Crossing Jordan is an American television crime/drama series that aired on
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
from September 24, 2001 to May 16, 2007. It stars
Jill HennessyJillian Noel "Jill" Hennessy is a Canadian actress and musician known for her television roles on Law & Order and Crossing Jordan.-Early life:...
as Jordan Cavanaugh, M.D., a crime-solving forensic pathologist employed in the
Suffolk County, MassachusettsSuffolk County has no land border with Plymouth County to its southeast, but the two counties share a water boundary in the middle of Massachusetts Bay.-National protected areas:*Boston African American National Historic Site...
, Medical Examiner's Office. The show used an
ensemble castAn ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...
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 KringRichard Timothy "Tim" Kring is an American screenwriter and television producer, best known for his creation of the television series Strange World, Crossing Jordan, and Heroes.Kring is Jewish...
, 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
biblicalThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
metaphor of the ancient
HebrewsHebrews is an ethnonym used in the Hebrew Bible...
crossing the
Jordan River, commonly used in
spiritual songsSpirituals are religious songs which were created by enslaved African people in America.-Terminology and origin:...
to represent death and passage to the afterlife.
During the first two seasons, the series used a
gimmickIn marketing language, a gimmick is a unique or quirky special feature that makes something "stand out" from its contemporaries. However, the special feature is typically thought to be of little relevance or use. Thus, a gimmick is a special feature for the sake of having a special feature...
whereby Jordan and her retired police detective father Maximilian "Max" Cavanaugh (
Ken HowardKenneth Joseph "Ken" Howard, Jr. is an American actor, best 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 White Shadow...
) 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 6 seasons and 117 episodes, on May 14, 2007, the series was
canceledIn television, cancellation refers to the termination of a program by a network, typically because of low viewership and/or unfavourable critical reviews. Another reason why television programs can be cancelled is to make room for new television programs...
by NBC.
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 HennessyJillian Noel "Jill" Hennessy is a Canadian actress and musician known for her television roles on Law & Order and Crossing Jordan.-Early life:...
) |
Dr. Garret Macy
(Miguel FerrerMiguel José Ferrer is an American actor and voice actor who is often cast as a villain. His notable roles include Bob Morton, a supporting character in RoboCop , the short tempered FBI agent Albert Rosenfield in Twin Peaks, and Dr...
) |
Dr. Mahesh "Bug" Vijay
(Ravi KapoorRavi Kapoor is an 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 England. He trained at East 15 Acting School...
) |
Dr. Trey Sanders
(Mahershalalhashbaz AliMahershalalhashbaz Ali is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Richard Tyler on the USA Network science fiction television series The 4400, and "Tizzy" in the 2008 motion picture The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.Ali was born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore in Oakland,...
) |
Lily Lebowski
(Kathryn HahnKathryn Hahn is an American actress best known for her role as Lily Lebowski on the television series Crossing Jordan.-Personal life:...
) |
Nigel Townsend
(Steve ValentineSteven John Valentine is a Scottish actor, singer and magician who has performed on stage and screen, but is best known for his role as the eccentric Nigel Townsend on NBC's crime drama Crossing Jordan...
) |
Det. Woody Hoyt
(Jerry O'ConnellJeremiah "Jerry" O'Connell is an American actor, best known for his roles in the TV series Sliders, Andrew Clements in My Secret Identity, Vern Tessio in the film Stand by Me, Charlie Carbone in Kangaroo Jack, and Detective Woody Hoyt on the drama Crossing Jordan...
)* |
Vacant |
Maximillian "Max" Cavanaugh
(Ken HowardKenneth Joseph "Ken" Howard, Jr. is an American actor, best 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 White Shadow...
) |
| 2 |
Dr. Elaine Duchamps
(Lorraine ToussaintLorraine Toussaint is an actress best known for starring alongside Annie Potts in Any Day Now.Toussaint graduated from Manhattan's School of Performing Arts in 1978, before going on to graduate from Juilliard School...
) |
| 3 |
Dr. Peter Winslow
(Ivan SergeiIvan Sergei is an American actor known for his work in television.-Personal life:Sergei was born Ivan Sergei Gaudio in Hawthorne, New Jersey, and is of Dutch and Italian descent. Ivan attended Hawthorne High School, where he was a member of the graduating class of 1989, and was a quarterback on...
