Stan Jablonski

Stan Jablonski runs the morning roll call at the precinct, a gruff, barrel-chested desk sergeant with a dry wit and no patience for nonsense. He keeps the officers in line with gallows humor and blunt warnings, closing each briefing with his own gravelly send-off before sending them out onto the street.

Robert Prosky had the near-impossible job of filling a role the show had already made iconic, and he did it by refusing to imitate what came before. His Jablonski is craggier, funnier, more exasperated — a career cop's weary affection for his officers coming through in every muttered aside during roll call.