Family Values".
  • Bill Sage was Tommy Callahan in "Consumed" and Forrest Caruso in "Traffic".
  • Brian Haley was Barry Carlson in "Semi-Detached" and Ted Regan in "Contract".
  • Lev Gorn was Mr. Gregorian in "Semi-Detached" and Anton in "Wasichu".
  • Ritchie Coster was Simon Matic in "Homo Homini Lupus" and Jack Taylor in "The Glory That Was".
  • Stuart Burney was Mr. Kersten in "One" and Mort Weisinger in "Semi-Detached".
  • Timothy Devlin was FBI Agent Lions in "Baggage" and Det. Russell in "Broad Channel".
  • Jay Patterson was Terrence Boyd in "Great Barrier" and Benton Williams in "Cruise to Nowhere".
  • Tom Riis Farrell was Rev. Douglas Callaway in "Eosphoros" and Wallace Kenter in "The Good".
  • Beth Dixon was Mrs. Kenderson in "Silver Lining" and Bridie in "Privilege".
  • Pamela J. Gray was Maryann Foster in "Art" and Rebekah Todman in "Silver Lining".
  • Jordan Gelber was Phil in "Homo Homini Lupus" and Arnold Pierce in "Collective".
  • Michael Nouri was Henry Webster in "The Gift" and Elder Roberts in "Brother's Keeper".
  • Terry Serpico was Leslie Roche in "The Extra Man" and Earl Carnicki in "But Not Forgotten".
  • Boris McGiver was Larry Chapel in "Grow" and Lou Cardinale in "All In".
  • Adam Sietz was Detective Meisel in "Graansha" and Sacha Martell in "Grow".
  • Rebecca Wisocky was a CSU Tech in "Crazy and Dede McCann in "Diamond Dogs".
  • Brian Tarantina was Vic Bowman in "Prisoner" and Johnny Di Rogga in "Playing Dead".

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