Hudson University
Encyclopedia
Hudson University is a fiction
al university
alluded to in the TV shows The Cosby Show
, Degrassi: the Next Generation
, Law & Order
, Tru Calling
, Without a Trace
, Castle
and in the DC Comics
universe.
al university
in New York City
from the television series Law & Order
and its spin-offs
.
Over the years, Hudson University has seen several detectives visit its campus in search of suspects and witnesses, especially in cases that involve college
students and professors. By using a fictional school rather than a real college, the writers of Law & Order are able to weave the university into several narratives without the fear of misrepresenting the rate of crime at one of New York's actual institutions of higher learning.
Hudson University is a composite of several colleges and universities located in New York City including Columbia University
, Barnard College
, Pratt Institute
, Brooklyn College
, College of Mount Saint Vincent
, Hunter College
, Lehman College
, New York University
, City College of New York
, Queens College, Union Theological Seminary
, General Theological Seminary
, Pace University
and Fordham University
, all of which have been used as filming locations. For film
ing purposes, NYU is one of the least used locations in the series due to the high cost of filming in the university's buildings and surrounding area (one of Lennie Briscoe
's daughters, Julia, was once said to be a film student at NYU, but the show never filmed there). The show has shown Hudson University on a map of New York City where the real life Yeshiva University
is located, and a Season 20 episode
, "Innocence", depicted a fictional "Hudson Innocence Project" modeled on the real life Innocence Project
at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
at Yeshiva University. That same episode also identified Executive Assistant District Attorney Michael Cutter
as a graduate of Hudson's Law School
, making him the first "Law & Order" EADA to have graduated from a fictional law school.
SVU
s Detective Elliot Stabler
, has a daughter, Kathleen Stabler, who is a student at Hudson University ("Gray").
starring Nathan Fillion
in the episodes "The Mistress Always Spanks Twice," where the victim was a student at the fictional school; and "A Deadly Game," where the police encounter Ukrainian exchange students at Hudson who have bought counterfeit IDs. The school appears again in the episode "Close Encounters of the Murderous Kind," as the location of an altitude chamber
. Most recently, the school was mentioned in the episode "Head Case" as the employer of the episode's victim.
as the medical school Cliff Huxtable attended.
. It was first mentioned in Batman #217 (December 1969). Like many fictional locations in the comics, Hudson University's corresponding location in the real world is never made clear. According to the Atlas of the DC Universe (published by Mayfair Games), it is located in the fictional city of New Carthage, New York
.
Notable former students at Hudson University include Dick Grayson
/Robin
(who only attended for one semester), Professor Martin Stein, Crystal Frost, Louise Lincoln, and Duela Dent
. The father of Amy Winston
was a professor of English at Hudson.
In New Adventures of Superboy
#51 (1984), a teenaged Clark Kent
is shown pondering whether to accept an offer to attend Hudson University, but eventually chooses Metropolis University in Metropolis
instead.
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
alluded to in the TV shows The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...
, Degrassi: the Next Generation
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Degrassi: The Next Generation is a Canadian teen drama television series set in the Degrassi universe, which was created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood in 1979. Degrassi is the fourth fictional series in the Degrassi franchise, and follows The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, and...
, Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
, Tru Calling
Tru Calling
Tru Calling is an American television supernatural drama series that premiered on Fox Network on October 30, 2003. It ran for two seasons before being canceled....
, Without a Trace
Without a Trace
Without a Trace is an American television drama which originally ran on CBS from September 26, 2002 to May 19, 2009. The series was set in New York City and concerned a fictitious FBI Missing Persons Unit.-Premise:...
, Castle
Castle (TV series)
Castle is an American comedy-drama television series, which premiered on ABC on March 9, 2009. The series is produced by Beacon Pictures and ABC Studios. On January 10, 2011, Castle was renewed for a fourth season...
and in the DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
universe.
Law & Order
Hudson University is a fictionFiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
from the television series Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
and its spin-offs
Law & Order (franchise)
The Law & Order franchise is a number of related American television series created by Dick Wolf and originally broadcast on NBC, all of which deal with some aspect of the criminal justice system...
.
Over the years, Hudson University has seen several detectives visit its campus in search of suspects and witnesses, especially in cases that involve college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
students and professors. By using a fictional school rather than a real college, the writers of Law & Order are able to weave the university into several narratives without the fear of misrepresenting the rate of crime at one of New York's actual institutions of higher learning.
Hudson University is a composite of several colleges and universities located in New York City including Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Barnard College
Barnard College
Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...
, Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
, Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
, College of Mount Saint Vincent
College of Mount Saint Vincent
For the university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, see Mount Saint Vincent University The College of Mount Saint Vincent is a Catholic liberal arts college located in the northeast corner of the Riverdale section of The Bronx, New York, adjacent to the Yonkers border. It is the northernmost location in...
, Hunter College
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
, Lehman College
Lehman College
Lehman College is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, USA. Founded in 1931 as the Bronx campus of Hunter College, the school became an independent college within the City University in 1968. The college is named after Herbert Lehman, a former New York governor,...
, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
, Queens College, Union Theological Seminary
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets. The seminary was founded in 1836 under the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with nearby Columbia...
, General Theological Seminary
General Theological Seminary
The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church is a seminary of the Episcopal Church in the United States and is located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York....
, Pace University
Pace University
Pace University is an American private, co-educational, and comprehensive multi-campus university in the New York metropolitan area with campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York.-Programs:...
and Fordham University
Fordham University
Fordham University is a private, nonprofit, coeducational research university in the United States, with three campuses in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St...