) |
| 4 |
Vacant |
Det. Woody Hoyt
(Jerry O'ConnellJeremiah "Jerry" O'Connell is an American actor, best known for his roles in the TV series Sliders, Andrew Clements in My Secret Identity, Vern Tessio in the film Stand by Me, Charlie Carbone in Kangaroo Jack, and Detective Woody Hoyt on the drama Crossing Jordan...
) |
Various |
| 5 |
Det. Tallulah "Lu" Simmons
(Leslie BibbLeslie Louise Bibb is an American actress and former fashion model. She transitioned into film and television in late 1990s. She appeared in television shows such as Home Improvement , before she appeared in her first film, the comedy Private Parts , which was followed by her first show The Big Easy...
) |
| 6 |
Dr. Kate Switzer
(Brooke SmithBrooke Smith is an American actress. She is best known for her role on the TV show Grey's Anatomy as Dr. Erica Hahn and for her role as Catherine Martin in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs.- Early life :...
)* |
Vacant |
* This denotes an actor who did not appear in the opening credits, yet commonly appeared on the show.
Main characters
- Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh, M.D. (Jill Hennessy
Jillian Noel "Jill" Hennessy is a Canadian actress and musician known for her television roles on Law & Order and Crossing Jordan.-Early life:...
) – a forensic pathologist in the Boston Medical Examiner's Office who solves crimes during the course of investigations. Jordan is emotionally scarred by her mother's murder when she was a child, indicated by significant trust issues that, until recently, severely limited her relationships with men. At the end of the sixth and final season, Jordan told Detective Hoyt that she loved him. She attended University of Massachusetts AmherstThe University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...
and Tufts University School of MedicineThe Tufts University School of Medicine is one of the eight schools that constitute Tufts University. Located on the university's health sciences campus in the Chinatown district of Boston, Massachusetts, the medical school has clinical affiliations with thousands of doctors and researchers in the...
.
- Dr. Garret Macy (Miguel Ferrer
Miguel José Ferrer is an American actor and voice actor who is often cast as a villain. His notable roles include Bob Morton, a supporting character in RoboCop , the short tempered FBI agent Albert Rosenfield in Twin Peaks, and Dr...
) – the Chief Medical Examiner and Jordan's boss. Macy must deal with Jordan's erratic behavior as well as his confused family—he has a teenage daughter, Abby, but is divorced from his wife—and his own personal demons; he is a recovering alcoholic. Garret has an affinity for jazzJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. He has been known to have had romantic entanglements with grief counselor Lily Lebowski, ADA Renee Walcott, Charlie Davis, and, obviously, his one-time wife, Maggie Warner. Garret admitted to his drinking problem after finding out his daughter, Abby, had become addicted to heroin upon dropping out of college and becoming involved with another heroin addict.
- Dr. Mahesh "Bug" Vijayaraghavensatyanaryanamurthy (Mahesh Vijay) (Ravi Kapoor
Ravi Kapoor is an 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 England. He trained at East 15 Acting School...
) – a brilliant but shy forensic entomologistForensic entomology is the application and study of insect and other arthropod biology to criminal matters. It is primarily associated with death investigations; however, it may also be used to detect drugs and poisons, determine the location of an incident, and find the presence and time of the...
from LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. He has feelings for Lily which, until the final episode of Season 5, were not reciprocated. In the beginning of Season 6, with the cancellation of Lily's wedding, his relationship with Lily is beginning to move forward. However, things may be complicated by Lily's unexpected pregnancy with her once to be husband, Jeffery. Bug has since taken it upon himself to make Lily move in with him and support her and the baby. In an episode called "Post Hoc," near the end of the final season, Bug disappears without a trace, to the great consternation of his colleagues. Dr. Macy makes inquiries and learns that Bug is being held incommunicado by the Department of Homeland Security, on suspicion of being a terrorist. He is finally released after an interrogation (not seen) that apparently included waterboardingWaterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over the face of an immobilized captive, thus causing the individual to experience the sensation of drowning...
, and is left deeply shaken by the experience.
- Lily Lebowski (Kathryn Hahn
Kathryn Hahn is an American actress best known for her role as Lily Lebowski on the television series Crossing Jordan.-Personal life:...
