''Crossing Jordan'' is an American
crime drama
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and comb ...
television series created by
Tim Kring
Richard Timothy Kring (born July 9, 1957) is an American screenwriter and television producer, best known for his creation of the drama series '' Strange World'', ''Crossing Jordan'', '' Heroes'', and ''Touch''.
Early life
Kring was born in El D ...
, that aired on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
from September 24, 2001, to May 16, 2007. It stars
Jill Hennessy
Jillian Noel Hennessy (born November 25, 1968) is a Canadian actress and singer. She is most known for her roles on the American television series '' Law & Order'', on which she played prosecutor Claire Kincaid for three seasons, and ''Crossin ...
as Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh, a crime-solving
forensic
Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal p ...
pathologist employed in the
Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. In addition to Jordan, the show followed an
ensemble cast
In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17
Structure
In contrast to ...
composed of Jordan's co-workers and police detectives assigned to the various cases.
After six seasons and 117 episodes, the series was
canceled by NBC on May 14, 2007, and concluded on May 16, 2007.
Cast and characters
Main
*
Jill Hennessy
Jillian Noel Hennessy (born November 25, 1968) is a Canadian actress and singer. She is most known for her roles on the American television series '' Law & Order'', on which she played prosecutor Claire Kincaid for three seasons, and ''Crossin ...
portrays Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh: A forensic pathologist in the Boston Medical Examiner's Office obsessed with solving violent crimes after her mother's murder.
*
Miguel Ferrer
Miguel José Ferrer (February 7, 1955 – January 19, 2017) was an American actor. His breakthrough role was as Bob Morton in the 1987 film ''RoboCop''. Other film roles include Quigley in '' Blank Check'' (1994), Harbinger in ''Hot Shots! Part D ...
portrays Dr. Garret Macy: The Chief Medical Examiner and Jordan's boss who deals with her erratic behavior as well as his own confused family.
*
Ken Howard
Kenneth Joseph Howard Jr. (March 28, 1944 – March 23, 2016) was an American actor. He was known for his roles as Thomas Jefferson in '' 1776'' and as basketball coach and former Chicago Bulls player Ken Reeves in the television show '' The Wh ...
portrays Maximilian "Max" Cavanaugh: An ex-cop-turned-bar-owner and Jordan's father.
*
Mahershala Ali
Mahershala Ali (; born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore, February 16, 1974) is an American actor. He has received multiple accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. ''Time'' magazine named him one of th ...
portrays Dr. Trey Sanders: A medical examiner working on a grant.
*
Ravi Kapoor
Ravi Kapoor (born 27 June 1969 in Liverpool, England) is a British actor of Indian heritage best known for his roles on ''Gideon's Crossing'' and ''Crossing Jordan''. Before relocating to Los Angeles, Kapoor worked for ten years as an actor in E ...
portrays Dr. "Bug" Vijay (born Mahesh Vijayaraghavensatanaryanamurthy): A shy but intense
forensic entomologist
Forensic entomology is the scientific study of the colonization of a dead body by arthropods. This includes the study of insect types commonly associated with cadavers, their respective life cycles, their ecological presences in a given environme ...
.
*
Kathryn Hahn
Kathryn Marie Hahn (born July 23, 1973) is an American actress and comedian. She began her career on television, starring as grief counselor Lily Lebowski in the NBC crime drama series ''Crossing Jordan'' (2001–2007). Hahn gained prominence ap ...
portrays Lily Lebowski: A perky intake secretary and later grief counselor.
*
Steve Valentine
Stephen John Valentine (born 26 October 1966) is a Scottish actor and magician. He is known for his roles as Nigel Townsend on NBC's crime drama series ''Crossing Jordan'', the voice of Harry Flynn in the video game '' Uncharted 2: Among Thiev ...
portrays Dr. Nigel Townsend: A wise-cracking British forensic technician and self-styled
criminologist
Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...
.
