TV SERIES · 2003– · USA
Cold Case
19 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
19 Interesting Facts About Cold Case
Interesting Facts (15)
- #001
Flashback scenes were generally shot, as far as possible, using the same type of film stock that was used at the time the scene takes place.
- #002
Justin Chambers was originally part of the main cast and appeared in the first 4 episodes of the first season before leaving to take a role on Grey's Anatomy. A few weeks later, Danny Pino was hired to replace Chambers.
- #003
Danny Pino, the actor who played Detective Scotty Valens, wrote several scripts for the 7th season, including a story about a Cuban refugee and a story about a young circus aerialist; the latter featured music by The Doors, Pino's favorite band.
- #004
Because contemporary music was used in every episode, no season is available on DVD due to music licensing issues.
- #005
After the series began, fans constantly commented on Lilly's appearance, especially her hair. It stood out in contrast to the other characters' hair, which often looked perfectly styled, a sharp contrast to Lilly's. In an interview, Kathryn Morris said this was a deliberate decision on her part, as she saw Lilly as someone too busy to always be sure her hair was "just right." It was a rare case of an actress willing to look less than perfect for the sake of the character's identity.
- #006
Cold Case spawned two non-English international adaptations that essentially follow the same overall storyline and characters. These included a Japanese version that copied most of the original murder cases, as well as a Russian version named after the character Lilly Rush.
- #007
It is set in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; however, the show was mainly shot in Burbank, California, which is as far from Philly as possible while still being in the contiguous United States.
- #008
Danny Pino (Scotty Valens) also played Nick Amaro, a police officer or detective, in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999).
- #009
"Wishing" was dedicated to the memory of Kelly Lindquist, Cold Case's costume designer from 2003 until her death in 2005.
- #010
In several episodes, a visible hair or thread appears on the bottom of one of the cameras. It mostly occurs at the police department.
- #011
Series stars Kathryn Morris (Lilly Rush) and Thomas Barry (Will Jeffries) were both born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
- #012
A cold case is defined as an unsolved criminal investigation that has been made inactive due to a lack of evidence, witnesses or suspects that would form a solid lead.
- #013
Dorian Lopinto and John Marzilli, who both appeared in Cold Case's first two seasons in "Gleen" and "Factory Girls", acted together in the 1990s Nickelodeon teen series The Secret World of Alex Mack.
- #014
The victim's ghost usually appears to Lilly to thank her for solving the case, but sometimes the person who actually solved the case appears as one of her colleagues.
- #015
Danny Pino played Desi Arnaz in the 2003 TV film "Lucy". His co-star Jeremy Ratchford shares a birthday of August 6 with the film's subject and Desi Arnaz's former wife, Lucille Ball.
Production Story (1)
- #016
Throughout the series, suspects in the cases joke about a character who says Detective Lilly Rush is a bleached blonde and refers to her as the Homicide Barbie. Kathryn Morris, the actress who played Lilly, is not actually a natural light blonde in real life, and after her role on Cold Case ended and the series was cancelled, the actress began appearing in film and television roles with a more honey-blonde hair color.
Characters & Cast (1)
- #017
Silas Weir Mitchell auditioned for the role of Nick Vera.
Easter Eggs & References (1)
- #018
From the early 2010s, a lawsuit was filed alleging that the American-made Cold Case copied the Canadian crime drama series Cold Squad without permission. The suit claimed this was intellectual property theft and that Cold Squad had been copied without permission. Despite this, both series aired at the same time on the Canadian television network CTV. A similar intellectual property problem arose with Cold Case because of its use of popular music as background cues; without proper licensing to allow the use of most of the featured music, CBS could not release Cold Case on DVD or VHS at any time, although in late 2020 a streaming service called Roku briefly offered all 7 seasons of Cold Case to users in high definition for streaming. They were quickly removed a few months later. As of 2020, since Roku removed the series, the whole of Cold Case can only be found as pirated video files. Some fans had in the past submitted petitions asking CBS to release the series on DVD and streaming services, but this carried the risk of CBS changing the background period pop music and replacing it with licensed music, which could break the integrity of the flashback storylines.
Deeper Meaning (1)
- #019
Contrary to popular belief, most of the scenes in Cold Case were not shot in the city of Philadelphia. A large portion of them, especially those set in the suburbs on sunny days, were shot in the state of California. This is also why many minor actors throughout the series were Californians. However, most of the transition shots between scenes were filmed in Philadelphia to show the culture, architecture and landmarks specific to Cold Case's overall storyline.
Related pages
- Tom Hanks — Cold Case comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work