Tue 6 May 2008
L & O’s Grand Central Freeze Frame
Posted by TJ under Law & Order
The Missus was watching a DVR’d version of Law & Order over the weekend, the much hyped one starring Robin Williams as some creepy audio engineer who calls McDonald’s restaurants and asks female employees to conduct their own strip search. (Ah, Robin, has your career really come to this? Is L&O not where all young actors’ careers start, not finish?)
The episode, the 200th in Special Victims Unit history, tipped its cap to the super-cool clip of the actors freezing in place in Grand Central.
Just as the “Improv Everywhere”-inspired freeze-out goes down, Williams’ Merritt Rook character is apprehended by Mariska Hargitay’s “Olivia” after pretending to be part of the ploy.
Regrettably, L&O, that cornerstone of NYC culture, refers to Grand Central as Grand Central Station, not Terminal, in the white block letters that precedes the scene.
Someone’s got some pretty cool, albeit raw, footage of the L&O shoot in Grand Central. Looks like Hargitay is considerably taller than Mork.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
I missed this episode but understand that Williams played a psycho who posed as “Det. Milgram.” Milgram called fast food restaurants and ordered managers to strip search their female employees. Managers complied, saying that they were just following orders.
This episode was based on Dr. Stanley Milgram’s 1962 “Obedience to Authority” experiment. My father played the original “Victim” in Milgram’s experiment. Read about it here:
http://bobbyderailed.blogspot.com/2006/03/shocking.html
May 8th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
He needs to payday to compensate for his recent divorce.