OCTOBER 25, 2007
LONELYVILLE

By Jacquelyn Reingold

“Lonelyville,” despite its title, is a great example of how much collaboration goes into every Criminal Intent script. As a playwright, I’ve always talked about the pleasure of collaborating, but it wasn’t ‘til I worked in television did I learn the real meaning of the word. It was a true team effort.

We started with an idea of a heterosexual couple who seduced then blackmailed men and women in the middle of difficult divorces. I was interested in how loneliness could be used to manipulate the victims, and how the psychology of the blackmailing couple might be affected by their scam: what would happen to the relationship if one of them fell in love with their dupe. I hoped it would be sexy, fun, dark, and noirish: a combination of lonely men and beautiful women.

Warren, Julie and I sat with our bulletin board and index cards and plotted it out. Insider tip: we use green cards for Squad Room scenes, pink for interiors, blue for exteriors, and yellow is for, uh oh I forget, which is what always happens.  We added elements from several true crime stories, too many to count or even recall, then mixed them with our own twists and turns. I was excited to start writing, though my head was spinning.
 
I had to finish the first draft quickly, as I was leaving for Portland, Oregon to work on a play for ten days. I most enjoyed writing the character of Noah. Nothing like a sad writer to get another writer going. I had fun with his quirks, and felt empathy for him. Yes, he cheated on his wife and his girlfriend, but he genuinely loved Tammy in his way, was terribly betrayed, and didn’t kill anyone. That’s pretty good for the Criminal Intent world. I was still at the computer, frantically typing, a few minutes before going to the airport. After my return, the episode went through many changes. Every script is helped along by so many people. We listened to the feedback from the director, the producers, the writing staff, the consultants, the network, and the actors. After many rewrites, we had our final draft.

I was on set day and night during shooting. Every viewer should see how many hours and how many talented people work on the show. Again, it’s a huge collaboration. I don’t know how the crew does it week after week. On this episode we had great help from: the weather. There’s nothing like late September in New York. I loved being in Central Park, near the little boat pond. Producer John Roman came by that day to make sure he piloted one of the remote controlled toy sailboats. John kept at it, even after the scene was done.

An insider tidbit: “Lonelyville” was supposed to air during NBC/USA’s “Green is Universal” week. That’s why Gerry Mitchell is working on a compost pile, Noah’s father-in-law is being honored by the Audubon Society, and Patrick’s family is off to a global warming rally. However, as sometimes happens, the air date was changed, yet the green references are there forever.

I learned a lot from the director, Constantine Makris; he has so much Law and Order experience. We lucked out with actors Josh Pais, Lola Glaudidni, and Amanda Detmer who quickly agreed to play the leads. They were terrific. I so enjoyed Jennifer Missoni as poor Anya. She’s the daughter of Missoni, the Italian designer. And, believe it or not, in the scene where Nikos, played by John Viscardi, grabbed Anya by the arm, he was the one who hurt his hand. It made me especially happy that Alex Moggridge was cast as Chris Sherman. He was in that play of mine in Oregon.

The hardest day was shooting the last scenes at the Brooklyn House of Detention. While it isn’t currently used to house prisoners, they are escorted through the building onto buses in the back. Several times that day and night, a real officer would ask us to hold, and we’d pause as shackled men and women were led right through the set. They looked at us, and we looked at them. It was surreal and sobering. A dose or reality in our made-up world.

Thank you for watching “Lonelyville.” I hope you enjoyed it.  And I hope you’ll think of the hundreds of people who worked on it.