) (Season 1 EP 2–8 recurring, Season 1 EP 9–Season 6 regular); the good-hearted grief counselor working in the medical examiner's office. Lily and Garret used to be romantically involved, but their developing relationship ended when Garret went back to his ex-wife for a brief period. Lily and Garret have, though, remained friends ever since. As season 2 rolled around, Lily finally appeared to be over Garret, only to have to deal with Bug. To complicate matters for Bug, who still has feelings for Lily, the insensitive Detective Matt Seely appears to be trying to win Lily over; at times it seems that he is even succeeding. Lily's mother died in April 2005 after being run down by a car. Bug thought Lily was adopted because her blood type differed from her newly deceased mother. Garret recently revealed the woman Lily thought to be her mother was really her aunt. In "Mysterious Ways," she tendered her resignation and accepted her boyfriend's marriage proposal. She eventually canceled the wedding because she finally realized her feelings for Bug. Soon after, Lily received the surprising news that she was pregnant with Jeffery's baby, Madeleine. By the end of season 6, she had moved in with Bug, after he wanted her and the baby to live with him.
- Dr. Nigel Townsend (Steve Valentine
Steven John Valentine is a Scottish actor, singer and magician who has performed on stage and screen, but is best known for his role as the eccentric Nigel Townsend on NBC's crime drama Crossing Jordan...
) (Season 1 EP 1–9 recurring, Season 1 EP 10–Season 6 regular); a wise-cracking British criminologist with an ambiguous personal life. He claimed to like girls ("Digger"), and had a girlfriend ("Forget Me Not"), yet there was some speculation that he might be bisexual. Often known for his dry humor and knowledge of everything from coffeeCoffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
to textiles. Nigel had run away from the Royal NavyThe Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, in which he had served as a counter-intelligenceCounterintelligence or counter-intelligence refers to efforts made by intelligence organizations to prevent hostile or enemy intelligence organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence against them. National intelligence programs, and, by extension, the overall defenses of...
officer. Nigel is sometimes thought to have feelings for Jordan, because of willingness to do whatever she asks despite the possibility of his losing his job as consequence. He was also not on speaking terms with his father, who still lives in England, until some time before the episode "Murder in the Rue Morgue," in which he mentioned to Jordan he was glad he and his father are back in touch and he regrets having had no contact with him for so long. Dr. Townsend's relations with his father continue to be very rocky, however. In one episode early into the series it was mentioned that he had a tattoo of Betty BoopBetty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick. She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She has also been featured in...
on his left buttock, but this was never later confirmed or denied. He is known for his technical savvy, and his use of the computer often leads to important clues.
- Detective Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Hoyt (Jerry O'Connell
Jeremiah "Jerry" O'Connell is an American actor, best known for his roles in the TV series Sliders, Andrew Clements in My Secret Identity, Vern Tessio in the film Stand by Me, Charlie Carbone in Kangaroo Jack, and Detective Woody Hoyt on the drama Crossing Jordan...
) (Seasons 1–3 recurring, 4–6 regular) – a police detective from WisconsinWisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
who often works with Jordan on her cases. Woody is also known to harbor romantic feelings for Jordan, who resists, preferring friendship because she believes it to be safer. On Jordan's birthday ("Embraceable You", Season 4), Woody gave her a diamond ring, a gesture that, according to Nigel, shows that Woody wants more from their relationship, but Jordan declined the ring. Premiered in the episode "Wrong Place, Wrong Time", he became a regular in Season 4. On the final episode of Season 4 ("Jump Push Fall"), Woody was shot by a cop killer and nearly died in the hospital, an event that prompted Jordan to confess her love. Many fans considered this a big step in the right direction for their relationship, but a recovering Woody turned her down, believing her declaration of romantic feelings to be motivated by pity. When a case took him to Las VegasLas Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, he started a flirtatious relationship with Sam Marquez (from sibling TV series Las VegasLas Vegas was an American television series broadcast by NBC from September 22, 2003 to February 15, 2008. The show focuses on a team of people working at the ficticional Montecito Resort & Casino dealing with issues that arise within the working environment, ranging from valet parking and...
