page_title: Chicago Crossover
section_title: Concept and writing
hierarchical_section_title: Chicago Crossover / Production / Concept and writing
caption_attribution_description: English: Sophia Bush at the 2012 PaleyFest: Fall TV CBS Preview Party.
context_page_description: "Chicago Crossover" is the seventh episode of the sixteenth season of the American police procedural-legal drama, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and the 350th overall episode of the long-running series. It originally aired on National Broadcasting Company in the United States on November 12, 2014. In this episode, the SVU team meets up with the Intelligence Unit of Chicago P.D. to solve a decades-old child pornography ring case, which is personal for CPD's Detective Erin Lindsay.
  The episode was written by Ed Zuckerman, Warren Leight, and Dick Wolf, and directed by Steve Shill. This episode marks an unprecedented crossover in Law & Order franchise history where three shows crossover with one main storyline. The story began in the 7th episode of season 3 "Nobody Touches Anything" of Chicago Fire where a fire victim was found with child pornography. The Fire Department turn the case over to the Chicago Police, who take on the initial investigation that leads them to Manhattan, where the detectives from Chicago P.D. team up with the SVU in "Chicago Crossover".
context_section_description: In May 2014, NBC President, Robert Greenblatt announced that Chicago PD, Chicago Fire, and also SVU, could have another crossover episode, after SVU and CPD briefly crossed-over with SVU's fifteenth season's episode, "Comic Perversion" which guest starred Sophia Bush, who portrayed her CPD character, Detective Erin Lindsay; while Ice-T & Kelli Giddish briefly portrayed their characters respectively in the episode "Conventions" of Chicago PD, two episodes which Leight and Olmstead wouldn't call a true 'crossover'.
  On September 29, creator Dick Wolf said of the crossover, "Warren Leight and Matt Olmstead are two of the best writers in the business. We wanted to figure out a way to create a crime that connects all three shows. Warren, Matt and I came up with a story that was big and unique enough to transit to all three." SVU showrunner/EP Warren Leight noted the three-show crossover was Wolf's idea, although Leight said that both he and Chicago Fire/PD showrunner/EP Matt Olmstead had their uncertainties about the crossover. Leight admitted, "I think my first reaction was anxiety, I know the fans will like it, but I know how much extra work is involved and also, legitimately these are two different kinds of police shows and I wasn’t sure how the cross-pollination would work."
  Olmstead said of crafting the crossover, "What Warren and I did was jump in, I knew what I was going to hand off to him at the end of [Chicago] Fire and he told me what he was going to hand back over to me at PD and then we fine-tuned and figured out the logistics.” Leight explained that each show's writers wrote for their own show and said that he and Olmstead were on the phone a lot for the plotting stages. "We sent the [Chicago PD] script to Warren to vet since he knows the [SVU] characters better than we do," said Olmstead. Leight jumped in, adding, “If there was something I felt was wrong for one of our characters in the PD part, I made my opinions known.” Olmstead assured that it was the same with Leight in writing for the CPD characters: "There was a respectful vetting of both scripts. When I read the SVU script of our characters, it sounded very true, so there weren't any doubts."
  Leight and Olmstead, however, worried about having the audience have to tune in to three shows, "That’s a big fear," admits Leight, "But this is still in the Dick Wolf universe where each episode has to stand alone and also link. You don’t want to have a three minute ‘previously on Chicago Fire’ to open up ‘SVU.’ You want that to be as short and clear as possible.  Our episode is stand alone yet the baton passes and there are enough unresolved parts for PD to get another hour out of it. That’s an interesting writing challenge – how much to reveal when and how to stage the investigation and the information over 80 minutes. One good thing what we have is that our episode goes right into PD. Our hope that the audience comes and stays for two hours and that we've made it compelling enough for them to do that."
  Olmstead and Leight noted about tension and 'fireworks' between Sgts. Benson and Voight, both showrunners were also anxious to pair the two commanding officers on-screen. “There are two very different types of fireworks that we could be talking about," SVU's Leight started. "They have two very different approaches to interrogations and procedure. I think we all know Voight can be more physical and Olivia is a more empathetic detective. Those kind of fireworks take place in both episodes and they are among the most fun scenes in SVU and CPD.” Olmstead added with Leight, “When the Benson character shows up the first time during a pretty grim investigation there’s a smile on [Voight’s] face, he’s happy to see her. There’s this immediate chemistry, immediate shared affection between two very similar characters. There’s a real bond right away between those two characters." Olmstead said in a separate interview with TV Guide, "More than anybody he's ever encountered, I think he respects this person because it's almost like a female version of Voight," Olmstead says. "When
caption: Sophia Bush who portrays Detective Erin Lindsay on Chicago P.D., has previously guest starred as her character in the fifteenth season episode, "Comic Perversions".
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