FIRST QUESTION: Why didn't Benson tell captain Harris she was a cop when he had her in the basement?
ANSWER: Every one has his or her own opinion about why Benson didn't announce she was a cop to Harris. I have two reasons why I feel she didn't: 1) Benson was currently locked in a basement with this rapist and was pretty much helpless. If she told Harris she was a cop what do you think Harris would have done? He would have killed her to save himself and spin it into some way that a "prisoner" died, like we heard earlier in the episode. As strong and trained as Benson is, she was an unarmed woman and trapped in a basement with an armed, over powering male guard. 2) My second reason is that Benson (as the great cop she is) wanted to get enough on Harris to arrest him and make it stick. Granted that point came very quickly, but initially that could have been part of Benson's reasoning.

QUESTION #2: Will that be answered when they revisit what happened in undercover?
ANSWER: An experience like the one Benson had cannot be ignored. Benson will continue to deal with this (watch episode one, September 23rd!) and it will be addressed in the season to come.

QUESTION: What will happen to Detective Fin?
ANSWER: As you know Fin has had just about enough of Stabler and wants a transfer. I'm not giving up any inside info on this because it's going to be addressed in the season premiere on 9/23. And Stabler will have a little shocker too!

Michaela comes to us from the TV series "One Tree Hill" and we couldn't be happier to have her! She is originally from Rhode Island but went to Fordham University for undergrad and NYU for grad school, so we consider her a NY native.

Her character: ADA Kim Grayleck has a great back-story. She is a hot-shot young DC up-and-coming lawyer who has recently separated from her husband, also a government lawyer. Her marriage is at an end because Grayleck used information her husband gave her in confidence to blow the whistle on a Congressman involved in a sexual harassment case. She had been dealing with the policy-making side of sex crimes for years and worked for the Federal Office of Violence Against Women. So she works hard to keep things like what her husband leaked about the congressman from happening.

After losing her husband and many friends, too many people in DC developed a negative opinion about her biting the hand that feeds you. This sends Grayleck spinning. She reexamines her life and career and comes to the realization that it's the victims she wants to help. So she jumps ship to NYC and makes a lateral move into the Manhattan DA's office (she's no baby ADA, she's a proven trial attorney).

She's a crusader, she's a newly single woman not interested in dating, and she's going to pour all of her energy into her work. ADA Kim Grayleck is going to take on all comers!

Glad to be back!

Can't celebrate without cake!

Chris and Mariska, 200 and still going strong.

Here's Chris and Mariska with our Executive Producer Ted Kotcheff and Show Runner Neal Baer.

Smiles as usual!

Thoughts on "Authority" from last night?

Anyone notice who OBGYN Nurse was? It was Frenchie from Grease! (Didi Conn)

To step away from the actors for a second: This was one of the crew’s favorite shows to shoot considering we got to film at Giants Stadium. We got to see the Jets’ and Giants' locker rooms, the Giants' weight training room, and best of all BE ON THE FIELD. The crew was having 100-yard dash races and were trying to kick field goals. I hit a 45-yarder, unfortunately none of the Giants scouts were watching, haha.

Here's a photo of our director, Peter Leto, checking out the field.

Was weird looking up at the stands from the field instead of vice versa.

Everyone was doing their own touchdown dance.

A Few Questions:

On 4/21 Catherine asked: How can we find out more about the designers Mariska wears? Is there a costumer designer we can write to?
I spoke to our costume designer for you. Mariska wears a lot of "Rag & Bone". She wears "Theory" pants and "J Brand" Jeans. And to be honest, her tops, jackets, and shoes vary from "H & M" to "Gucci". There isn't just one brand she mainly wears.

On 4/20 Lauren asked: Is next year really Chris and Mariska's last year on SVU?
I get this question a lot. Season 10 is NOT Chris and Mariska's last year on SVU. At the end of the season their contracts are up, that doesn't mean they will not resign a new deal and come back.

On 4/23 Kristi asked: Who was the actor that played Lincoln Haven on the Closet episode?
His name was Bailey Chase and he actually played football at Duke when he was in college.

So here we go, onto number 200! Stay tuned for next week; I'll post some behind the scene photos from 200th episode.

I'm also noticing that many people heard about Diane Neal. This wouldn't be a production blog if I didn't confirm the rumors to be true. I am sorry to say she will not be returning next season -- and on our season finale "Cold" (set to air on May 13th), you'll find out why. We are going to miss her terribly.

On 4/16 Wondering asked: Who played the main female prisoner in Undercover?
Her name is Tawny Cypress. She's been on K-Ville and Heroes (among many other
shows).

On 4/16 Sydney asked: After all Benson has gone through in "Undercover" will
we see how she deals with her emotions in upcoming episodes?
Yes, especially next season.