*
Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint () is a Trinidadian-American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Black Reel Award, a Critics' Choice Television Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Toussaint began her career in theatre before ...
portrays Dr. Elaine Duchamps: An initially antagonistic medical examiner.
*
Ivan Sergei
Ivan Sergei Gaudio (; born May 7, 1971) is an American actor known for his work in television. His best known roles are Dr. Peter Winslow in ''Crossing Jordan'' and Henry Mitchell in ''Charmed''.
Life
Ivan Sergei Gaudio was born in Hawthorne, N ...
portrays Dr. Peter Winslow: A medical examiner and recovering drug addict.
*
Jerry O'Connell
Jerry O'Connell (born February 17, 1974) is an American actor and television host. He is known for his roles as Quinn Mallory in the television series '' Sliders'', Andrew Clements in ''My Secret Identity'', Vern Tessio in the film '' Stand by ...
portrays Woodrow "Woody" Hoyt: A quirky Boston Police Department homicide detective, transplanted from
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
, who works regularly with Jordan.
*
Leslie Bibb
Leslie Louise Bibb (born November 17, 1974) is an American actress and model. Bibb first appeared on television in 1996 with minor roles in a few series, and on film in 1997 with a small role in '' Private Parts''. Her first recurring TV role wa ...
portrays Tallulah "Lu" Simmons: A Boston Police Department psychologist and homicide detective romantically involved with Woody.
Medical Examiners
*
Jennifer Finnigan
Jennifer Christina Finnigan (born August 22, 1979) is a Canadians, Canadian actress, best known for her role as Bridget Forrester in the American soap opera ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' from 2000 to 2004, for which she won three Daytime Emmy Aw ...
portrays Dr. Devan Maguire: A pathology resident who occasionally butts heads with Jordan.
*
Eugene Byrd
Eugene Byrd (born August 28, 1975) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Wink in the film '' 8 Mile'' and Dr. Clark Edison on the FOX series '' Bones''.
Early life
Byrd was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Gre ...
portrays Dr. Sidney Trumaine: An eager-to-prove-himself medical examiner.
*
Brooke Smith portrays Dr. Kate Switzer: A cantankerous medical examiner assigned to the Medical Examiner's Office by Lu.
Boston Police Department
*
D. W. Moffett portrays Eddie Winslow: A dismissive homicide detective and Max Cavanaugh's final partner.
*
Amy Aquino
Amy Aquino McCoy (born March 20, 1957) is an American television, film, and stage actress. The graduate of Harvard and Yale universities has appeared in television series such as ''Brooklyn Bridge'', '' ER'', and ''Being Human'', and was nominate ...
portrays Lois Carver: A no-nonsense homicide detective.
*
David Monahan
David Harold Monahan (born August 13, 1971) is an Americans, American actor, best known for recurring roles on ''Crossing Jordan'' as Detective Matt Seely and ''Dawson's Creek'' as Tobey Barret. He has also appeared in such films as ''The Last ...
portrays Matt Seely: A misogynistic and insensitive detective.
*
Arija Bareikis
Arija Allison Bareikis is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Officer Chickie Brown in the TV crime drama '' Southland''. She is also known for the films '' Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo'' and ''The Purge''.
Early life and educ ...
portrays Annie Capra: A homicide detective briefly partnered with Woody.
*
Sandra Bernhard
Sandra Bernhard (born June 6, 1955) is an American actress, singer, comedian and author. She first gained attention in the late 1970s with her stand-up comedy, where she often critiqued celebrity culture and political figures.
She is perhaps b ...
portrays Roz Framus: A homicide detective with a tendency to tease Dr. Vijay.
*
Camille Guaty
Camille Guaty (born June 28, 1976) is an American film and television actress. She is known for several roles: as Daisy in '' Gotta Kick It Up!'' (2002), for playing Maricruz Delgado, Sucre's girlfriend, in ''Prison Break'' (2005–2007), and a ...
portrays Luisa Santana: A homicide detective partnered with Woody on two cases.
