BY JOYCE REEHLING

Special to The Pilot

It is impossible to tell you how sad I am at the loss of "Law & Order." Not only do I love watching the show, I loved doing the show. Any actor in New York City was, in the very early days, not only eager but amazed that New York City had such a great TV show that we could be in and not have to schlep to Los Angeles to do it. Scenes shot where they were meant to be, the real Wall Street or Upper Westside and not some street in Toronto trying to be New York City.

I am telling you nothing you do not already know when I say that the scripts were great and the concept, which is now so normal, was a novelty and brilliant from the first episode. What you can't know is the joy of actually working the show and that is where I come in; I worked it.

Now, I am no star, just a middle-class "backbone" actor. By that I mean we are the ones you recognize when you see us; we work in one arena or another all the time but you just can't quite remember our names. More than anyone, we were the beneficiaries of the first decade or more of "L&O."

In the early days, Dick Wolf (blessed be his name and may his children and his children's children live and prosper) looked at the acting community in New York City as a rich and untapped TV resource. All of us, who had for years been on stage, were there to build something close to an acting company from which they drew. Many of us were in and out of "L&O" every two years or so, usually playing varying roles, always with something interesting to do and always working with superb talent both in the core cast and with the others only there for a day or a week.

I ended up playing an insurance expert who provided a motive, a sister of a guy who refused medical care for his young child who was ill and then died, a lawyer who defended a woman who took something very valuable from her husband, and I mean right off his very body, if ya know what I mean. I played Laura Linney's attorney when she murdered a Japanese businessman who had done her wrong, and I was a lieutenant colonel JAG when Kate Walsh killed her lover long before she was on "Grey's Anatomy." All of that is before I drop the names of Steven Hill, Sam Waterson, Michael Moriarty, Paul Sorvino, Chris Noth and the beloved Jerry Orbach to name a few of the wonderful actors I went toe-to-toe with.

"Law & Order" gave us all a chance to read for roles of size and substance, and in the early years we all worked and earned our way up to larger roles, more great courtroom scenes and better money. Once you did a couple of shows, they would sometimes just call your agent and say, "We have something in mind for Joyce; can she work the show?"

Sadly, as the pressure mounted in the ratings more and more stars started to take over the plum roles we had grown into ... but no one would turn down a job on "L&O." It was just too great a place to work.

Things change in show business all the time and often not for the better. Reality TV, which I view as a scourge both on my acting community and on the mind of the nation, took away our summer reruns first, then they took over the slots for scripted programming.

Reruns were important because it meant for the actors a second bump of the salary you were paid the first time. It often meant you could survive the fall without saying, "Hi, I'm your server this evening" and go on auditioning and working in the theater, which often pays so little that you would be shocked. Yes, the loss of "Law & Order" is a sad, sad passing. Sure, it may be time for changes but I wish we were seeing more of great writing and less of Buzz Aldrin trying to tango.

I think too of the crew who has made filming this show an art, more profitable and a joy to work as well. I think of the guys and gals who have formed that little world that the non-core actors only visited and how they made us all feel included, valued and essential.

It takes great professionalism to turn these shows out every season, and the folks you never see from the writers to the casting people to the crew have been a huge part of the excellence that made it to your screen. They are now out of work and worse, their family of "L&O" is breaking up. The rhythm of the life making a show, the knitting together of all these folks grows over time. They have, I am sure, gone through births, divorces, deaths, weddings and 9/11 together ... they are close.

They are losing all of that. And don't kid yourself; once a show breaks up you can stay in touch, but it is simply not the same. And you miss it.

So, I am thinking not only of the ghost of Jerry Orbach walking the set and shaking his head but how empty the halls where they shoot will sound.

In my fantasy Chris Noth is saying: "Hey, this guy sure looked healthy but he's been shot in the back, looks like someone needed him gone."

And Jerry would say: "Well, ya don't get more gone than canceled. Hope Buzz is happy."

Cue the the "dah-dum" sound effect and fade to black.

Joyce Reehling lives in Pinehurst. She recently retired here from New York after a 33-year career in theater, TV and commercials.