Law & Order (season 15) - Cast and Crew Changes

Cast and Crew Changes

In May 2004 it was announced that Dennis Farina would be replacing Jerry Orbach (Detective Lennie Briscoe) as Detective Joe Fontana. Orbach moving over to the third Law & Order spin-off, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, Orbach only filmed two episodes of the series due to his death in December 2004.

Mid-way through the season it was announced that Elisabeth Röhm (Assistant District Attorney Serena Southerlyn) wanted to depart the series. Röhm said to MSNBC, "If I had stayed, I don’t think it would have made much sense, and as much as I loved the show I personally had to kind of kick myself out of the crib." she continued, "It was very hard for me to make the decision because my managers and agents wanted me to not even do any of this season." Röhm's last episode was "Ain't No Love" where in her characters comes out as a lesbian towards the end of the episode.

In December 2004 it was announced that Röhm was replaced by Annie Parisse who began portraying Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Borgia with the episode "Fluency". Parisse said, "I'm so excited to be a part of such a great show. I had so much fun when I did an episode a couple years ago and I'm really looking forward to working with everyone on a regular basis." Creator Dick Wolf said of the casting, "Annie is a terrific actress, and her new character (Alexandra Borgia) is an exotic beauty whose looks belie the fact that she is usually the smartest person in the room."

Days prior to the news of Annie Parisse joining the cast, it was announced that Jesse L. Martin (Detective Ed Green) would be departing the cast to film Rent. Martin said about his departure, "I am very grateful to everyone at Wolf Films and NBC Universal Television, especially Dick Wolf and Jeff Zucker, for allowing me this once in a lifetime opportunity, I'm going to miss Dennis (Farina), Epatha (Merkerson) and the rest of the cast and crew, and I can't wait to return next year." Dick Wolf added, "For the past six years, Jesse has been an 'actor's actor', an incredible performer, total professional and he is liked by everyone. He had an opportunity to reprise a career-making role that is very important to him, and we wanted to make it work. We look forward to his return to "Law & Order" for season 16." Martin's last episode of the season was "Tombstone" (a crossover episode with Law & Order: Trial by Jury, episode "Skeleton") where Green is shot.

Martin was replaced by Michael Imperioli who portrayed Detective Nick Falco starting with the episode "Publish and Perish" until the season finale episode. Imperioli said about his character, Falco, "The character I'm playing on Law & Order, has a real passion for making the world safe and making the city safe for people. He wants to make sure that the bad guys go to jail and that justice wins out and I think he grew up with that reverence and lives with it."

Roz Weinman is show runner/executive produce with Eric Overmyer over Matthew Penn and Peter Jankowski, Weinman and Overmyer depart the series at the end of the season, replaced by Walon Green and Nicholas Wootton in season 16.