*
Boris Kodjoe
Boris Frederic Cecil Tay-Natey Ofuatey-Kodjoe (; born March 8, 1973) is a German actor, producer, and former model best known for his roles as Kelby in the 2002 film ''Brown Sugar'', the sports-courier agent Damon Carter on the Showtime drama se ...
portrays Elliot Chandler: A homicide detective who worked with the Medical Examiner's Office on two occasions.
District Attorneys
*
Susan Gibney
Susan Gibney is an American actress.
Early life and education
Gibney was born in Manhattan Beach, California. She moved to Webster, New York, at a young age, returned to California several times, returning to Webster in 2004. She graduated from ...
portrays Renee Walcott: A no-nonsense attorney romantically involved with Garrett.
*
Brian Stokes Mitchell
Brian Stokes Mitchell (born October 31, 1957) is an American actor and singer. A powerful baritone, he has been one of the central leading men of the Broadway theater since the 1990s. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2000 for ...
portrays Jay Myers: An attorney who has a sexual encounter with Jordan.
*
Ethan Sandler
Ethan Sandler (born December 3, 1972) is an American actor, film producer and writer known for his role of ADA Jeffrey Brandau on the television series ''Crossing Jordan''.
Career
Sandler's screen credits include '' The Chocolate War'', ''Flushe ...
portrays Jeffrey Brandau: An assistant district attorney who becomes romantically involved with Lily and becomes the father of her daughter.
*
Jeffrey Donovan
Jeffrey Donovan (born May 11, 1968) is an American actor. He played Michael Westen in the television series ''Burn Notice'', and appeared in films such as '' Hitch'', '' Believe in Me'', '' Changeling'', and ''Come Early Morning''. He played Ro ...
portrays William Ivers: An attorney who drastically lowers the budget of the Medical Examiner's Office.
Civilians
*
Wallace Shawn
Wallace Michael Shawn (born November 12, 1943) is an American actor, playwright, and essayist. His film roles include Wally Shawn (a fictionalized version of himself) in '' My Dinner with Andre'' (1981), Vizzini in ''The Princess Bride'' (1987), ...
portrays Dr. Howard Stiles: The Medical Examiner's Office's resident psychiatrist.
*
Emy Coligado
Emy Coligado (born June 5, 1971, in Geneva, Ohio) is an American actress known for her role as Piama Tananahaakna on the sitcom ''Malcolm in the Middle''. In 2001, Coligado landed a recurring role as Emmy, the medical examiner's assistant, on t ...
portrays Emmy: An assistant in the Medical Examiner's Office.
*
Alex McKenna
Alex McKenna is an American actress and voice-over artist. She gained fame by playing Petunia Stupid in ''The Stupids'' (1996) and Mickey Apple in '' You Wish'' (1997). She resumed her acting career with guest appearances in CW hit teen drama ...
portrays Abby Macy: Dr. Macy's estranged daughter.
*
Lindsay Frost
Lindsay Elisabeth Frost (born June 4, 1962) is an American former actress.
Early life
Frost was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and grew up elsewhere in Minnesota. She is the daughter of actor Warren Frost, and sister of writer/producer Mark Fro ...
portrays Maggie Macy: Dr. Macy's ex-wife.
* Jack Laufer portrays Herman Redding: A psychiatric patient and murder suspect who claims to have knowledge about the death of Jordan's mother.
*
Michael T. Weiss
Michael Terry Weiss (born February 2, 1962) is an American actor known for his role as Jarod in the television series '' The Pretender''.
Early life
Michael Terry Weiss was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 2, 1962. His father was a steel i ...
portrays James Horton: Jordan's illegitimate half-brother.
*
Lesley Ann Warren
Lesley Ann Warren (born August 16, 1946) is an American actress and singer.
She made her Broadway debut in 1963, aged 17, in '' 110 in the Shade''. In 1965 she received wide recognition for playing the title role in the television musical prod ...
portrays Arlene Lebowski: Lily's estranged aunt and adoptive mother.
