SVU (Only To Come Back)

As of this writing, there have been approximately 900,000 episodes of TV to have come out of Dick Wolf’s long-running “Law & Order” franchise. 

In actuality, that number is closer to 1,400, but that’s still nothing to sneeze at. The original “Law & Order” debuted in 1990, and it quickly became one of the most celebrated crime shows on television. After a few years, it also became one of America’s most reliable comfort-watches, providing miniature grit-covered criminal melodramas that could be easily consumed in four-to-five-hour binge-watching blocks. “Law & Order,” along with its many spinoffs, were all rigidly and predictably structured (the “Law” portion took the show’s first half-hour, while the “Order” was reserved for the back end), letting audiences relax over the sight of dead bodies. 

Characters rotated out of the “Law & Order” shows regularly. There were certainly long-standing fan favorites (Jerry Orbach, Sam Waterston, and Mariska Hargitay remain the franchise’s champions), but the real main character of “Law & Order” was the criminal justice system itself. In the world of “Law & Order,” cops were hard-working and devoted civil servants who cared about justice, and the district attorneys had an unflagging devotion to the truth. The individual characters didn’t matter as much as the system. “Law & Order” has a realistic, handheld style, but presented a comforting fantasy: that the criminal justice system works the way it ought to. 

That said, many fans were upset when Christopher Meloni stopped playing Detective Elliot Stabler on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” the sex-crimes-focused L&O spinoff. Meloni played Stabler on the show’s first 12 seasons, serving as a hot-headed balance to Hargitay’s Detective Benson. He left after the 12th season, however, and wouldn’t return until a special episode of the show’s 22nd season. And by then, he was headlining a new series entirely: “Law & Order: Organized Crime.” 

In 2021, Meloni talked with Men’s Health Magazine about his exit, and also why he would eventually return. It turns out that NBC wasn’t willing to pay his increased salary. 

In the Men’s Health article, Meloni admits that landing the role of Detective Stabler was an enormous career boost … and a huge source of anxiety. Meloni was anxious a lot of the time, and worried for all 12 years of his tenure on SVU. He said that he could feel his career starting, but also that he didn’t trust it. 

After 12 years, he found that he wanted to shrink his role, which is something NBC wasn’t willing to agree to. He recalls having to negotiate his salary, hoping to reach a happy medium between a high paycheck and fewer episodes. He recounted his NBC negotiation thus: 

“Well, if it’s this [amount], then [reducing my role] is the way to go around so you don’t have to pay this [higher amount]. My thought was: Instead of 22 episodes, bring me back for nine episodes, or bring me back for 18 episodes. They literally came to me on a Thursday night and said, ‘This is the deal. We want the answer by tomorrow. It’s our way or no way.’ […] I don’t want to f*** around with you guys. This is what I want. If you can’t do it, that’s fine. Let’s figure out my exit.” 

Meloni, it should be noted, was already one of the highest-paid actors working in TV at the time. He and Hargitay were each receiving about $400,000 per episode (according to a TV Guide article). The job, though, was stressing him out, so the pay wasn’t as important as reducing his workload. When NBC refused, he walked. This was after appearing in over 200 episodes. 

Meloni did return as a guest star on “Special Victims Unit” in 2020 for its 22nd season, but Meloni’s real triumph was when L&O head honcho Dick Wolf approached him about a new series called “Law & Order: Organized Crime,” which was to feature Stabler as a main character. Stabler would return to law enforcement to get revenge on the mob for killing his wife. In the Men’s Health interview, Meloni said he loved the idea, and that it felt right to return to the franchise in that moment. 

“Organized Crime” has already lasted four seasons, and is, like most of the other iterations of “Law & Order,” a huge hit. Hargitay and Meloni will still visit one another’s shows from time to time, but for now, Meloni is fine with being the star of a more dramatically-bent, less procedural L&O show. 

After leaving SVU in 2011, Meloni was able to expand as an actor. He starred in the surreal, cartoon-supported scuzz comedy “Happy!,” appeared in five episodes of “True Blood,” and headed up the obscure sitcom “Surviving Jack.” He reprised his “Wet Hot American Summer” role in the 2017 TV adaptation, and starred in the Underground Railroad series “Underground.” He even played Commissioner Gordon in 16 episodes of the animated “Harley Quinn” series. In film, he worked with Zack Snyder on “Man of Steel,” with Gregg Araki in “White Bird in a Blizzard,” and with David Wain in “They Came Together.” He was fond of his performance in 2015’s “The Diary of a Teenage Girl.” 

Meloni, it seems, left a hit show and fulfilled his dream of expanding his career. His return to “Law & Order” isn’t capitulation, but decisiveness, something Meloni has always longed for.