). Based on events which happened in Season 4 episode of Las Vegas "History of Violins," the relationship seems to be off although he was apparently invited by Sam to Delinda Deline's wedding. He has a younger brother, Calvin (played by O'Connell's real-life brother Charlie O'ConnellCharles "Charlie" O'Connell is an American actor and reality television personality. He is known for his appearance on The Bachelor, as well as appearing in several of his older brother, Jerry O'Connell's projects, including a starring role as Colin Mallory in the fourth season of the science...
), a recovering alcoholic and drug addict who is always getting into trouble.
Semi-regular characters
- Maximillian "Max" Cavanaugh (Ken Howard
Kenneth Joseph "Ken" Howard, Jr. is an American actor, best 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 White Shadow...
) (Season 1–3, Recurring Season 4); Jordan's father, an ex-cop-turned-bar-owner, who disappeared in the finale of Season 3 and reappeared in the episode "It Happened One Night." Ken Howard's appearance in the show was changed from regular cast to guest star.
- Dr. Trey Sanders (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali
Mahershalalhashbaz Ali is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Richard Tyler on the USA Network science fiction television series The 4400, and "Tizzy" in the 2008 motion picture The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.Ali was born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore in Oakland,...
) (Season 1) – a rather conservative medical examiner working on a grant, who left after the first season. Although his departure was not explained, it was assumed his grant either expired or was completed, and he had simply left for other work.
- Dr. Elaine Duchamps (Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint is an actress best known for starring alongside Annie Potts in Any Day Now.Toussaint graduated from Manhattan's School of Performing Arts in 1978, before going on to graduate from Juilliard School...
) (Season 2) – a medical examiner who joined the team in Season 2, often butting heads with Jordan and Garret as it appeared she was there to take over management of the Coroner's office from Macy. But after finally developing a good working relationship with the staff, she died of an Escherichia coliEscherichia coli is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms . Most E. coli strains are harmless, but some serotypes can cause serious food poisoning in humans, and are occasionally responsible for product recalls...
infection in the episode "Perfect Storm" after saving Peter Winslow's life.
- Dr. Peter Winslow (Ivan Sergei
Ivan Sergei is an American actor known for his work in television.-Personal life:Sergei was born Ivan Sergei Gaudio in Hawthorne, New Jersey, and is of Dutch and Italian descent. Ivan attended Hawthorne High School, where he was a member of the graduating class of 1989, and was a quarterback on...
) (Season 1 one episode – Season 2 recurring, Season 3 Regular) – a recovering drug addict medical examiner who appeared in Seasons 2 and 3 and simply disappeared without explanation. Nigel makes a reference to Peter covering his shift in "Thin Ice."
- Detective Tallulah "Lu" Simmons (Leslie Bibb
Leslie Louise Bibb is an American actress and former fashion model. She transitioned into film and television in late 1990s. She appeared in television shows such as Home Improvement , before she appeared in her first film, the comedy Private Parts , which was followed by her first show The Big Easy...
) (Season 5 regular; Season 6 recurring) – first appeared in Season 5, when she was assigned to work with Detective Hoyt on some of the psychological issues he endured while serving on the force. Since then, Lu became a frequent collaborator with the ME's office on cases and struck up a relationship with Hoyt; it is not known how she dealt with Woody's long distance relationship with Sam Marquez. But in the episode "33 Bullets" (6x03), she was killed after being shot during a Boston riot.
Recurring characters
- DA Renee Walcott (Susan Gibney
Susan Gibney is an American actress. She has 5 older, and two younger, siblings. She moved to Webster, New York at a young age, returned to California to live several times, and again has lived in Webster since 2004. Susan graduated from Buffalo State College in New York with a major in theater...
) – the district attorney who constantly clashed with Jordan. She also had a romantic relationship with Garret Macy, but it ended when she had an affair with her ex-husband and became pregnant. (This coincided with Gibney's real-life pregnancyPregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
.) She returned later in Season 4.
- Det. Matt Seely (David Monahan
David Harold Monahan is an 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 Supper , The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green and Something New A 1989 graduate of Bishop...
) – a somewhat misogynistic detective who was the son of a newspaper mogul. He had a tendency to be insensitive and not to think before he spoke, subsequently annoying the characters in the show. He had shown particular interest in Lily Lebowski, and the relationship was being tentatively explored, but Seely was seen less and less in season 5, as Lily's relationship with Brandau grew (coinciding with another project Monahan was working on). He was presumably killed in the last installment of season 6.
