Big quitter Sam Waterston departs Law & Order after measly 400+ episodes
Waterston's Jack McCoy departed his TV courthouse for good tonight after just 30 years of Law & Order
Aux News Sam Waterston
In a move we can only deride for displaying a cowardly, and frankly embarrassing, lack of gumption, Sam Waterston quit his job at the Law & Order factory tonight, after making a measly 405 episodes of television for the long-running series. (Guess somebody was paying attention on the set of The Dropout, huh?) Waterston ended his tenure on the Dick Wolf-created show a scant three decades after beginning it—and that’s counting the gap between the show being canceled in 2010 and then revived in 2022—ending what is, yes, technically one of the longest tenures as a single character in television history, and what does he want, a medal? (We just checked, and Waterston already has several awards for his run on the series, including once being designated a New York “living legend” with his late co-star Jerry Orbach, so he should presumably be good on that score.)
Waterston spoke with THR this evening about his final episode of the series, “The Last Dance,” which saw district attorney Jack McCoy returning to the courtroom for the first time in years, tagging out Hugh Dancy’s ADA Nolan Price so he could take on a politically protected tech billionaire himself. In the interview, Waterston confirmed what we’d always assumed, which is that he gets a real kick out of being the one to essentially defeat the show’s various ripped-from-the-headlines villains each week, saying that, “There are lots of other great parts, but only the DA gets to kill the bull.” Sadly, this vigorous estacada defense of TV justice saw Jack push the elected evils of the Law & Order universe too far, forcing him to sacrifice himself so that Dancy wouldn’t also lose his job, and thus have to spend the next five years on the convention circuit, dodging Hannibal fans armed with flower crowns and printouts of questionable fan-fic.
Waterston noted in the interview that he always knew he’d be quitting the revival at some point, in clear defiance of the fact that some of us have daddy issues that we’ve been projecting on to him for like 20-plus years at this point. In his own words: “I think I always knew there was a timestamp, a use-by date, on the return. I didn’t want to turn on the TV and not see myself on the show when it came back, but at the same time, I knew I didn’t want to be there again for the long term. It’s kind of been that way from the beginning. And then before this season, it became apparent to both Law & Order and to me that this would be a really good time to leave.”
Tony Goldwyn (who’s not our real dad, and never will be) has been tapped to replace Waterston on the show.
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Eh. I always thought his role in the revival was temporary at best. He’s older, his character is older, and it hasn’t really made sense for him to still be working at his age. The dude’s 83.
The character, no*, but Waterston… well, maybe also no, but it was, what, 3 minutes of screen time a week (not counting this last episode, that is) and like half an hour of prep and filming, for what had to be a pretty good paycheck? Hard to say no to that.*on the other hand, Robert Morgenthau, a real-life Manhattan DA (two DAs ago) retired from the position when he was 90.
Morgenthau died 10 days before his 100 birthday. I think his and Betty White’s deaths show that you shouldn’t count on turning 100 no matter how close.
Morgenthau was partly the model for Adam Schiff.
Morgenthau died 10 days before his 100 birthday. I think his and Betty White’s deaths show that you shouldn’t count on turning 100 no matter how close.
honestly i felt bad for him, his voice was shakey, you could tell he was significantly aged, he was just not that guy anymore. if anything it was one thing i disliked about the reboot, it felt almost cruel to have him still playing that guy.
Looks at the current guys running for president. Yup, checks out. He is too old to be an ADA.
Well done!
I thought it was going to be a season finale or a little later in the season. Kinda surprised when that final scene with Price and the announcement.
I think L&O is now filming on a tighter schedule. Their first episode back this season had many mention to October 7th which means the show had a 3 month or less production period of scripting and filming for that episode. So when Waterston said he wanted to leave I’m sure they said lets just get it over with.
Tomorrow’s headline: “Sam Waterston joins cast of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”
He worked hard for thirty years. He deserves to have a nice break.
Great actor. Though, for me, he will always be known as Beverly Sutphin’s husband, Eugene Sutphin, in John Walters classic ‘Serial Mom’ (1994).
Would’ve been nice if they had let McCoy pay his respects to the Claire Kincaid Memorial Speedbump one last time…
Is this because he was way hetero?
Is it because he’s a lesbian?
It was a good final showing for him. Loved him winning in court one last time.
It has always been my belief Law & Order has been on forever because it really is just “generic legal procedural” at this point. It has name recognition, why bother ending it just to replace it with a new legal procedural with new, but exactly the same, bland characters as this one telling the exact same stories. TV always has this kind of show on somewhere, like “the medical procedural”. So why not just keep this on forever, like a soap.