Dick Wolf Had An Interesting Rule About Law & Order: Svu’s Primary Characters

The “Law and Order” franchise is beloved by many viewers for its focus on well-defined characters, with the cast of detectives from “Law and Order: Svu” in particular some of the biggest fan favorites. Mariska Hartigay’s Olivia Benson and Christopher Meloni‘s Elliott Stabler have a legitimate claim as the most popular characters over the course of nearly three decades of broadcast TV storytelling.

But there is another bit of secret sauce that makes the mix of personalities on “Law and Order: Svu” work so well, and creator Dick Wolf pushed for this hard and fast rule to always be…