Crossing Jordan

Crossing Jordan

The cast
Format Crime, Drama
Created by Tim Kring
Starring Jill Hennessy
Miguel Ferrer
Ravi Kapoor
Kathryn Hahn
Steve Valentine
Jerry O'Connell
Country of origin United States
No. of seasons 6
No. of episodes 117 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time 42–44 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel NBC
Original run September 24, 2001 (2001-09-24) – May 16, 2007 (2007-05-16)
External links
Website

Crossing Jordan is an American television crime/drama series that aired on NBC from September 24, 2001 to May 16, 2007. It stars Jill Hennessy as Jordan Cavanaugh, M.D., a crime-solving forensic pathologist employed in the Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Medical Examiner's Office. The show used an ensemble cast approach that featured a group of Jordan's co-workers and police detectives assigned to the various cases. Its roster of central characters was created by Tim Kring, who also developed its core format. The title refers to both the name of the main character, who is commonly shown as "crossing" others—especially authority figures—to learn what she wants to know, and the biblical metaphor of the ancient Hebrews crossing the Jordan River, commonly used in spiritual songs to represent death and passage to the afterlife.

During the first two seasons, the series used a gimmick whereby Jordan and her retired police detective father Maximilian "Max" Cavanaugh (Ken Howard) role-play the events leading up to that week's murder, which were depicted by showing Jordan playing the part of the victim or suspect in a recreation of the scene, the idea being that such role-playing would help Jordan to figure out the circumstances of the crime, like a criminal profiler. This element of the series was mostly dropped when Howard left the series as a regular; however, there were instances of Jordan role-playing with other characters, such as Woody and Macy.

After six seasons and 117 episodes on May 16, 2007, the series was canceled by NBC.[1]

Contents

Cast and characters

Season Medical Examiner Chief Medical Examiner Medical Examiner Grief Counselor Forensic Technician Senior Detective Junior Detective Family
1 Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh
(Jill Hennessy)
Dr. Garret Macy
(Miguel Ferrer)
Dr. Mahesh "Bug" Vijay
(Ravi Kapoor)
Dr. Trey Sanders
(Mahershalalhashbaz Ali)
Lily Lebowski
(Kathryn Hahn)
Nigel Townsend
(Steve Valentine)
Det. Woody Hoyt
(Jerry O'Connell)*
Vacant Maximillian "Max" Cavanaugh
(Ken Howard)
2 Dr. Elaine Duchamps
(Lorraine Toussaint)
3 Dr. Peter Winslow
(Ivan Sergei)
4 Vacant Det. Woody Hoyt
(Jerry O'Connell)
Various
5 Det. Tallulah "Lu" Simmons
(Leslie Bibb)
6 Dr. Kate Switzer
(Brooke Smith)*
Vacant

* This denotes an actor who did not appear in the opening credits, yet commonly appeared on the show.

Main characters

Semi-regular characters

Recurring characters

Minor characters

Guest stars

Production

Crossing Jordan was created by Tim Kring and was produced by Tailwind Productions in association with NBC Universal. Singer-songwriter duo Wendy and Lisa scored the music for the show. Eric Rigler's pipes and whistles can be heard in most episodes.

The scientific aspects of the show are comparable to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, but come with a rock and roll sensibility owing to Jordan's psychological Sturm und Drang. The show is also less graphic than the CSI shows, and more character-driven.

In the first season, Hennessy was the only cast member to be shown in the opening credits, which featured Eric Rigler's arrangement of a traditional Irish tune "My Love Is In America" ("Reels Part Two: My Love Is In America" from the Bad Haggis CD 'Trip'). Starting with the second season, the show adopted more clinical credits where all of the major players were pictured, along with a more rock-like, less Irish-sounding opening theme.

Crossing Jordan is set in the same fictional universe as fellow NBC series Las Vegas. In the Season 4 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). They maintained a long-distance relationship for a while, O'Connell appeared in five episodes of Las Vegas and Vanessa Marcil appearing as Sam in two Crossing Jordan episodes.

Broadcast

Crossing Jordan premiered in 2001 on NBC; originally scheduled to debut on September 11, its launch was pushed back due to the terrorist attacks on that date. It has aired on Monday, Friday and then Sunday, its air date throughout the 2005–2006 season.

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. The cliffhanger plotline from the season two finale was dropped in a new episode, which featured a humorous subplot that paid homage to Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film Rear Window.

A crossover episode of Las Vegas in which the Crossing Jordan cast appears was aired on November 17, 2006 even though NBC was not airing new episodes of Crossing Jordan in the autumn of 2006.

Originally, the sixth season was going to appear on 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 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 preempted in favor of 1 vs. 100, a game show hosted by Bob Saget.[2] The season premiere ran on January 14, 2007 at 10 pm Eastern/Pacific and 9pm Central. Beginning March 7, 2007, the show moved to a new time slot, Wednesday 9/8C.

Syndication

NBC tried syndicating Crossing Jordan during its second season.[3] Reruns are often shown on A&E in the United States and Canada. Currently airs in syndication on CIN (Crime & Investigation Network).

