Law & Order: Special Victims Unit "Unstoppable" (partially found unaired episode of crime drama series; 2016)

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The show's original logo.

Status: Partially Lost

Law & Order: SVU is an ongoing prime-time American television series that premiered on September 1999 on NBC network. It is the second entry of Dick Wolf's Law & Order franchise, and as of 2021 it is the longest-running scripted live-action TV show in the United States. The series focuses on a group of NYPD detectives from Manhattan that are part of a squad known as the Special Victims Unit (SVU), mainly dedicated to the investigation of sexually based offenses or abuse allegations.

Format

Each episode usually features a single case, introduced to the audience through footage shown in the first couple of minutes. After the opening intro, the detectives investigate the issue by talking to victims, witnesses, and suspects, visiting the various involved locations, and through auxiliary lab work. When significant progress has been made, the show also follows the aftermath of these investigations, portraying the prosecution of the analyzed case by the District Attorney's and its direct impact on the criminal justice system. Besides depicting their professional work, some scenes picture the effects these crimes have on the personal lives of the detectives and other workers, as well as unrelated problems they may have been dealing with such as family or relationship issues. Although fictional, the show frequently takes inspiration from real life crimes and news, basing the featured cases on true facts and occurrences.

The Episode

Production of the show's Season 18 started in 2016, set to premiere in Fall of the same year. One episode, titled Unstoppable, was fully produced, and was originally intended to air on the first half of the season .

Unstoppable would star actor Gary Cole as a politician running for the White House, accused of sexual misconduct by several women during his campaign .. Cole’s character would turn out to be innocent, since the accusations were fake and a “booby-trap” conducted by his campaign advisor, who believed he wasn’t a good fit for the country’s ideals. .

This episode was allegedly inspired on Donald Trump , who at the time was the Republican candidate for the 2016 United States Presidential Election, taking place on November 8th. The plot is thought to be based on a then pending real lawsuit against Trump, accused of raping a 13-year-old girl in the 90s, although NBC never confirmed this claim .

Due to the delicate nature of the portrayal, the produced episode sparked an inner controversy involving screenwriters, actors, productors, and the network, resulting in changes in the original storyline to soften the final product and avoid direct comparisons between Cole’s character and presidential-candidate Trump. Unstoppable was later scheduled by NBC to air on October 12th , but was pulled off schedule and pointed to air on October 26th , two weeks before the presidential election. A promo for the episode aired mid-October .

On the first weeks of October, before the airdate, several women accused Donald Trump of sexual harassment, and footage of controverse remarks surfaced in the media . Following these announcements, NBC decided to postpone the episode until November 16h, airing it one week after the election scheduled to take place on November 8th. . On November 9th, after Donald Trump’s victory night, Unstoppable was taken off schedule until 2017, along with the show’s episode Great Expectations, which was also scheduled to premiere that night. The Law & Order episodes were replaced by the TV show Chicago P.D., as it is reported that there was an urgency in airing some Chicago’s episodes before a certain date in order to proceed with a crossover plot, and a need to organize NBC’s lineup to compete against FOX’s World Series airing that same night .

Following Trump’s inauguration ceremony as the 45th President of the United States in January 2017 , Dick Wolf, Law & Order’s executive producer, admitted not knowing when NBC would choose to air the episode, but pointed that it could happen that Spring . Although Great Expectations ended up airing the following month as the season’s 11th episode , Unstoppable remained unscheduled.

In March 2017, actor Ice-T, part of the main cast of the show, admitted during an interview that he doubted that the episode would ever air, claiming it wasn’t "worth showing". Speaking of the resemblances between real life Trump’s accusations and fiction, he also noted that “Law & Order wants to be close, but not too close”, confirming the similarities between the then President of the United States and Cole’s character and leading that it was the likely cause of the shelving of the episode.

Availability

As of March 2021, there are no plans to ever air the episode. Only the promo has been made available.

Gallery

Law and Order SVU 18x05 Promo "Unstoppable"

External Links

• Wikipedia page for Law & Order: SVU. Retrieved 4 March '21
• IMDB page for Law & Order: SVU. Retrieved 4 March '21
• Unstoppable segment on Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 March '21
• Law & Order Wiki episode page of the series. Retrieved 4 March '21