Law & Order (franchise)

The Law & Order franchise is a number of related American television series created by Dick Wolf and originally broadcast on NBC, all of which deal with some aspect of the criminal justice system. Together, the original series, its various spin-offs, the TV film, and crossover episodes from other shows constitute over 900 hours of programming.

Shared people and resources in a common fictional setting are the connecting links between the shows, e.g., Hudson University and the New York Ledger tabloid newspaper. Many supporting characters, such as district attorneys, psychologists and medical examiners are also shared among the shows. Occasionally, crossovers of main characters or shared storylines between two of the shows will occur. A few major characters have also left the cast of one show within the franchise only to eventually join another.

The music, style and credits of the shows tend to be similar, with the voiceover in the opening of every series performed by Steven Zirnkilton.^[1] Past episodes of the American series are in syndication with TNT, USA Network, WGN America, and Bravo showing episodes sometimes up to six times a day.

The franchise

Current series

• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–present)
  • The current cast includes Mariska Hargitay as Det. Olivia Benson, Danny Pino as Det. Nick Amaro, Kelli Giddish as Det. Amanda Rollins, Richard Belzer as Sgt. John Munch, Ice-T as Det. Fin Tutuola and Dann Florek as Capt. Don Cragen.
    • The show's focus is on detectives who investigate sexually based crimes and crimes against children.

Past series

• Law & Order (1990–2010)
  • The cast for the final season included Jeremy Sisto as Det. Cyrus Lupo, Anthony Anderson as Det. Kevin Bernard, S. Epatha Merkerson as Lt. Anita Van Buren, Linus Roache as EADA Michael Cutter, Alana de la Garza as ADA Connie Rubirosa, and Sam Waterston as District Attorney Jack McCoy.
    • The first half hour of the show focuses on the police investigation of a crime discovered in the cold open; the second half takes place at the Manhattan District Attorney's office and focuses on the prosecution of the criminal suspect(s).
  • On May 14, 2010, NBC announced that it was canceling the original series, although various spin-offs will continue. The series finale aired on May 24, 2010.^[2] Wolf briefly attempted to continue the series on cable,^[3][4] but the series "moved into the history books".^[5]

• Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001–2011)
  • The cast for the final season included Vincent D'Onofrio as Det. Robert Goren,^[6] Kathryn Erbe as Det. Alexandra Eames,^[7] Jay O. Sanders as Capt. Joseph Hannah^[8] and Julia Ormond as Dr. Paula Gyson.
    • This show focuses on high-profile cases investigated by the Major Case Squad, with special focus on the actions of the criminals pursued, often including scenes from the victim's or perpetrator's lives not involving the police, thereby giving a hint as to the "criminal intent".
    • On July 15, 2011, USA Network co-president Jeff Wachtel confirmed Law & Order: CI would end with its tenth season.^[9]

• Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005–2006)
  • Starring Bebe Neuwirth as Tracey Kibre, Amy Carlson as Kelly Gaffney, Kirk Acevedo as Hector Salazar, Scott Cohen as Det. Chris Ravell, Fred Thompson as Arthur Branch, and Jerry Orbach as Lennie Briscoe.
    • This series mostly followed the preparation by the legal teams, both prosecution and defense, for a jury trial.
    • This was the first Law & Order spin-off to be canceled due to low ratings; Orbach's death (which occurred during taping of the show) also contributed to the show's cancellation, as well as its competition with the hit series Numb3rs.

• Law & Order: LA (2010–2011)
  • The cast included Alfred Molina as Det. Ricardo Morales, Corey Stoll as Det. Tomas "TJ" Jaruszalski, Rachel Ticotin as Lt. Arleen Gonzales, Terrence Howard as D.D.A. Jonah Dekker and Alana de la Garza as D.D.A. Connie Rubirosa with Peter Coyote as District Attorney Jerry Hardin in a recurring role.
    • Originally titled Law & Order: Los Angeles.
    • This was the first American Law & Order series set outside of New York City.
    • As with the original series, the first half hour of the show focused on the police investigation of a crime discovered in the cold open; the second half took place at the Los Angeles District Attorney's office and focused on the prosecution of the criminal suspect(s).
    • On May 13, 2011, Law & Order: LA was cancelled by NBC after only one season, but because of the hiatus did not air its final episode until July 11, 2011.^[10][11][12]

TV film

The Law & Order franchise has one TV film, Exiled: A Law & Order Movie (1998). Chris Noth reprises his role as Mike Logan, as the film explores what happened to the character following his departure from the original series.