Cancellation

Originally, the finale for the sixth season was promoted as a cliff-hanger. 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. But, once NBC decided against renewing Crossing Jordan for a seventh year, fans were treated to a different ending. Medical examiner Jordan ultimately confronted her held-in feelings for police detective Woody and finally professed her love. Furthermore, all of the characters were 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 show was cancelled on May 14, 2007, two days before the finale episode of season six aired.[1]

Episodes, DVD releases and U.S. ratings

Season Episodes Premiere Finale U.S. Ratings DVD releases
Average
viewers (millions)
Rank 18-49 rating/share North America United Kingdom Australia
1 23 September 24, 2001 May 13, 2002 12.8[4] 28[4] May 6, 2008[5] N/A November 19, 2008[6]
2 22 September 23, 2002 May 5, 2003 10.6[7] 44[7] N/A N/A N/A
3 13 March 7, 2004 June 6, 2004 12.33[8] 24[8] 4.5/11[8] N/A N/A N/A
4 21 September 26, 2004 May 15, 2005 11.7[9] 30[9] 4.0/10[9] N/A N/A N/A
5 21 September 25, 2005 May 7, 2006 10.9[10] 40[10] 3.3/8[10] N/A N/A N/A
6 17 January 14, 2007 May 16, 2007 7.2[11] 81[11] 2.2/5[11] N/A N/A N/A

The inability of NBC to secure music rights has prevented the show, which relies heavily on pop music in its soundtrack, from being released on DVD. However on the NBC.com blog, it was announced in January 2007 that this problem may soon be resolved.[12][13] The first season was released on DVD on May 6, 2008[14] and there is no notice of substitution of music on the DVD packaging.[5] As of July 2011 seasons 2 through 6 remain unreleased.

DVD name Release date Ep # Additional information
The Complete First Season May 6, 2008 23
  • Featurette: A Conversation With Tim Kring and Allan Arkush
  • Featurette: Jill Hennessy and Allan Arkush talk about Jordan
  • Commentary on Select Episodes
  • Deleted Scenes

References

  1. ^ a b "2007 Cancelled Shows: Several NBC Cancellations". TVSeriesFinale.com. May 14, 2007. http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/2007-cancelled-shows-several-nbc-cancellations/. Retrieved July 31, 2010. 
  2. ^ Johns, Anna (September 28, 2006). "NBC bumps Crossing Jordan for new game show". TVSquad.com. http://veronica-mars.tvsquad.com/2006/09/28/nbc-bumps-crossing-jordan-for-new-game-show/. Retrieved November 6, 2006. 
  3. ^ Rice, Lynette (October 18, 2002). "'Crossing' Over?". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,365969,00.html. Retrieved July 31, 2010. 
  4. ^ a b "How did your favorite show rate?". USA Today. May 28, 2002. http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/2002/2002-05-28-year-end-chart.htm. Retrieved 02-12-2010. 
  5. ^ a b Lacey, Gord (May 7, 2008). "Crossing Jordan - Season 1 Review I See Dead Bodies". TVShowsOnDVD.com. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/reviews/Crossing-Jordan-Season-1/7524. Retrieved April 7, 2010. 
  6. ^ "Crossing Jordan - Season 1 DVD". dvdorchard.com.au. http://www.dvdorchard.com.au/product.asp?PND=153865. Retrieved July 31, 2010. 
  7. ^ a b "Rank And File". Entertainment Weekly Published in issue #713. June 06, 2003. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,455439,00.html. Retrieved February 12, 2010. 
  8. ^ a b c "I. T. R. S. Ranking Report FROM 09/22/03 THROUGH 05/30/04". ABC Medianet. June 2, 2004. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070930171419/http://www.abcmedianet.com/Web/progcal/dispDNR.aspx?id=060204_11. Retrieved July 30, 2010. 
  9. ^ a b c "Primetime series". The Hollywood Reporter. May 27, 2005. Archived from the original on May 19, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070519102605/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000937471. Retrieved February 12, 2010. 
  10. ^ a b c "05/06 series". The Hollywood Reporter. May 26, 2006 (2006-05-26). Archived from the original on December 8, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20061208201731/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002576393. Retrieved January 30, 2010 (2010-01-30). 
  11. ^ a b c "06/07 series". The Hollywood Reporter. May 25, 2007 (2007-05-25). Archived from the original on May 28, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070528062839/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/features/e3ifbfdd1bcb53266ad8d9a71cad261604f. Retrieved January 30, 2010 (2010-01-30). 
  12. ^ Crossing Jordan on DVD
  13. ^ Lacey, Gord (2 February 2007). "Crossing Jordan - Universal to release season 1 in May ?". TVShowsOnDVD.com. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Crossing-Jordan/6873. Retrieved 7 April 2010. 
  14. ^ "Crossing Jordan - Season 1". TVShowsOnDVD.com. 6 May 2008. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/releases/Crossing-Jordan-Season-1/7524. Retrieved 7 April 2010. 

External links