The joke is a subtle, playful dig by the episode's writer at creator Stephen Falk's past life as one of the original recappers for Television Without Pity. Way back in the day, he was responsible for recapping a good chunk of the site's slate of reality shows, including Nick & Jessica: Newlyweds, Britney & Kevin:…

You want a good L&O/Sopranos headtrip, watch L&O Season 9 episode "DWB", which I'm watching right now. Based on the Jasper, TX case, where the racists killed the black man by dragging him behind their car. In L&O, three racist cops did it. I just saw a scene where Gigi Cestone (aka Detective Profaci) interrogated…

By all means, give Vernon a spinoff. Todd Robert Anderson's a funny guy and a hardworking actor who still pounds the pavement for auditions and has never given up on being an actor (even though he wrote a book called Don't Act: 101 Reasons Why You Shouldn't). He's done a zillion one-offs on TV and even more…

"Oh yeah, Blue Shirt Lady. Nice lady. Came in here on Friday."
"Did she seem upset?"
"Naw, she was smiling. [pause] Fellow she was with didn't look too happy, though… He left about 9:34 or 9:35."

Or Alana de la Garza. She was one of the few things that kept my eyes open the last three seasons. Elizabeth Rohm also had the acting talent of an old shoe, but with less personality. Those wooden line deliveries are just painful. Every single one was like she was pausing to remember the second half of her line after…

I stand by them. Nothing against Logan (plenty against Rey, who was basically best at making Briscoe shine even more—"I got ties older than the kid.", but was otherwise kind of a whiny bitch whose role as the L&O universe's gateway to the Internet still makes me roll my eyes). Nothing really against Clare or Jamie,…

He was also banging Julia Roberts at the time and walking every red carpet in LA. Movie stardom was probably on his mind.

I looked him up for you. His name's Michael Willis, and he did four major guest spots on the show (probably more, if you factor in all the random guys on the street ones). I remember him as the family priest of the woman who threw her baby in the furnace because the world was evil.

I couldn't come close to naming all of them, but off the top of my head, Johnny Sack, Big Pussy, Gigi Cestone, Carmella, Jackie Aprile, Janice Soprano and Artie Bucco were all on L&O. So was Frank John Hughes, who played Belifore in the last season of Sopranos. Hell, Michael Imperioli (Christopher) played a substitute…

I like the one where the racist guy's attorney tries to get racism in as a mental illness. Skoda's post-730 exam breakdown is perfect: "My opinion: He's one scary dude." McCoy asks, "But is he legally insane?" Skoda: "No" McCoy: "Why" Skoda [with no shortage of saracsm]: "Uhhh…because racism is not a mental illness?"

Aw, Profaci. It almost broke my heart when it turned out that he was the corrupt cop that sold out to the mob in the terrible L&O TV movie Chris Noth made as his parting gift when he and Dick Wolf couldn't agree on a new contract. Of course, the actor went on to play a mobster on The Sopranos, so…

Yeah, I'd go along with that in a heartbeat. Even Carolyn McCormick, who played Olivet, thought the character sucked in the later years, when they brought her back, saying something to the effect of "She existed solely for the purpose of delivering observations in the form of meaningless psychobabble." Skoda was just…

It was one of the L&O/Homicide crossovers: the wording the FBI used in his file is hilarious, particularly as delivered by Richard Belzer: "Subject is regarded as a dilettante who poses no threat."

Munch and Briscoe bonding over multiple divorces was always fun, especially the time that Munch found out that Briscoe banged one of Munch's exes.

Really? The cast changes were actually a lot more frequent in the later years. Between seasons 1-8, there were only 4 that I can think of, and their stories went like this: NBC wanted ladies in the cast, so Dan Florek and Richard Brooks were fired. Dick Wolf and Chris Noth had themselves a hissy-fit over Noth's…

There's one Branch/McCoy exchange that I always kind of liked:

Come on, Jack, the evidence that you've got against this defendant is thinner than a string bean in a pumpkin patch.

Favorite cast is Season 10, with Briscoe, Green, Van Buren, McCoy, Carmichael, Schiff.

Actually, she attributes it to race: they promoted a white woman with the same score on the Captain's Exam, and Van Buren had the seniority. Continuity-wise, Captain Cragen didn't leave the 2-7 in disgrace; he was reassigned to the Anti-Corruption Task Force (in real life, NBC wanted some ladies in the cast, so Dan…

That's right, Diane Neal was one of the trio of ladies who raped the male stripper, and then she was the ADA a year later. This also applies to Annie Parisse, who played ADA Alex Borgia on L&O: Original Recipe a year after playing a stripper/witness. And don't forget about Jerry Orbach, who played a sleazy defense…