Lori Loughlin & Eriq La Salle are suiting up for On Call. The series, which is created by Elliot Wolf and produced by his father Dick Wolf, follows a rookie cop and his veteran partner in their tense day-to-day patrolling responsibilities. Loughlin and La Salle come into play as Lieutenant Bishop and Sergeant Lasman, respectively, two more tenured officers in the department.
Serialized crime dramas are nothing new for Loughlin. The Full House alum has credits on televised cop shows like Psych, Major Crimes, and Blue Bloods throughout her career. La Salle comes from another branch of emergency service programs, as he is best known for his work as Dr. Peter Benton on NBC’s medical drama ER, a role that led to three NAACP Image Award wins.
Related On Call Cast & Character Guide Amazon Prime Video’s On Call walks through a compelling and realistic police procedural while also featuring memorable performances from cast members.
In celebration of On Call’s streaming premiere on Prime Video, ScreenRant spoke with Loughlin and La Salle to discuss how their previous work influenced their performances in this series, the dynamic of the veteran officers compared to the rookies, and what both of their characters’ career-altering “one call” could have been.
Lori Loughlin Reflects On Crime Television History
“This is a very different character that I’m playing this time around…”
Prime Video
ScreenRant: Lori, you’ve worked on shows that deal with crime throughout your career. Blue Bloods, Major Crime, Psych, the list goes on. How did your work previously in a similar genre prepare you for something like On Call?
Lori Loughlin: I think On Call was different. This is a very different character that I’m playing this time around. I was so grateful and thankful to get the opportunity, thankful to everyone at Dick Wolf for supporting me, for Eriq bringing me on board. But I think [to play] Bishop, it took a village. I came to work and it was new for me. I was a little apprehensive. Eriq was a great cheerleader. He really gave me wonderful directing advice and if I was timid at all, he pushed me a little further and so it really helped develop the whole character for me to drop into her.
How Do On Call’s Veteran Cops’ POVs Compare To The Rookie Officers’?
“There’s history there and some tension…”
Prime Video
Eriq, your character of Sergeant Lasman is in a unique position in this show. He’s one of the vets. A lot of this story, I feel, is told through the eyes of some rookies involved in the force. You have a very interesting dynamic that goes on between yourself and Officer Harmon. Could you tease what that dynamic is like?
Eriq La Salle: Well, I think on the surface there’s history there and some tension. The cool thing is at the end of the season you start realizing that there’s much more going on in a very cool way. I think the key to the show is everything is not what it seems to be, and I think that there are more layers to things. It’s not just conflict, sometimes it’s a misunderstanding. Sometimes it’s miscommunication. I think if you, not to get too far off, but if you think about how that happens in the world so much where, ‘I don’t like you because of a misunderstanding I have of you,’ not sometimes directly. I think we get to explore that. I think there’s some really unexplored history between these two of being the two senior people that I’m intrigued to know more about their history as two of the longer or more tenured cops that we get to deal with. We get to see it from the fresh rookies’ point of view. Harmon is in the middle. We are on the other end of having like 20 plus years. So you get to see a nice diversity of the point of view of what it takes to police a community and try to maintain your humanity in that process. Diaz is trying to do it as he first comes in. Harmon is doing it, having been a cop longer. Lori and I have been there, so it’s a really cool perspective.
What Were Bishop And Lasman’s “One Call”?
“Would we possible have been in a squad car together?”
Prime Video
The best line I felt is shown in the very beginning of the official trailer. ‘We think we know what this job is until we get that one call.’ Do you both know what your character’s ‘one call’ was?
Lori Loughlin: That’s a really good question. Eriq La Salle: No, but I’m going to make the writers let me know. Thank you, Liam. Lori Loughlin: And what I would say is, would we possibly have been in a squad car together for that one call? Wouldn’t that be interesting? Alright Liam, you get a writing credit. Eriq La Salle: You know what, Liam? Should we get a second season, we’re going to try to convince the writers to name a character ‘Liam’ because you just gave us something good.
About Prime Video’s On Call
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On Call, a thrilling new half-hour drama series from Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, is an adrenalized and visceral police drama that follows a rookie and veteran officer duo as they go on patrol in Long Beach, California. Incorporating a mixture of bodycam, dash-camera, and cellphone footage to create a cinema verité effect, the innovative series explores the morality of protecting and serving a community.
Check back soon for our other On Call interviews with…
Troian Bellisario (Officer Traci Harmon) & Brandon Larracuente (Officer Alex Diaz)
Tim Walsh & Elliot Wolf (creators)