Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: November 28, 1952
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: The supervisors on Law & Order never seemed to get all that much screen time. It was probably an 80/20 split, when it came right down to it. Most of the episodes were spent with Lenny Briscoe pounding the pavement (and/or dropping one-liners) or Jack McCoy finding new and interesting ways to holler incredulously at defendants in court. Comparatively little time was reserved for the district attorneys (played so ably by Steven Hill, Dianne Wiest, and Fred Thompson) or the supervising officers, like Anita Van Buren, as played for 390 episodes by S. Epatha Merkerson. That’s more episodes than anybody else on Law & Order, in case you were wondering.
While Van Buren is Merkerson’s best-known role, it’s by no means the sum total of her acting career. As evidenced by the plethora of theater actors working day parts on L&O over the years, working in New York means being able to work in TV and in theater, and Merkerson has done some great work on the stage. In particular was her lauded turn in August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson.
And then there was her role in HBO’s 2005 TV movie Lackawanna Blues, where she led an all-star cast in the adaptation of Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s play. She won a boatload of awards for her performance, including one particularly memorable Emmy speech in which she lost her prepared notes down the front of her dress.
Happy birthday, S. Epatha Merkerson! May you have another occasion to lose your notes down your dress at an award acceptance again!
[You can watch Law & Order on Amazon Instant Video. You can watch Lackawanna Blues on YouTube.]
Joe Reid (@joereid) is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. You can find him leaving flowers for Mrs. Landingham at the corner of 18th and Potomac.