* Brian Kimmet portrays Oliver Titleman: A young student obsessed with creating the perfect crime.
*
Charles Mesure portrays J.D. Pollack: An Australian reporter romantically involved with Jordan.
Production
''Crossing Jordan'' was created by Tim Kring and was produced by
Tailwind Productions in association with
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States.
NBCUniversal is primari ...
. Singer-songwriter duo
Wendy and Lisa
Wendy & Lisa (briefly known as Girl Bros.) are a music duo consisting of Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman. They began working with Prince in the early 1980s and were part of his band the Revolution, before branching out on their own and releasin ...
scored the music for the show.
Eric Rigler
Eric Rigler is an American player of the Uilleann pipes, Great Highland Bagpipes, and tin whistle. He performs as a solo artist and with the band Bad Haggis, and has been featured on a number of movie soundtracks. He has been described as "th ...
's pipes and whistles can be heard in most episodes. The scientific aspects of the show are comparable to ''
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', also referred to as ''CSI'' and ''CSI: Las Vegas'', is an American procedural forensics crime drama television series that ran on CBS from October 6, 2000, to September 27, 2015, spanning 15 seasons. This wa ...
'', but ''Crossing Jordan'' is more character-driven and less graphic than the CSI franchise.
In the first season, Hennessy was the only cast member visible during the opening credits, which featured
Eric Rigler
Eric Rigler is an American player of the Uilleann pipes, Great Highland Bagpipes, and tin whistle. He performs as a solo artist and with the band Bad Haggis, and has been featured on a number of movie soundtracks. He has been described as "th ...
's arrangement of a traditional Irish tune "The Boys on the Hilltop" (a quicker tempo, but shorter version of "Reels Part One -- The Boys on the Hilltop" from the
Bad Haggis
Bad Haggis is a Celtic band with roots in Scottish music. The American group is led by piper Eric Rigler, who has played on dozens of movie soundtracks. A tune by Bad Haggis was used in the first season of Crossing Jordan, and pipes and whistles ...
CD ''Trip''). Starting with the second season, the credits showed all the major players and used a more rock-like, less-Irish-sounding opening theme.
''Crossing Jordan'' is set in the same
fictional universe
A fictional universe, or fictional world, is a self-consistent setting with events, and often other elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed, or fictional realm (or world). Fictional universes may ...
as fellow NBC series ''Las Vegas''. In the season-four episode "What Happens in Vegas Dies in Boston", a case takes Jordan and Woody to Las Vegas, where Woody became very well-acquainted with the Montecito's casino host, Sam Marquez (
Vanessa Marcil
Vanessa Marcil ( ;) is an American actress. She is best known for her television roles as Brenda Barrett on ''General Hospital'', Gina Kincaid on ''Beverly Hills, 90210'', and Sam Marquez on ''Las Vegas''.
Early life
Marcil, the youngest of fo ...
). They maintained a long-distance relationship for a while: O'Connell appeared in five episodes of ''Las Vegas'' and Vanessa Marcil appeared as Sam in two ''Crossing Jordan'' episodes.
Reception
''USA Today ''gave the show a two-star review and said, "What truly strains belief—and your viewing patience—are the absurd quirks Jordan adds to its plot and its characters to try to set itself apart." ''The New York Times'' called it "engaging and entertaining" and "Hennessy gives Jordan an appealing, loose-cannon attitude."
Broadcast
''Crossing Jordan'' premiered in 2001 on NBC. It aired on Mondays, Fridays, Sundays and finally Wednesdays for its final episodes.
The show was put on hiatus for most of the 2003–2004 season to accommodate Hennessy's real-life pregnancy. The series returned on March 9, 2004, with a shortened 13-episode season. Due to the season being broadcast out of order, the cliffhanger plotline from the season-two finale was aired as the last episode of the season instead of the first; instead, the first featured an unrelated story with a humorous subplot that paid homage to
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
's 1954 film ''
Rear Window
''Rear Window'' is a 1954 American mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by John Michael Hayes based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder". Originally released by Paramount Pictures, the film st ...