- Doctor Howard Stiles (Wallace Shawn
Wallace Michael Shawn , sometimes credited as Wally Shawn, is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, author, voice artist, and intellectual. His best-known film roles include Wally Shawn in My Dinner with Andre , Vizzini in The Princess Bride , and debate teacher Mr...
) – the resident psychiatristA psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
who checks up on everyone's sanity from time to time (usually once every season), especially Jordan's. He flirts with Jordan, but seems to understand her commitment and abandonment issues very well, and is extremely gentle when counseling her.
- Det. Roz Framus (Sandra Bernhard
Sandra Bernhard is an American comedian, singer, actress and author. She first gained attention in the late 1970s with her stand-up comedy in which she often bitterly critiques celebrity culture and political figures. Bernhard is number 97 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups of...
) – a recent acquisition to the recurring character list. She calls Bug "Buggles," which Bug hates, and often teases him for being a "Trekkie" and about him previously owning "SpockSpock is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by Leonard Nimoy in the original Star Trek series, Spock also appears in the animated Star Trek series, two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, seven of the Star Trek feature films, and numerous Star Trek...
ears".
- Emmy (Emy Coligado
Emy Coligado is an American actress, known for her role as Piama Tananahaakna on the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle.Coligado was born in Geneva, Ohio, and lived in Borger in the Texas Panhandle. She attended Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, where she studied psychology...
) – works as an assistant in the Medical Examiner's office. Emmy has appeared in over 20 episodes of the show, starting with "Born to Run," the fourth episode of the first season.
- ADA Jeffrey Brandau (Ethan Sandler
Ethan Sandler is an American actor known for his role of ADA Jeffrey Brandau on the television series Crossing Jordan.-Career:Sandler's screen credits include The Chocolate War, Flushed, and The Enigma with a Stigma...
) – a new member (as of Season 5) of the DA's office who began a romantic relationship with Lily, creating a love triangle of sorts between the two of them and Bug. Lily leaves him at the altar when she finally realizes she has feelings for Bug. He asks her to marry him again after he finds out that she's pregnant with his daughter, Madeleine, but she refuses. In real life, Ethan Sandler is married to Katherine Hahn, who plays Lily, and the baby she was pregnant with was actually their own.
- Kate Switzer (Brooke Smith
Brooke Smith is an American actress. She is best known for her role on the TV show Grey's Anatomy as Dr. Erica Hahn and for her role as Catherine Martin in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs.- Early life :...
) – a new medical examiner, and the latest in a long line of antagonists to join the rest of the team in the morgue. Though she has learned to work better with her colleagues, her relationships with the staff, especially Jordan and Garret, remain strained at best. Although they tend to annoy each other, she sometimes appears to have feelings for Nigel. She has a Dandie Dinmont terrierA Dandie Dinmont Terrier is a small Scottish breed of dog in the terrier family. The breed has a very long body, short legs, and a distinctive "top-knot" of hair on the head. A character in Sir Walter Scott's novel Guy Mannering has lent the name to the breed, with "Dandie Dinmont" thought to be...
named Binky, and often threatens to feed people's kidneys to him.
- James Horton (Michael T. Weiss
Michael Terry Weiss is an American actor best known for playing the title role in The Pretender.-Early life:Weiss was born in Chicago, Illinois. His father was a steel-industry executive and his mother was a homemaker. He has a sister, Jamie Sue Weiss, who became a make-up artist for television...
) is Jordan’s illegitimate half-brother, and is six years older than Jordan. Their mother had an affair with another police officer, a detective named Thomas Malden(Edward HerrmannEdward Kirk Herrmann is a U.S. television and film actor. He is best known for his Emmy-nominated portrayals of Franklin D...
), but whether he was actually James's father, as Max believed he was, was never clarified. Max gave up James, who became a criminal—his fingerprint was found at the scene of Jordan's mother's death. He was presumed dead after he jumped into the Charleston River, though his body was never recovered.
