Home Television Law & Order Chaos: Jeff Goldblum Quits Criminal Intent

Well, it’s just nuts in the Dick Wolf world.

Jeff Goldblum has quit “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” You may recall reading here first that Wolf fired Vincent D’Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe and Eric Bogosian from the show, thinking that Goldblum would carry the whole show. In his first season he shared the shows with D’Onofrio and co. But this season, he’s been on his own.

And now, he’s gone.

When I first reported the firings, the emails came in from viewers in avalanches. They didn’t like Goldblum’s character and wanted the D’Onofrio team back. Of course, Wolf was not perceptive on this score, and killed off Bogosian’s character. Erbe took the whole thing very hard, from what I’ve been told.

So now what? Bring back D’Onofrio and Erbe? Of course, actors will work for money. But these people were really horrified about the way they were treated. It may not be so easy, or cheap, to rehire them.

What can they do about Bogosian? Pretend it was a dream, Bobby Ewing style? (Why not? No one will care.)

And what about Saffron Burrows? I told you in a column several weeks ago that she wasn’t working out. With Goldblum gone, she’s certainly history, too.

Somewhere, Paul Sorvino is getting a kick out of all this, that’s for sure. Michael Moriarty, too.

Share and Enjoy !

Author
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
10 replies to this post
  1. I am just commenting to let you be aware of what a fabulous discovery my princess experienced studying your webblog. She realized such a lot of details, most notably what it’s like to have an ideal teaching spirit to make many people quite simply learn about some tricky matters. You actually surpassed her desires. Thanks for showing such practical, trustworthy, explanatory not to mention fun thoughts on the topic to Kate.

  2. When the networks will learn to listen to the viewers? And I mean before… not AFTER the damage was done! Because now, it’s too late. LOCI is already dead.

  3. I think he got tired of Dick Wolf crap or USA network I hear that reason Jeff he just want partime tv job but USA force this on him when they fire both Vincent and Kathrye NICE GOIN USA

  4. Burrows is horrible actress,one should be joking about her being talanted…she is one of the main reasons the whole show in ruins now,Jeff just taking off from sinking ship,realizing the complete disaster both in ratings and viewers’s opinion about it which are in its turn reflected in the ratings at the end. its all pretty simple,one shouldn’t be genious to figure that out. and adding Mastrantonio was another big mistake…generally speaking NBC’s bosses completely failed in everything concerning this very show.

  5. I’m a longtime Goldblum fan, but this was a bad fit. L&O was able to make D’Onofrio’s quirkiness work for his character, but alas, not with Jeff. The last few episodes in particular were weak. And Burrows, while gorgeous and talented, simply isn’t believable as a NYC homicide detective.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.