OP, because it is my User Name on several boards, I must insist on the correct "LENNIE" spelling. Thank you!

I adore Jerry Orbach so much that I could write a long essay here! I have 82 OG episodes on my TIVO, 76 of which are with Det. Lennie Briscoe (plus his "Murder, She Wrote" episodes as Harry McGraw, a spin-off character who lasted one season as "The Law and Harry McGraw").

I have the book of love notes collated by his (now late) wife Elaine (#2) from the daily ones he would leave for her before departing for the early a.m. tapings. I have the biography, "Prince of the City." I have the OBC CDs of the shows in which he originated roles.

Sam Waterson said Jerry was always ready with a joke, and that he treated everyone on the show as his peer, whatever their job level.

He is beyond brilliant as Lennie Briscoe, cynical, smart-alecky, loyal, professional, but always with an inner anguish over his estrangement from his daughter, expressed most poignantly seconds before the car accident in which Claire Kincaid is killed---"Aftershock," Season 6, Episode 23. This episode is one of the greatest of any TV show, ever.

IMO, the essence of Lennie Briscoe is seen in "Amends," Season 11, Episode 6, based on the Martha Moxley murder. His former partner, Tommy Brannigan, bent the rules, shall we say for succinctness, and regrets it bitterly. Briscoe goes to his house and Tommy asks, "Do you forgive me, Lennie?" His understanding reply? "All day long, Tommy. All day long."

From Mike Logan to Rey Curtis to Ed Green, Jerry Orbach's Det. Lennie Briscoe was the North Star, always dependably there.

RIP, Jerry.