- Dr. Devan Maguire (Jennifer Finnigan
Jennifer Christina Finnigan is a 3-time Daytime Emmy Award winning Canadian actress, perhaps best known for her role as Bridget Forrester in the American soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful from 2000 to 2004. She appeared in the ABC sitcom Better with You.-Biography:Finnigan was born in Montreal...
) (recurring role) – a pathology resident who appeared in 10 episodes, including one in which Jordan did not appear. Though she and Jordan butted heads and often gave the impression they didn’t like each other, Devan considered Jordan her friend. Devan was just beginning to develop a close relationship with Woody when she apparently died in a plane crash between Washington D.C. and Boston in the episode "Fire From the Sky."
- Detective Annie Capra (Arija Bareikis
- Biography :She starred alongside Rob Schneider as Kate in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo and currently is cast as LAPD police officer Chickie Brown, in the police drama series Southland, which originally aired on NBC before moving to TNT in 2010....
) (recurring role) – a female detective partnered with Woody throughout Season 3.
- Abby Macy (Alex McKenna
Alex McKenna is an American television and film actress perhaps best known for her role as Abby Macy in the American television series Crossing Jordan. She also played Petunia Stupid alongside Tom Arnold in the 1996 movie The Stupids.-Early life:McKenna was born in Los Angeles, California...
(Recurring role)—Dr. Garret Macy's daughter, who became addicted to heroin upon dropping out of college and becoming involved with a heroin dealer.
- Dr. Sidney Trumaine (Eugene Byrd
Eugene Byrd is an American actor.-Career:He has been in movies including Dead Man, Sleepers, 8 Mile, Lift and Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, and has the leading role in Confess, for which he won the Break-Out Performance Award at the 2006 Method Fest Independent Film Festival...
) (recurring role) – a new medical examiner who clashed with Bug over power issues. Sidney also disappeared after Season 5's opener "There’s No Place Like Home II." Like Peter above, his name has been mentioned, leading to the assumption he is still working, albeit unseen, at the morgue.
- J.D. Pollack (Charles Mesure
Charles William David Mesure is an English born, Australian and New Zealand actor.When Mesure was five, his family moved to Australia and he grew up in Sydney. Mesure attended Newington College and graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Australia, with a degree in Performing Arts...
) (recurring role) – a sometimes oily Australian reporter who dated Jordan early in Season 5. Their relationship, which had at first been primarily sexual for the most part, got serious enough that J.D. considered proposing, but things were off after Jordan slept with Woody in the episode "Loves Me Not." J.D. was found murdered at the end of Season 5, and Jordan, falsely accused of his murder, sought to clear his name at the start of season 6..
- William Ivers (Jeffrey Donovan
Jeffrey Donovan is an American television, film and stage actor. He plays the lead Michael Westen on the American cable television series, Burn Notice. Notable starring roles in film include: Hitch, Believe in Me, Changeling, and Come Early Morning. He portrayed Robert F. Kennedy in Clint...
) (recurring role) – a creepily charming attorney hired in Season 6 by the governor's office to investigate any questionable behavior within the morgue, aiming directly at Macy, although Jordan was a brief potential suspect. He disappointingly finds nothing wrong and later targets the morgue's current spending as an open door to major disaster, enforcing a new, strict budget depriving the morgue of much-needed equipment. This loss causes many problems in two important cases (Night of The Living Dead (6x06) and, especially, Isolation (6x08)), with the latter resulting in the new budget being revoked and Ivers's exit. He briefly returns in Dead Again (6x15), teaming up with Jordan when a woman presumed murdered from a case Ivers had been prosecuting attorney 6 years prior somehow ends up dead in the morgue.
- Det. Lois Carver (Amy Aquino
Amy Aquino is an American television, film, and stage actress.-Background and education:Aquino is the daughter of Adele and Salvatore Aquino...
) – a no-nonsense detective seen throughout season 1. She does not appear as frequently in season 2, is not seen at all in season 3, and only appears in two season 4 episodes, "Deja Past" and "Necessary Risks."
- Det. Eddie Winslow (DW Moffett) (Season 1) – This detective first appeared in early season 1, and it was clear that there was tension between him and Jordan. Gradually audiences found out why-–Winslow was Max Cavanaugh's last partner on the force, who "ratted him out," leading to Max being fired from the Boston Police Department. Eventually both Max and Jordan made their peaces with Eddie, and he was well-situated to become a strong character. Then his appearances tapered off near the end of Season 1.
