You’d be forgiven if you thought thatWalton Gogginscame out of nowhere to essentially rule the pop culture landscape of late. With a stunning streak of television roles withThe Righteous Gemstones,Fallout, andThe White Lotus, and awinning stint as hostofSaturday Night Live(he was 3 whenSNLpremiered), Goggins has gone from “that guy” to A-list recognition seemingly overnight. It’s not entirely fair, given his 30-plus-year career in the industry, peppered with award-winning performances and critical plaudits, but such is the case with most of the so-called “overnight sensations.” He put in his fair share of small roles in shows likeBeverly Hills 90210in the early days, and one of those roles saw him appear on the ground-breaking police proceduralNYPD Bluein one of its funniest episodes. And he broughtBosch’sTitus Welliverwith him.
‘NYPD Blue’s “Honeymoon at Viagra Falls” Sees the Cops Track Down a Killer and a Pedophile
NYPD Blue, the show hailed asgritty, realistic, and highly controversial, thanks in no small part to its viewer discretion warning about it being a police drama that “contains adult language and scenes with partial nudity,” actuallyhasfunny episodes? Well, it’s relative. The episode in question is the Season 5 finale, “Honeymoon at Viagra Falls.” The episode begins with the discovery of two bodies, a murdered woman and her young son, a particularly gruesome scene with connections to ADA Leo Cohen (Michael B. Silver). The woman is — was — one of Cohen’s witnesses, and as Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits) and Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) investigate, all signs point to the opposing attorney being involved with arranging the homicide. Not funny.
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Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins brought a fierce rivalry to life in Justified, but they developed a feud off screen that was just as intense.
The other storyline sees Diane Russell (Kim Delaney) and Jill Kirkendall (Andrea Thompson) helping a man find his missing daughter. She didn’t wander off, she just kind of disappeared, and after interviewing a few people, it quickly becomes clear that she’s been picked up and stolen away by a pedophile. They bring in known sex offenders in the area, and the questioning gets heated. But then they come across the sketchiest, most likely suspect, and they lean on him hard.Kirkendall even strikes him, which only seems to excite him. But when Captain Arthur Fancy (James McDaniel) comes in and threatens a beat-down, he talks, and they find the missing girl in his apartment, hidden behind a pair of bookshelves in a secret room. If murder isn’t funny, pedophilia most definitely is not.
This ‘NYPD Blue’ Episode Has Laughs, Walton Goggins, and Titus Welliver
“Honeymoon at Viagra Falls” is the episode that Simone and Russell get married at the courthouse by a justice of the peace towards the end of the show. It’s not funny, but it’s very sweet, and they call in a stranger who’s waiting in the lobby with his wife-to-be to be their witness. They get married, they smooch, and they offer to be the witness for their new friend. But his brother should be arriving soon, so they decline the offer just as the brother shows up. It’s not Goggins or Welliver. Finally, Medavoy (Gordon Clapp) and Martinez (Nicholas Turturro) look into a corporation dealing with fake sports memorabilia, making it the least dark of the three investigations, but funny? Could be.But unless you saw it on its original airdate or own the DVD copy,you won’t see it. The entire storyline, which included Goggins’ part as Terry, who was involved in the scheme, was cut on the move from its 90-minute airtime to syndication and streaming.
Welliver fares much better, but not by a lot. He was a recurring character, appearing in eight episodes as Dr. Mondzac, the doctor who helps Sipowicz through his prostate cancer journey. In the episode,he delivers the news that his PSA count is zero, meaning he’s beaten the cancer. Mondzac then asks how things are going at home, eventually managing to get Sipowicz to admit that his little soldier isn’t showing up for duty. He prescribes Viagra to help Sipowicz in that department. As the episode ends, we see Sipowicz with Sylvia (Sharon Lawrence), in the sheets after having done the vertical tango, both seemingly pretty satisfied.Then Sipowicz ends with, “Want to see if we can get a twofer out of this medicine?“Nowthat’sfunny.
NYPD Bluewould carry on for another 7 years with a rotating cast of characters and ending its run in 2005 having maintained its high quality, if not its viewership. Welliver would find success with the short-livedBrooklyn SouthandDeadwood, but landingBoschin 2014 would give him his career-defining role. Goggins' career, which began in 1989 by playing four different characters, in four different episodes, inIn the Heat of the Night, started a trajectory upward following hisNYPD Blueappearance.
That would mark the last time he’d have a role lost to time, coming to attention as Shane Vendrell inNYPD Blue’s spiritual cousinThe Shieldbeginning in 2002, followed up byJustifiedin 2010.Yet stardom always seemed just out of reach for Goggins, and the role that was supposed to break that wall,the CBS sitcomThe Unicorn, didn’t get the ratings despite high praise for the show and its lead (it tops the list of Collider’s10 CBS shows cancelled too soon). But every once in a while, good guys get their due, and now, here in 2025, the world is experiencing the long-overdue RenGogginsance.
