"Dragnet" star Ethan Embry will miss two episodes of ABC's cop drama after breaking his ankle skateboarding. Embry plays Detective Frank Smith, Detective Joe Friday's (Ed O'Neill) partner.

Embry's absence will be explained on the show by having Smith take time off to care for his father, who's suffered a stroke. While he's away, Friday is assigned a temporary partner, Detective Denise Beltran (Lauren Velez, "Oz").

"We all wish Ethan a speedy recovery," Wolf says. "I'm thrilled to be working with Lauren again -- the years that she spent with us on 'New York Undercover' and with Tom Fontana on 'Oz' have demonstrated not only her incredible range as an actor but her appeal to widely divergent audiences."

In addition to "New York Undercover" and "Oz," Velez's credits include the feature films "City Hall" and "I Like it Like That."

Velez has already gone to work on the two episodes, the final two the series will shoot this year. Episodes don't necessarily air in their shooting order, however, so air dates haven't been set.