Minor characters
- D.A. Jay Myers (Brian Stokes Mitchell
Brian Stokes Mitchell is an American stage, film and television actor. A powerful baritone, he has been one of the central leading men of the Broadway theatre since the early 1990s...
) – a district attorney whom Jordan briefly becomes involved with in Season 1. He first appeared in "For Harry, With Love and Squalor" (1x19) in Max's bar as Jordan questioned her love life and began a (mainly) sexual relationship with him, neither knowing either the other's name or who the other actually was till Jordan appeared as a courtroom witness in, and Myers questioned her during, the trial of a case he was prosecuting. He reappears in "Someone to Count On" (1x21), as he comes asking for Jordan's help in prosecuting a fourteen-year-old girl suspected of killing her mother.
- Herman Redding (Jack Laufer) – an institutionalized triple-murderer who claimed to have knowledge of who killed Emily Cavanaugh, despite the fact that Emily had long since left the Hospital by the time he was transferred to it. Redding left clue after clue about Emily for Jordan in "Secrets & Lies, Pt 1" (1x22), while investigating a series of murders staged to look like suicide, including an envelope with the same phantom fingerprint found in the original investigation. He later breaks his silence (after 10 years) to make a deal with Jordan: She is to get him out of there and prove his innocence in exchange for what Jordan wants from him.
- Det. Luisa Santana (Camille Guaty
Camille Guaty is an American film and television actress. She is known for her role as Daisy on Gotta Kick It Up!.-Early life:Guaty was born in California of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent...
) – a rising detective in the Boston Police Department who appears in the episode "Blue Moon" and again briefly in "Family Affair." Presumably, she is still with the force.
- Oliver Titleman (Brian Kimmet) – a self-imagined forensics prodigy who fascinates himself with creating the perfect murder and stages elaborate killings to deceive the investigators. He has an unusual obsession with personally beating Dr. Macy at his own game. Oliver appears in episodes "Devil May Care" and "There's No Place Like Home II."
- Calvin Coolidge "Cal" Hoyt (Charles "Charlie" O'Connell
Charles "Charlie" O'Connell is an American actor and reality television personality. He is known for his appearance on The Bachelor, as well as appearing in several of his older brother, Jerry O'Connell's projects, including a starring role as Colin Mallory in the fourth season of the science...
) – Woody's younger brother, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict who is frequently in trouble. He is first seen in the "Sunset Division" spinoff episode (2x20). Cal is reintroduced mid-way into season 4, with a backstory that paints him as a very charming, but equally troubled, young man with a history of drug abuse, among other things, frequently saddling Woody with the responsibility. Cal not-so-coincidentally shows up in "Skin and Bone" (4x16), just as a mass grave full of mobsters is uncovered.
- Arlene Lebowski (Lesley Ann Warren
Lesley Ann Warren is an American actress and singer. She has been nominated once for an Academy Award and Emmy Awards and five times for Golden Globe, winning one....
) – Lily's aunt and adoptive mother. She first appears in "Don't Look Back" (2x08), as it is apparent that she and Lily do not have the best of relationships. Arlene reappears in "Locard's Exchange" (4x17), visiting Lily yet again, but the visit is short-lived as Lily orders her out of her life and moments later, she is mortally wounded in a hit-and-run. As a result, Lily turns over a new leaf, even petitioning the justice system to make sure that the person who hit Arlene, a woman who believed she was her husband's mistress, gets due justice.
- Det. Elliot Chandler (Boris Kodjoe
Boris Frederic Cecil Tay-Natey Ofuatey-Kodjoe , better known as Boris Kodjoe, is an Austrian-born German actor and former fashion model who works primarily in the United States...
) – A new detective who pops up for 2 episodes in Season 6.
Guest stars
- Gregory Jbara
-Early life:Jbara was born in Nankin Township , Michigan, the son of an advertising office manager and an insurance claims adjuster. He is of Lebanese and Irish descent. After graduating from Wayne Memorial High School in Wayne, Michigan, Jbara attended the University of Michigan from 1979 to 1981...
as Stan Benedict in Season 2, Episode 2, "Bombs Away".