Stay tuned on 4/22 for another amazing episode, "Closet" -- it's not just a gay football player who's in the closet. Benson has her own secret relationship -- played by Bill Pullman.

Yes, Bill Pullman is playing Benson's boyfriend. Is it a long term thing? You'll have to watch "Closet" on April 22 to find out!

Is Vincent Spano out of the picture? I wouldn't say that. I know so many of you out there feel a connection to Benson and really want us to get more into her love life. I am not a writer or a producer but I can tell you to be patient and stay tuned.

On 4/8 Fearless4LifeJHF asked:
1. Do you guys shoot in the same locations (when you're not on a sound stage) most of the time and just change things up to make it look different, or do you change locations each episode?

2. Also, I saw you were shooting last Friday in Grand Central Station, and I was wondering how you work around the hundreds of people walking through constantly while you're filming. Do you just work them into the shot (ie: are the crowds in the shot really just the crowd there at the time) or did you rope off the part of the station you used (even though I noticed Chris & Mariska ran through most of the main concourse!) and then use the extras you chose as the people in your crowd?

1. There are certain areas where we like to shoot when we are not at the sound stage, but not in the same apartment or specific location. Any film crew will tell you they'd rather shoot in a quieter neighborhood as opposed to Times Square, as everything goes quicker with smaller crowds around. A good example is when we have scenes that are scripted in Central Park. Regulations and times when we can shoot in the real Central Park are restrictive, so we often use a park somewhere else in the city and make it seem like it's Central Park.

2. Believe it or not, all the people you saw in the Grand Central Terminal scene were hired background actors. We have PA's stop foot traffic when we are actually rolling, so the crowds of people you saw were all actors. Since you saw that we were shooting, you are aware that we were shooting at off peak hours at Grand Central so it would be easier to control the crowds. Occasionally people are seen who aren't hired background. However, we have HUGE signs posted all over our sets stating that we are filming and that people's entrances into the area is their agreement and acknowledgment that they may be seen and we have the right to use the footage they are seen in.

On 4/6 Olivia S asked:
"Do Chris and Mariska respond to Olivia and Elliot or Benson and Stabler since so many people know them as their acting roles instead of their real names?"
As with any actor/s who have been playing the same role for some time, our actors are used to being called by their character names. Would they prefer to be called by their real names in public? I'm sure they would.

So here's some more behind the scene photos. It's a sneak peak into one of our remaining episodes for Season 9.

Look like an old school Record Studio?

Bye-bye building. The trick here: It's not a real building. We just built the façade of the front of a record studio then blew out the windows and doors. It looks so real that the post office actually dropped off phone books the night after we built it (look at the door step of the first photo again). Where are the actors you ask?

For safety reasons we shoot them separately and add them together in postproduction. Few things to check out in this picture. Notice all the debris that we shoot out of the air cannon. Do you think we'd be shooting real glass and concrete at our leading lady? It's rubber glass, Styrofoam rocks, and cork. It's called "soft material" (duh). Check this one out:

Do you notice how the ground below Stabler and Benson is a different color then the rest of the sidewalk? It's padding painted gray to match the ground.

At the end, just another fun day at SVU!

Many shows will not be finishing their seasons and will return in the Fall. SVU will not wait until the Fall to bring you new episodes! We will have five new episodes starting April 15th (giving us 19 episodes for season 9).

On 3/7 Fearless4LifeJHF asked:
A couple of questions:

3. Can you give us any clues as to who may be guest starring in the rest of this season, or provide any juicy info on plots developing in upcoming episodes?

1. I don't think the writers feel pressure, I think every writer out there is just happy to start writing again. Some of our writers, one way or another, have been writing everyday for the last several years so having to stop was just as hard on them as it was on everyone. I can't speak for other shows, but I know our writers at SVU definitely want to make every episode amazing, and the last five will be memorable.

2. I don't think it was too difficult. Everyone was ready and itching to come back to work. So other then getting used to working the long hours I don't think it's been hard at all. Here at SVU we have really have hit the ground running. The time off felt like a break at school, and now the summer is over and we are ready to get back at it.

3. Here's some juice for you: Look for Benson to go under cover on April 15th, look out for an episode filming at the home of the Superbowl Champs: Giants Stadium, and as far as guest stars, keep an eye out for our 200th episodes currently scheduled to air April 29th with a VERY special guest star.

Talk to you later!

I want to thank everyone to for continuing to visit and post comments on the site. I'm going to do my best to go through all of them and make some responses, so when we start airing new episodes we'll be all caught up.

Looking forward to starting the Production Blog up again!

It starts with what's called an idea sketch from our Production Designer.

The drawing then makes its way to the Graphic Designers who bring it to life with colors. The Scenic's drawing gets scanned and uploaded to the computers. Then the Graphic Designers input the final touches in Photoshop.

TADA!