Video games

The franchise has also spawned a series of video games for the PC, which feature appearances by then-current cast members of the TV series.

The typical course of most of the games follows the original series' format with the player investigating a crime with interviews of witnesses and examination of evidence. After the arrest is made, the player then prosecutes the case with challenges such as selecting appropriate questions for witnesses on the stand, recognizing improper questions to raise objections and selecting the most persuasive arguments for the judge to allow certain evidence in court.

• Law & Order: Dead on the Money
• Law & Order: Double or Nothing
• Law & Order: Justice is Served
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent
• Law & Order: Legacies

Crossovers

The following table lists all the two-part crossovers in the Law & Order franchise.

Location

Setting

Most of the American series have been filmed almost entirely in the New York City area. The original Law & Order series has filmed a few episodes in the Los Angeles area and Baltimore; these episodes or portions of episodes were set in the cities in which they were filmed and concerned multi-jurisdictional investigations or extradition.

Law & Order: Los Angeles expanded the franchise to a new main city, the new series' namesake. L&O:LA was cancelled after one season.

Effects on casting

With some frequency, actors have appeared on the various series that make up the franchise, usually as different (sometimes very different) characters. This is because filming occurs in the New York City area and thus draws from the same pool of actors. Some prominent examples of the same actor playing different roles in different episodes are Diane Neal playing a female rapist in an earlier season of Special Victims Unit before becoming the Assistant District Attorney for that series, Annabella Sciorra playing a criminal defense attorney in Trial by Jury and later Det. Mike Logan's (Chris Noth) partner in Criminal Intent, as well as Jerry Orbach playing a defense attorney on the original series before joining it as Det. Lennie Briscoe, Ice-T playing a pimp known as Seymour Stockton in the franchise's only film, Exiled: A Law & Order Movie, before taking on the role of Tutuola on SVU, and Anthony Anderson playing Detective Lucius Blaine in a seventh season episode of SVU before playing Bernard on the original Law & Order. Also, due to the New York filming, a number of actors appearing in Law & Order shows have had regular or recurring roles on soaps, most notably Tamara Tunie, who simultaneously played both medical examiner Melinda Warner on SVU, and, until 2007, D.A. Jessica Griffin on As the World Turns.

Also as the result of sharing the same pool of New York-based television actors, the series' casts have had significant overlap with that of the former HBO series, Oz. This is perhaps most pronounced in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, whose cast has included three regularly credited actors (Christopher Meloni, B. D. Wong and Dean Winters) and two recurring actors (J. K. Simmons and Mike Doyle) who were also regularly credited actors on Oz.

Related series

U.S. series

In addition to the five Law & Order-titled series that comprise the franchise proper, other American TV series have been established as taking place in the same fictional universe as the franchise.

• Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–1999), created by Paul Attanasio, was definitely set in the same universe.
  • Homicide and L&O occasionally crossed over. Various characters from L&O and Homicide appeared on the other series, as two-part stories were periodically begun on an episode of one series and concluded on the other, the same criminal having committed crimes in both Baltimore and New York City, or a crime in one city having a connection in the other.
  • Richard Belzer's Det. John Munch transferred from the Baltimore PD to the NYPD on SVU; one of Lennie's former lovers had been previously married to Det. Munch; although Munch was initially resentful of Briscoe, the two quickly bonded over their mutual resentment of the woman.