- Josh Duhamel
Joshua David "Josh" Duhamel is an American actor and former fashion model. He first achieved acting success in 1999 as Leo du Pres on ABC's All My Children and later as the chief of security, Danny McCoy, on NBC's Las Vegas...
and Molly SimsMolly Sims is an American model and actress. Sims is known for her appearances in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues and her role as Delinda Deline in the NBC drama Las Vegas. She is also an ambassador for Operation Smile...
as Danny and Delinda the Las VegasLas Vegas was an American television series broadcast by NBC from September 22, 2003 to February 15, 2008. The show focuses on a team of people working at the ficticional Montecito Resort & Casino dealing with issues that arise within the working environment, ranging from valet parking and...
crossoverA fictional crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, or because of unauthorized efforts by fans, or even amid common...
episode, Season 6, Episode 4, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love."
Production
Crossing Jordan was created by Tim Kring and was produced by
Tailwind ProductionsTailwind Productions is a films Production Company, created by Tim Kring.It has produced TV shows such as Heroes and Crossing Jordan....
in association with
NBC UniversalNBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
. Singer-songwriter duo
Wendy and LisaWendy & Lisa 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 releasing their debut album in 1987...
scored the music for the show.
Eric RiglerEric Rigler is an American player of the Uilleann pipes, Great Highland Bagpipes, and tin whistle. He plays on his own and with the band Bad Haggis, and has been featured on a number of movie soundtracks. He has been described as "the most recorded bagpiper of all time"...
's pipes and whistles can be heard in most episodes.
The scientific aspects of the show are comparable to
CSI: Crime Scene InvestigationCSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
, but come with a
rock and rollRock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
sensibility owing to Jordan's psychological
Sturm und DrangSturm und Drang is a proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early 1780s, in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism...
. 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 RiglerEric Rigler is an American player of the Uilleann pipes, Great Highland Bagpipes, and tin whistle. He plays on his own and with the band Bad Haggis, and has been featured on a number of movie soundtracks. He has been described as "the most recorded bagpiper of all time"...
's arrangement of a traditional Irish tune "My Love Is In America" ("Reels Part Two: My Love Is In America" from the
Bad HaggisBad 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...
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 universeA fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm ....
as fellow NBC series
Las VegasLas Vegas was an American television series broadcast by NBC from September 22, 2003 to February 15, 2008. The show focuses on a team of people working at the ficticional Montecito Resort & Casino dealing with issues that arise within the working environment, ranging from valet parking and...
. In the Season 4 episode "What Happens in Vegas Dies in Boston", a case takes Jordan and Woody to
Las VegasLas Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, where Woody became very well-acquainted with the Montecito's casino host, Sam Marquez (
Vanessa MarcilVanessa Marcil is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Brenda Barrett Corinthos on General Hospital, Gina Kincaid on Beverly Hills, 90210 and Sam Marquez on Las Vegas....
). 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 HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's 1954 film
Rear WindowRear Window is a 1954 American suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by John Michael Hayes and based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder"...
.
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
MediumMedium is an American television drama series that premiered on NBC on January 3, 2005, and ended on CBS on January 21, 2011. Themed on supernatural gifts, its lead character, Allison DuBois , is a medium employed as a consultant for the Phoenix, Arizona district attorney's office...
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. 1001 vs. 100 is an American game show that was broadcast by NBC from 2006–08, and is revived on GSN with a new series which began in November 2010. As in other formats, a single player goes up against 100 other contestants . The 1 gains money for every Mob member eliminated, but loses all winnings...
, a game show hosted by
Bob SagetRobert Lane "Bob" Saget is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and television host. Although he is best known for his roles as Danny Tanner in Full House, host of America's Funniest Home Videos and Future Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother, Saget is also known outside of television for his blue...
. 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.
RerunA rerun or repeat is a re-airing of an episode of a radio or television broadcast. The invention of the rerun is generally credited to Desi Arnaz. There are two types of reruns—those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Reruns can also be, as the...
s are often shown on
A&EThe A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
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.
Episodes, DVD releases and U.S. ratings
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. The first season was released on DVD on May 6, 2008 and there is no notice of substitution of music on the DVD packaging. 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
|
External links
from
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
from
A&EThe A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...