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I felt that “Law and Order” truly hit its stride in the third season. When Jerry Orbach joined the cast he added sarcasm, wit and became the series’ moral anchor. I really miss him as an actor and his presence will be missed on the TV screen as well where he provided a weekly dose of professionalism, talent and always injected an element of dark wit to the series. A number of great episodes feature during this season. “Prince of Darkness” “Manhood”, “Benevolence” are among the stand outs particularly the first where Jerry Orbach first joined the cast. An outstanding episode (one my favorites I might add) about the murder of a police officer stranded without back up suddenly becomes anissue when it turns out its related to prejudice. ---

We do get deleted scenes for a number of episodes (and we meet one of the “middle aged dames” that Brisco frequently hangs with in the deleted scene for “Manhood”). We get two featurettes both built around Jerry Orbach. The first “Jerry Orbach Profile” features a nice interview with Orbach with he discusses his feelings about the series. He points out that he believed the series’ longevity is directly related to the show’s revolving cast of characters and actors. Using this approach, the series has managed to remain fresh. The tribute features actors such as Chris Noth, Dan Florek and others discussing the impact that working with Orbach had on their career and their impressions of them as a person. A couple of them are quite honest about the conflicts that occurred on set when Michael Moriarty was a member of the team and how Orbach brought a level of calm to the set with his professional demeanor and sense of humor. ---