Dun-dun: Happy 20th, Law & Order!

Wed., Sep. 23, 2009 6:35 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

Virginia Sherwood/NBC

What do you call a dozen fake lawyers and cops sitting around eating cake?

Why, the 20th-anniversary Law & Order reunion, of course!

Castmembers past and present gathered on the show's New York set today in honor of the procedural's upcoming 20th season, which will tie it with Gunsmoke as the longest-running drama in TV history.

Sadly, Jerry Orbach didn't live to see his show tie a record (nor to see that plenty of people—in our office, at least—stopped watching after he left).

But his old partners Benjamin Bratt and Jesse L. Martin joined the celebration, as did former ADAs Angie Harmon, Carrie Lowell and Jill Hennessy and original-turned-SVU captain Dann Florek.

L&O warhorses Sam Waterston and S. Epatha Merkserson and relative newcomers Linus Roach, Anthony Anderson and Alana De La Garza also took part, along with Mr. "In the Criminal Justice System..." himself, Steve Zirnkilton, whose sonorous voice opens all three L&O series.

And, we imagine, always will.

"The story pool is inexhaustible because it's the news," said Waterston, explaining why Dick Wolf's stalwart series will never lack for plotlines. "You can't wear the news out."

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Get the scoop on all your favorite shows—the old ones like Law & Order and the new ones like FlashForward—in the Watch With Kristin section.