Why Dean Winters Left Law & Order: SVU

"Law & Order: SVU" has been running for a very long time, and that longevity on NBC has led to many characters cycling in and out of the series. But it's always notable when a character present at the beginning of a series disappears early, only to reappear years later. That happened to Dean Winters during his time on "Law & Order: SVU." Fans who can remember all the way back to the pilot episode, 1999's "Payback," will recall Dean Winters being an original cast member. His Detective Brian Cassidy stood alongside Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) many years ago.

So why would Detective Cassidy take a long leave of absence after the successful start of the "Law & Order" spinoff? Well, it all comes down to scheduling conflicts, as a lot of actors have had to navigate in the past. Winters was already a popular actor and had other professional obligations that pulled him away from the Dick Wolf-led universe.

That's all great, but the cameras don't just stop rolling for a show of this scale. The writing team had to find a way to deftly write Winters off with minimal fuss. Luckily for the creative team, he was already a recurring cast member rather than a main cast pillar like Meloni or Hargitay. Still, longtime viewers were always going to notice a familiar face like Winters disappearing so early in "Law & Order: SVU." It's helpful to have all of the facts about what happened, rather than jumping to conclusions!

Winters had already made a name for himself in Hollywood by the time "Law & Order: SVU" premiered, which meant he was in high demand. By the time things got rolling, he had a contractual obligation with another program that forced him to step away from the NBC show. In the words of the actor, this triggered a bit of a rift between he and the decision-makers on "Law & Order: SVU." He later spoke to The A.V. Club about his career, where the unusual situation with the NBC series naturally came up. It's clear that some of those roads have been mended, but it still left an effect on Winters.

"I was on the show for the first season, but then I had to leave because I had a contract with HBO, and there was a bit of a dispute," Winters revealed. "But then they had me come back in — the 13th season? The 13th or 14th."

Winters was already lined up for a role on HBO's "Oz," and in retrospect, the appeal of such a prestige drama likely influenced his decision to step away from "Law & Order: SVU." He didn't have any ill will toward the crew over there, but he just couldn't justify abandoning a contract he'd already signed to keep making the procedural. Within the show's universe, his character was transferred to another division to explain the absence. So, for a number of years, he wouldn't appear alongside those characters. However, in Hollywood, you should never say never because anything can happen.

"Law & Order: SVU" came calling at an unexpected time, and Winters could scarcely believe it. He told The A.V. Club, in the same interview, that the production just happened to be outside his window. When they became impossible to ignore, he went to investigate the fuss and ended up playing Detective Cassidy again in a moment of complete happenstance.

"But how it happened was that I was in my apartment, and there was a film crew setting up outside my apartment," the actor recalled. "It was 5 a.m., and I was trying to go to bed, but everyone's making a lot of noise, so I lean out my window, and I yell, 'Would you guys shut the f*** up?' And Richard Belzer yells back up. I had no idea it was SVU!" He laughed. "So I went outside and saw everyone, and then I went over to Mariska's [Hargitay] trailer to say 'hi,' and she was, like, 'How come you've never come back on the show?' And I said, 'No one's ever asked me!' And the following week I was back on the show!"

While this wouldn't become a permanent fixture for Winters, it was a reward for longtime fans of the police procedural who wondered about his exit. Time heals all wounds, so it's always possible fans could see Detective Cassidy again in the future. Well, at least if there are no scheduling conflicts to worry about this time.