Down and Out in Denver

Longtime viewers of the ever-satisfying “Law and Order,” please join me in mourning the death of Deborah Curtis, who passed away in California some days ago and was laid to rest in a Long Island cemetery last night at around 8:30 MST on NBC. Curtis is survived by her daughters and husband, Rey Curtis, former NYPD detective.

S. Epatha Merkerson as Lt. Anita van Buren

Benjamin Bratt more recently

Dear readers, I almost lost it last night.  I haven’t been watching “Law and Order” so much at its regularly scheduled time, because that time is a Friday night, and I at least try to have a social life most weekends (though clearly there are exceptions).  But I watched last night and apparently I’ve missed a fair bit this season.  Not only does Lt. Anita van Buren (played by the ever-brilliant S. Epatha Merkerson, who I once saw mere blocks from my former apartment in my former home town) have cancer but Det. Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) returned for a guest appearance.  Longtime viewers will recall that he quit the force because his wife, Deborah (played by Pat Moya,whose picture does not seem to be available anywhere, including here), suffered from multiple sclerosis and he needed to take time off to care for her.  That was ten years ago. She was buried on last night’s show and Rey called the Lieutenant to invite her to the service.  While she was busy with work and overwhelmed with fears about her own mortality, she showed up at the cemetery because it was Rey.  And because they have history together.  And because it’s a TV program and Benjamin Bratt needs the work.

First of all, though Benjamin Bratt has clearly aged, he’s as hot as he ever was.  Second, though you only saw them for a second, his daughters are now grown-up people.  Boy did that make me feel old! But most importantly, Rey and the Lieutenant (I can’t bring myself to call her Anita) took time to talk a little bit before she went back to work.  He told her that he’d spoken to Lennie (the incomparable Jerry Briscoe) in the days before he’d died and that he’d sounded OK.  It was like the old “Law and Order” had returned for just a moment right there before my eyes, but it was so sad!  I shed a tear and I’m not embarrassed to admit it.  Of all the L&O police combinations, the two most satisfying to me were van Buren/Briscoe/Curtis and van Buren/Briscoe/Green.  For just a minute we were transported back to the former.  And I remembered just how good it was.  And then it led me to remember this, about which I need say no more:

Remember the Good Old Days?