In the words of Detective Briscoe, always remember: Home alone is a movie, not an alibi. (Judge for yourself via those daily airings on WE and BBC America, while seasons 13 through 20 are also available to stream on Peacock Premium as for the rest of the seasons, write in to your local district attorney until NBC puts them online.) To celebrate the return, here’s an entirely subjective ranking of Law & Order’s 50 most watchable episodes. Of all the various TV revivals conceived over the past few years, this one seems like the biggest no-brainer-the show may have gone away, but its loyal viewers never stopped watching. New stars Hugh Dancy, Jeffrey Donovan, Odelya Halevi, Camryn Manheim, and alum Anthony Anderson will strut down that familiar corridor in the opening credits, while Sam Waterston is set to offer guidance as venerable district attorney Jack McCoy. ( SVU, at 23 seasons and counting, is now the champ.)Ĭome February 24, however, the mothership returns home. But executives canceled it in 2010, just a year before it was set to break Gunsmoke’s record for TV’s longest-running prime-time series. Another significant number? Twenty, as in the number of seasons the show stayed on NBC. According to Nielsen estimates in 2003, more than 90 million Americans spent at least an hour a week watching a version of the franchise. (Moment of silence for the short-lived Dianne Wiest era.) Over the course of its 456 episodes, it spawned six spinoffs-including Special Victims Unit in 1999-and racked up 51 Emmy nominations and six wins, plus a 1997 Peabody Award. The Law & Order magic formula grew to be so successful that it hardly mattered that the cast turned over at a ridiculously high rate. To this day, the two commanding piano chords that open the Mike Post–scored theme prompt a Pavlovian-like happy response. Cases ripped from the headlines were heightened and given satisfying conclusions. New York City–bred actors floated in and out with a “I can do Broadway and murder my TV spouse” wink. You see, amid a world of chaos, there was beauty and comfort in tuning in to a crime procedural that featured a twisty-yet-trusty narrative arc seasoned with sardonic quips-most of which were delivered by the late, great Jerry Orbach, whose Detective Lennie Briscoe always seemed like he went straight from the precinct to the corner deli for a pastrami on rye and a Dr. But Wolf’s creative instinct ultimately proved correct: After Law & Order entered syndication in 1994, the only sound he heard more than the show’s signature dun- dun was cha-ching. Epatha Merkerson as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren and Jill Hennessy as Assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid). The show was in danger of being canceled in 1993, as then–network president Warren Littlefield mandated that the all-boys-club cast be broken up immediately (which led to the castings of S. Creator Dick Wolf, a former ad man, reasoned the sturdy structure could appeal to viewers who didn’t want to be burdened with following weekly plot developments.Ī few lean years passed. Close on a moment of bittersweet introspection. In the first half of each episode, New York City detectives piece together clues of a crime and interview suspects next, the attorneys prosecute the criminals in court. Big on Sex and the City-Michael Moriarty, and Richard Brooks, the show’s only hook was its novel premise. With a generic title and shoulder-shrug cast of George Dzundza, Chris Noth-eight years before he’d play Mr. “I watched from the very beginning” probably isn’t a popular answer to the question, though, because that’d mean being a loyal viewer since September 13, 1990, when the show unceremoniously premiered on NBC a week before the network kicked off its fall season. and midnight reruns in the late 1990s or, (d) stumbling across the show on WE TV or BBC America, which thankfully still air it around the clock in 2022. There are a few different scenarios: (a) watching the first-run episodes on Wednesday nights post– The West Wing on NBC (b) sitting through the daytime marathons on TNT circa 2005, years before bingeing became an acceptable hobby (c) taking in the nightly A&E 11 p.m. So, how does one become a Law & Order obsessive?
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