Law & Order: SVU is entering its 27th season on the 2025 TV schedule, and it’s hard to believe how long the show has been around for. The Dick Wolf drama premiered in 1999 on NBC and has become a staple on the network. Ice-T recently posted a picture from the set of Season 27, and now Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni are celebrating by recalling their first lines on the show. And their reactions are A+.

Hargitay and Meloni were the original duo on SVU, both making their debuts in the first episode of the series. They have been through a lot since then, with Meloni making the switch to his own spinoff, which is streaming with a Peacock subscription. To show just how much they have been through, the actors were asked by NBC to call their first lines ever on SVU, and it makes me love them even more:

The fact that they were both able to remember their first lines spoken after 26 years is pretty impressive. Of course, it can be assumed they have watched the pilot more than a few times over the years, but filming something that ultimately changed your life is different. It’s not surprising that they were able to remember their lines since it’s probably stuck with them, but it is fun to see their reactions to it and seeing that they were right.

There’s also the fact that Hargitay and Meloni remember the exact setup and other lines in the scene, and it’s making me want to go back and rewatch the first episode. Additionally, I love that Hargitay’s first line on SVU was literally “Olivia Benson.” It just foreshadowed how iconic she would become and how iconic she still is after all these years. Back then, they probably never knew that almost 30 years later, they’d still be playing the same characters and become two of the longest-running actors in the Law & Order franchise, and it’s crazy to think about.

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It helps that Hargitay and Meloni had instant chemistry when they were auditioning for SVU, which is a good thing. There’s a possibility that SVU would not have gone as long as it had if Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler were played by different actors. Luckily, fans won’t have to imagine that and will be able to look forward to hopefully more Bensler scenes in the new season of SVU and many more memorable lines.

There won’t be too much of a wait for Law & Order: SVU Season 27. It’s set to premiere on Thursday, September 25 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, following the Season 25 premiere of Law & Order. Season 5 of Law & Order: Organized Crime will be airing after SVU, bringing the spinoff back to the network after moving to Peacock for Season 5, meaning that Law & Order Thursdays are coming back this fall on NBC.