I guess I can call myself a real New Yorker now. Why? Because an episode of NBC's Law & Order has been filmed on my street. For a full day back in February, the cast and crew of the police procedural occupied a swath of Windsor Terrace stretching from McDonald Avenue to East 5th Street filming an episode for the series' 20th season.
The arrival of the Law & Order film crew brings a mix of excitement and annoyance to any New York City neighborhood. There's the double bonus of famous people in your neighborhood and getting to see your block on television, but then there's the hassle of blocked streets and restricted parking. One of our neighbors, the Greenwood Deli & Grocery, was so giddy about the show's arrival that they set up a stand with plastic fruit and vegetables (the place is not known for its produce) in the hopes of attracting the film crew to shoot in front of the store. The prop fruit stand didn't make the show, as the crew stayed on the other side of the street.
During the filming, series stars Jeremy Sisto and Anthony Anderson interrogated an elderly woman, and a squadron of actors pretending to be SWAT raided one of the block's nicer houses – their guns looked real, but their uniforms were too crisp and clean to mistake them for real officers. This neighborhood is actually home to many police officers, and I got to watch the small screen action while standing next to some real off-duty cops. I asked one officer if she spotted any glaring mistakes in their police procedure, and she said no, she was just having fun watching; her partner had even less to say about the filming, as he was a German Shepherd K-9 police dog who was just enjoying his walk.
The arrival of the Law & Order film crew brings a mix of excitement and annoyance to any New York City neighborhood. There's the double bonus of famous people in your neighborhood and getting to see your block on television, but then there's the hassle of blocked streets and restricted parking. One of our neighbors, the Greenwood Deli & Grocery, was so giddy about the show's arrival that they set up a stand with plastic fruit and vegetables (the place is not known for its produce) in the hopes of attracting the film crew to shoot in front of the store. The prop fruit stand didn't make the show, as the crew stayed on the other side of the street.
During the filming, series stars Jeremy Sisto and Anthony Anderson interrogated an elderly woman, and a squadron of actors pretending to be SWAT raided one of the block's nicer houses – their guns looked real, but their uniforms were too crisp and clean to mistake them for real officers. This neighborhood is actually home to many police officers, and I got to watch the small screen action while standing next to some real off-duty cops. I asked one officer if she spotted any glaring mistakes in their police procedure, and she said no, she was just having fun watching; her partner had even less to say about the filming, as he was a German Shepherd K-9 police dog who was just enjoying his walk.
A stand of plastic oranges, limes and garlic was not enough to lure the crew.
The episode will air this coming Monday, and what I am most interested to see is which neighborhood our street is a stand-in for on the show – Law & Order stories occasionally bring police and prosecutors across the river to Brooklyn, but most of the action usually takes place in Manhattan. If that is the case, I can't really think of a neighborhood in Manhattan that resembles the modest two-story rowhouses and vinyl-sided homes of Windsor Terrace. Considering that the vast majority of the show's audience are not New Yorkers, the show sometimes takes liberties with locations. I recently watched an episode titled "Bible Study," which supposedly took place at a synagogue on Eldridge Street in the Lower East Side. While that street is home to a synagogue, they did not film anywhere near this address – rather than a narrow street crowded with tenements and adorned with Chinese signs, as the real Eldridge Street is, the block in the episode was a broad, leafy avenue with a row of brownstones on one side and a park on the other. So, when our block is shown on the show, don't be surprised if our sleepy residential corner is labeled 42nd Street and Madison Avenue.
'Man, the apartments in this neighborhood are HUGE.'
Law & Order, along with its spin-offs, is filmed almost entirely on location in New York City (the interior shots are done at a studio in Chelsea). Some locations have been used repeatedly over the years, and The Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting has a list online of selected past filming locations, so you can try to hang around some of these places to catch the film crew. But if you live in New York long enough, you are bound to just bump into the show eventually.
If you're more interested in tracking real cops and robbers in New York City, there's ways of doing that as well. Police scanners are fun and popular way to follow what the police are doing in your local area, but unless you are a member of the emergency services branches (police, fire, EMS), it is illegal to have a police scanner installed in your vehicle in New York state, but there are ways to listen to the NYPD's radio communications. The website Mel's Garage carries a live feed of police communications, as well as information about precinct locations and 10- codes. If you own an iPhone, there are several police scanner apps, such as Scanner 911, which just recently began carrying New York City police feeds.
The episode featuring Windsor Terrace, titled "Four Cops Shot," airs Monday, March 22 at 10 p.m. So keep your eyes peeled for Greenwood Avenue and our local watering hole, Denny's Pub.
Bernard tries to convince Lupo to move to Windsor Terrace: 'It's close to the F train, it's great for kids, and Prospect Park is a couple blocks away ...'
For questions or comments about this blog post, please contact andrewg@urbanoyster.com.