Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (season 1)
| Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (season 1) | |
|---|---|
Season 1 U.S. DVD cover
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| Starring | |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 22 |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | September 20, 1999 – May 19, 2000 |
| Season chronology | |
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, an American police procedural television series, premiered on September 20, 1999 on NBC. Created by Dick Wolf, it is the first spin-off of Law & Order and follows the detectives of a fictionalized version of the New York City Police Department's Special Victims Unit, which investigates sexually based offenses. SVU originally aired on Monday nights at 9pm/8c EST, but it was moved to Friday nights at 10pm/9c after the ninth episode. Showrunner Robert Palm felt too disturbed by the subject matter and left after the season's conclusion.
Inspiration for the series came from a 1986 murder in central park committed by Robert Emmet Chambers whose strategy in court was to sexualize the victim. The season one episode of Law & Order, "Kiss the Girls and Make them Die" is based on this case. Dick Wolf wanted to continue exploring similar themes in a dedicated legal drama and hired Ted Kotcheff and Robert Palm as executive producers of the new series, as well as Jean de Segonzac, the franchise director for Law & Order. Robert Palm was previously an executive producer on Law & Order and was the first person to use the term "mothership" to distinguish the original from its spin-offs. This phrase has become popular with fans of the franchise.
Unlike the original Law & Order, filming for SVU began in North Bergen, New Jersey since there was not enough real-estate available to get a studio in Manhattan. The production staff were still told to think of the area as being Manhattan. As with Law & Order, writers for the series primarily worked in Los Angeles. However, SVU featured more female writers with the series aiming to bring a "strong woman's perspective" to the screen. Writer Dawn DeNoon has mentioned that many of the writing staff were fired during the first season because their scripts were not up to par.
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