, all of which have been used as filming locations. For film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
ing purposes, NYU is one of the least used locations in the series due to the high cost of filming in the university's buildings and surrounding area (one of Lennie Briscoe
Lennie Briscoe
Leonard W. "Lennie" Briscoe is a fictional character on NBC's long running police procedural and legal drama television series Law & Order. He was featured on the show for 12 seasons, from 1992 to 2004. He was created by Walon Green and René Balcer, and was portrayed by Jerry Orbach...
's daughters, Julia, was once said to be a film student at NYU, but the show never filmed there). The show has shown Hudson University on a map of New York City where the real life Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a research university ranked as 45th in the US among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2012...
is located, and a Season 20 episode
Episode
An episode is a part of a dramatic work such as a serial television or radio program. An episode is a part of a sequence of a body of work, akin to a chapter of a book. The term sometimes applies to works based on other forms of mass media as well, as in Star Wars...
, "Innocence", depicted a fictional "Hudson Innocence Project" modeled on the real life Innocence Project
Innocence Project
An Innocence Project is one of a number of non-profit legal organizations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand dedicated to proving the innocence of wrongly convicted people through the use of DNA testing, and to reforming the criminal justice systems to...
at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of Yeshiva University, located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The school is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. Cardozo's success as a young school has been remarkable, leading some to characterize Cardozo as a...
at Yeshiva University. That same episode also identified Executive Assistant District Attorney Michael Cutter
Michael Cutter
Michael "Mike" Cutter is a fictional character on the long-running NBC series Law & Order and its spinoff Law & Order: Special Victims Unit played by Linus Roache. The character debuted in L&O's eighteenth season premiere, broadcast January 2, 2008, and remained through its series finale on May...
as a graduate of Hudson's Law School
Law school
A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...
, making him the first "Law & Order" EADA to have graduated from a fictional law school.
SVU
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...
s Detective Elliot Stabler
Elliot Stabler
Det. Elliot "El" Stabler is a fictional character on the TV crime drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, portrayed by Christopher Meloni. He was the partner of Olivia Benson before retiring, following a shooting.-Character overview:...
, has a daughter, Kathleen Stabler, who is a student at Hudson University ("Gray").
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Hudson University is also used in the Canadian teenage drama Degrassi: The Next Generation. One of the main characters, Jimmy Brooks, receives acceptance to the prestigious university's Law program.Castle
Hudson University is also used in ABC's CastleCastle (TV series)
Castle is an American comedy-drama television series, which premiered on ABC on March 9, 2009. The series is produced by Beacon Pictures and ABC Studios. On January 10, 2011, Castle was renewed for a fourth season...
starring Nathan Fillion
Nathan Fillion
Nathan Fillion is a Canadian actor, currently starring as Richard Castle on the ABC series Castle. He is also known for his portrayal of the lead role of Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the television series Firefly and its feature film continuation, Serenity.He has acted in traditionally distributed...
in the episodes "The Mistress Always Spanks Twice," where the victim was a student at the fictional school; and "A Deadly Game," where the police encounter Ukrainian exchange students at Hudson who have bought counterfeit IDs. The school appears again in the episode "Close Encounters of the Murderous Kind," as the location of an altitude chamber
Altitude chamber
A hypobaric chamber, or altitude chamber, is a chamber used during aerospace or high terrestrial altitude research or training to simulate the effects of high altitude on the human body, especially hypoxia and hypobaria...
. Most recently, the school was mentioned in the episode "Head Case" as the employer of the episode's victim.
The Cosby Show
Hudson University is also used in the NBC sitcom The Cosby ShowThe Cosby Show
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...
as the medical school Cliff Huxtable attended.
Comics
Hudson University is a fictional location in the DC UniverseDC Universe
The DC Universe is the shared universe where most of the comic stories published by DC Comics take place. The fictional characters Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are well-known superheroes from this universe. Note that in context, "DC Universe" is usually used to refer to the main DC continuity...
. It was first mentioned in Batman #217 (December 1969). Like many fictional locations in the comics, Hudson University's corresponding location in the real world is never made clear. According to the Atlas of the DC Universe (published by Mayfair Games), it is located in the fictional city of New Carthage, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Notable former students at Hudson University include Dick Grayson
Dick Grayson
Dick Grayson is a fictional superhero that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and illustrator Jerry Robinson, he first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940....
/Robin
Robin (comics)
Robin is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, originally created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson, as a junior counterpart to DC Comics superhero Batman...
(who only attended for one semester), Professor Martin Stein, Crystal Frost, Louise Lincoln, and Duela Dent
Duela Dent
Duela Dent is a fictional character in the DC Universe. She is a former member of both the Teen Titans and Titans East. Introduced under the alias of Joker's Daughter, she has also used the aliases "Catgirl", "Scarecrone", "Riddler's Daughter", "Penguin's Daughter", "Card Queen", and...
. The father of Amy Winston
Amethyst, Princess of Gem World
Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld is the name of three comic book series published by DC Comics in the 1980s. The series tells of a teenage girl named Amy Winston who discovers that she is in fact the orphaned princess from the magical Gemworld...
was a professor of English at Hudson.
In New Adventures of Superboy
Superboy
Superboy is the name of several fictional characters that have been published by DC Comics, most of them youthful incarnations of Superman. These characters have also been the main characters of four ongoing Superboy comic book series published by DC....
#51 (1984), a teenaged Clark Kent
Clark Kent
Clark Kent is a fictional character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Appearing regularly in stories published by DC Comics, he debuted in Action Comics #1 and serves as the civilian and secret identity of the superhero Superman....
is shown pondering whether to accept an offer to attend Hudson University, but eventually chooses Metropolis University in Metropolis
Metropolis (comics)
Metropolis is a fictional city that appears in comic books published by DC Comics, and is the home of Superman. Metropolis first appeared by name in Action Comics #16 ....
instead.