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!

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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:

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!

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.