• New York Undercover (1994–1998), co-created by Kevin Arkadie and Dick Wolf, was implicitly a part of the same universe as the franchise, as psychologist and psychiatrist characters from L&O appeared in the series.
• Deadline (2000–2001), also created by Dick Wolf, featured reporters based at the franchise's fictitious newspaper, the New York Ledger.
• Conviction (2006)
  • Starred Stephanie March as Alexandra Cabot, Anson Mount as Jim Steele, Eric Balfour as Brian Peluso, J. August Richards as Billy Desmond, Milena Govich as Jessica Rossi, Julianne Nicholson as Christina Finn, and Jordan Bridges as Nick Potter.
  • March reprises her role of Cabot originally from SVU and is now a Bureau Chief Executive ADA. Cabot would return to SVU after this show's end.
  • The series features a larger ensemble cast of young ADAs, with no police, therapists or medical examiners in lead roles.
  • The show reuses Trial by Jury's sets.
  • After its cancellation, two of the show's actresses, Milena Govich and Julianne Nicholson, went on to star in Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent respectively as Detectives Nina Cassidy and Megan Wheeler.
• In Plain Sight (2008–present) has also crossed over with the franchise.
  • Deputy Marshall Mary Shannon guest stars on the L&O: CI episode Contract to provide additional back-story for the suspect Frank Chess, whom she placed into Witness Protection prior to the events of this episode.

Adaptations outside the U.S.

The franchise, as a result of its popularity, has led to the adaptation of scripts from the US-based series into foreign-produced series. These are:

• Paris enquêtes criminelles (Paris Criminal Investigations) (2007–2008)^[13]
  • Starring Vincent Pérez as Lieutenant Vincent Revel, Sandrine Rigaux as Lieutenant Claire Savigny, Jacques Pater as Police Chief Bonnefoy, Hélène Godec as Judge Frances Lherbier, Laure Killing as Judge Fontana, and Audrey Looten as Mélanie Rousseau.
    • The show follows the format of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, adapted to Paris and the French legal system.

• Закон и Порядок: Отдел Оперативных Расследований (Law & Order: Division of Field Investigation) (2007–present)^[14][15]
  • Starring Ivan Oganesyan, Alisa Bogart.
    • The show follows the format of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, set in Moscow and adapted to the Russian justice system.

• Закон и порядок. Преступный умысел (Law & Order: Criminal Mind) (2007–present)^[16]
  • Starring Michael Hamsters, Igor Lagutin & Elena (Alena) Kovalchuk
    • This show follows the format of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, set in Moscow and is adapted to the Russian Justice System

• Law & Order: UK (2009–present)^[17][18]
  • Starring Bradley Walsh as DS Ronnie Brooks, Paul Nicholls as DS Sam Casey, Harriet Walter as DI Natalie Chandler, Dominic Rowan as Jacob Thorne, Freema Agyeman as Alesha Phillips and Peter Davison as Henry Sharpe.
    • This show follows the format of the original Law & Order show but adapts it to the new setting of London, England, with detectives from the Metropolitan Police CID and the Crown Prosecution Service attempting to secure a conviction.

• Law & Order: Cape Town (2012)
  • Set in Cape Town, South Africa, this edition, which, like Law & Order: UK, will adapt the original series but will use the South African legal system, is scheduled to debut in 2012.^[19][20]

Characters in the franchise

• L&O = Law & Order (1990–2010)
• SVU = Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–present)
• CI = Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001–2011)
• TBJ = Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005–2006)
• LA = Law & Order: LA (2010–2011)

Police and District Attorney investigators

Additionally, the characters of Mike Logan, Lennie Briscoe, Rey Curtis, Don Cragen and Anita Van Buren appear in the 1998 TV film Exiled: A Law & Order Movie

District Attorney's office

Additionally, the character of Jack McCoy appears in the 1998 TV film Exiled: A Law & Order Movie

Psychiatrists and Psychologists

Medical Examiners

References

External links

• Law & Order - NBC's official website
  • TNT's reruns website
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - NBC's official website
  • USA Network's reruns website
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent - USA Network's official website
  • NBC's reruns website
• Law & Order: UK - ITV's official website