''.
A crossover episode of ''Las Vegas'' in which the ''Crossing Jordan'' cast appears was aired on November 17, 2006, though NBC was not airing new episodes of ''Crossing Jordan'' in autumn 2006.
Originally, the sixth season was slated for Sunday nights after the football season ended in January, but it was then scheduled to premiere on October 20, 2006, and to be on Friday nights with ''
Medium
Medium may refer to:
Science and technology
Aviation
*Medium bomber, a class of war plane
*Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data
* Medium of ...
'' being put into the after-football Sunday-night slot. It was scheduled to air at 8 pm Eastern/Pacific and 7 pm Central/Mountain, but NBC decided to avoid showing scripted programming at that hour. The season premiere was pre-empted in favor of ''
1 vs. 100
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...
'', a game show hosted by
Bob Saget
Robert Lane Saget (May 17, 1956 – January 9, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and television host. Saget played Danny Tanner on the ABC sitcom ''Full House'' (1987-1995), and reprised the role for its Netflix sequel '' Fulle ...
.
The season premiere ran on January 14, 2007, at 10 pm Eastern/Pacific and 9 pm Central. Beginning March 7, 2007, the show moved to a new time slot, Wednesday 9/8C where it was promoted as a female empowerment block with ''Medium''.
Syndication
NBC tried
syndicating ''Crossing Jordan'' during its second season.
Rerun
A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. There are two types of reruns – those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated.
Variations
In the United Kingdom, the word ...
s are often shown on
A&E in the United States and Canada. Currently, it airs in syndication on CIN (Crime and Investigation Network) and
Start TV
Start TV is an American free-to-air television network owned as a joint venture between Weigel Broadcasting and the CBS News and Stations subsidiary of Paramount Global. Predominantly carried on the digital subchannels of its affiliated televisi ...
. In January 2021, the Roku Channel in the U.S. released all episodes of ''Crossing Jordan'' to stream.
Cancellation
Originally, the finale for the sixth season was promoted as a cliffhanger. A plane crash which left all of the main characters (with the exception of Lily) stranded atop a mountain with little hope of being discovered was reported to end with no resolution, as the story would pick up at the onset of a subsequent season. Once NBC decided against renewing ''Crossing Jordan'' for a seventh year, though, fans were treated to a different ending: Jordan ultimately confronts her held-in feelings for Woody and finally professes her love, and all of the characters are rescued in the final moments of the series. The ending provided fuel to rumors that producers recorded two endings to the finale: one in case the series would be renewed, and another in case the series would not be.
The series was cancelled on May 14, 2007, two days before the season six finale aired.
Home media
Episodes and ratings
DVD releases
NBC announced in January 2007 that it was making progress securing music rights to allow the show to be released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
. (''Crossing Jordan'' relies heavily on pop music in its soundtrack.)
The first season was released on DVD on May 6, 2008,
and there is no notice of substitution of music on the DVD packaging.
However, as of January 2018, the latter seasons were still not available via DVD in the US. In Germany, the second season was released on DVD and
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
via
Koch Media
Plaion (formerly Koch Media) is a German-Austrian media company headquartered in Höfen, Tyrol, Austria, with an operating subsidiary based in Planegg, Germany. The company was founded in 1994 by Franz Koch and Klemens Kundratitz. The company ...
on September 10, 2015. Koch Media already re-released a remastered version of the first season in May 2015.
The complete 27-disc DVD collection is available in Australia from JB HI-FI, EzyDVD, Dymocks., Sanity and Via Vision Entertainment.
References
External links
*
{{Portal, Television, left=yes
2001 American television series debuts
2007 American television series endings
2000s American drama television series
English-language television shows
2000s American legal television series
NBC original programming
2000s American medical television series
Television series by Universal Television
Television shows set in Boston
Television series created by Tim Kring
Fictional portrayals of the Boston Police Department
Impact of the September 11 attacks on television