I don’t know if this is a record, but Law & Order: Criminal Intent and In Plain Sight featured four alumni of The West Wing on Sunday night. Criminal Intent had one former cast member while In Plain Sight had a total of three.
Guest starring on CI was Janel Moloney, who played Donna Moss on West Wing. Moloney portrayed the wife of a religious official part of the murder investigation conducted by detectives Goren and Eames. I nodded off during the last few minutes of the episode so I’m not sure if she was the killer. And, please don’t reveal if she was part of the murder or not. Unless, of course, you want the anti-spoiler fans to come to your house with torches.
On In Plain Sight you had the show’s star, Mary McCormack (Kate Harper on West Wing) mixing it up with Richard Schiff — Communications Director Toby Ziegler on Wing and a P.I.R (Private Investigating Rabbi) on Sight. McCormack’s character also had brief contact with Joshua Malina (Wing’s Will Bailey), who has appeared on the show previously as a potential romantic interest for Brandi. Sadly, Schiff and Malina didn’t meet in this episode. It would have been awkward if they did because their story lines didn’t intersect at all.
I enjoyed the characters both Schiff and Malina portrayed on Sight. Save for possibly Sports Night, Malina has always played likable characters that viewers seem to connect to, and, as a recovering alcoholic on Sight, he seems to be playing into that role. Though, with Brandi’s luck, he could be hiding a sleazy underside. Schiff’s character, who had both a calming and angering influence on Mary, was fully formed to the point that he could be spun-off into his own series. Granted, a show about a rabbi who’s hired to find people probably wouldn’t make it on network television. Luckily, cable is willing to try almost anything once.
On a totally different thought track… portraying Moloney’s husband on Criminal Intent was Leland Orser, formerly Lucien Dubenko of ER. The only reason I bring this up is that Orser portrayed another guest of the New York Police Department in a 2003 episode of Law & Order: SVU. Why the producers of the Law & Order franchise think we won’t remember people like Orser being cast on other members of their family is beyond me. Especially since reruns of both SVU and CI air on USA Network several times a week.
Clacked by Richard Keller 
on May 18, 2009 @ 17:00 EST5EDT
Just saw last night’s In Plain Sight… I don’t really get why people aren’t watching this show more. McCormack does a great job (A lot of that has to do with the fact that Mary is a much more interesting character than Kate Harper was). I’ve been very impressed with where the show has gone.
I love Josh Malina, and am enjoying his guest turn on this show thus far (Him turning out to be rich was a bit of an interesting twist). With so many TWW alums, on, I figured there might be a little nod to it (Bailey and Harper did date for a season or so), but was disappointed.
I could be reading things all wrong, of course, but I thought that Peter (Malina’s character) was being set up as a love interest for Mary’s sister, Brandi, not her mother, Jinx. That could be interesting too, but I saw him offering support to Jinx and asking Brandi out. Heck, I’m just happy to see him. Loved him on “Sports Night”, tried to watch “West Wing” but just couldn’t get into it.
*POST AUTHOR*
No, you’re right. It was Brani, not Jinx. I updated the post.
Speaking of IPS and L&O, IPS’s Frederick Weller (Marshall Mann) played two different characters on L&O:CI and has appeared on L&O:SVU.
Please don’t remind of The West Wing. Every time i see the show on Bravo, i weep. Instead of intelligent programming like that we are forced to watch mama’s boys and Nanny somethings.
RIP West Wing.
Best. Show. Ever.