And here's a hint to tonight's episode: the actual photo that was staged. Does it look like the cover???

Check in next week!

Today's your lucky day Chelie, as I'm going to answer all these questions...

2) Is it hard to do the emotional work on camera? I think it definitely is harder to deal with the emotional work on camera. I recently was having a conversation with Mariska about some of the emotional scenes she does. She said when she knows she has an emotional scene the next day it's impossible for her to sleep. You have to realize our actors, as real people, are part the character. So when Mariska is preparing an emotional scene for Oliva Benson, it does have an actual effect on Mariska Hargitay .

3) Do our actors ever get tired of the camera? I don't think so. I'm sure there are times when every actor wants to try something different, but that doesn't mean they are sick of the camera. We do have hiatuses where our actors often branch out into other means of acting. Chris Meloni actually did a play in Ireland called "A View From The Bridge" which got outstanding reviews (both the play and Meloni's performance).

4) How do the actors kill time when not filming? Lots of ways. In between lighting set ups and scenes, actors often are studying their lines (as asked in question #1). Some actors rest, read, or watch TV, some hang out with the crew on set, some handle publicity requests (including on set interviews, fan mail, etc.). Mariska likes to spend a lot of her time off screen with her son August.

As most of you probably know, last night's episode was not a new one.We come back next week with the brand new SVU episode: "Svengali". Check back early next week for some inside looks on "Svengali" before it airs on Tuesday night!

QUESTION: On Oct 17th you asked "The girl playing Katie in "Savant," was she wearing fake teeth? Did anyone help her prepare for that role being that she was so young?"

ANSWER: Katie, played by Paulina Gerzon, was wearing fake teeth. Paulina was an amazing little girl. She was so polite, smart, and a WONDERFUL actress. She was portraying someone with Williams Syndrome. One of the characteristics of people with Williams Syndrome is the teeth that Paulina wore in the episode. She also wore prosthetic tips on her ears and prosthetic bumps under her eyes. She had to sit through about 2 hours of make up to make the mold/prosthetic. Yes, Paulina did get help to prepare for the episode. She was given a lot of information on Williams Syndrome and she met with the Director before the episode began filming. But, as I said earlier, Paulina was a great actress, so she was a quick learner.

Here's a photo of the teeth mold:

ANSWER: We don't have an air date yet, but expect it to be on in the Spring. We are currently scheduled to be filming that episode in December. Other people were asking if I knew about anything "special" that's being planned for it. As of now I can't give you any information, but I'll work on getting some gossip on it!

QUESTION: On Oct. 15th Michaela Cardon asked: What is involved to shoot on the streets of NYC (or any major NYC location like Central Park), especially during the day? They're so busy, so it can't be easy to just shut it down, or is it? Do you have permission to shoot whenever/wherever you want to?

ANSWER: A lot is involved. First and foremost we do need permission from the city to film in New York. The Mayor's Office of Film, Theater, and Broadcasting has to grant us permits/permissions to be in the city filming. So this includes the right to clear/hold parking before shooting, permits to park our trucks, cars, campers, etc. on the street, and also to be on the location where we are. As you stated, some places are too busy just to shut down, so often we film in locations with less traffic and people. For example, when the location is Central Park, we will film in a park in NYC that looks similar to Central Park (like Fort Tryon Park), but not Central Park itself.

Tomorrow's episode is "Harm". Make sure to watch it and hit me up with some questions and comments about it on Wednesday!

So how was last week's episode "Impulsive"? Anyone else think it was a cool twist to have Melissa Joan Hart's character (Sarah Trent) not be the rapist? And how great is Annie Potts (Attorney Sophie Devere)?

Melissa Joan Hart was an awesome person. When I thought of her my mind went straight to "Clarissa Explains It All" (which I loved as a kid). Many other people know her best for "Sabrina the Teenage Age Witch." As a thanks to SVU she got an Espresso Bar for the entire crew for the last day of filming. Everyone was bouncing off the walls on caffeine!

Anyone have any questions they want answered about behind the scenes at SVU?

1) Are we ever going to use that cave set again?
After we completed filming the episode we tore down the set. So we will not use that specific set again, but it is possible that somewhere down the line we might film in a cave again and build something very similar.

2) Weren't there any real caves we could have used in Central Park?
The location actually wasn't supposed to take place in Central Park. Even if it did, finding one large and safe enough for us to be filming in is unlikely.

In episode #2: "Avatar," it opened my eyes to a virtual world I never knew existed. Is anyone familiar with these second lives people are living over the Internet? There are people who make a legitimate living in these cyber worlds. For example, people really buy real estate in virtual space, improve or build on it, then sell it FOR REAL MONEY! This is not an episode to miss, so make sure you check it out.

I was able to steal a few screen shots of the virtual world we created from scratch. Were you able to catch them in the episode?