Law & Order Cancelled
[Guest post by DRJ]
TV’s long-running Law & Order has been cancelled so fans will have to satisfy themselves with endless reruns or the planned spin-off, Law & Order: Los Angeles.
Over the years, Law & Order had a great cast and timely plots. My favorites? I liked DA Arthur Branch (Fred Thompson) because he added balance to the PC attitude of some scripts, and it wouldn’t be Law & Order without Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston). My favorite ADA was Jamie Ross (Carey Lowell) and my favorite Detective was Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach). There are too many episodes to remember, let alone pick a favorite.
What about you?
— DRJ
good riddance…. there isn’t a shark they haven’t jumped.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 5/15/2010 @ 1:04 amMichael Moriarty, in my view, gave the best and most interesting performances of any actor in the series.
Jerry Orbach was indeed the best of the detectives. And the most memorable.
Of the DAs, Fred Thompson was the most fun to watch… although I think it’s unrealistic that someone with an accent like that (or views like his) would ever get elected to any office in Manhattan. (Seeing that character as district attorney was sort of like watching a movie with Jack Nicholson or Tommy Lee Jones–the fact that they’re there on the screen makes it utterly impossible to suspend your disbelief, even for a second, because every single second you see them, you’re fully conscious of the fact that you’re watching some artifice.)
Dianne Wiest was excruciatingly annoying, and horribly miscast in the role. I know you were asking about favorites, but I just can’t avoid complaining about her. She was just ****ing awful. It’s just inexplicable how she got that role.
Speaking of Law and Order actors I can’t avoid complaining about, could someone please explain to me how Benjamin Bratt found work on that show? Or why he thought it was necessary to spend half his screen time in every episode just smirking?
Alan (07ccb5) — 5/15/2010 @ 1:11 amDo-it-yourself Law and Order script! It’s easy, kids!
12 easy steps:
1. Have Lenny Briscoe mouth the latest anti-Bush, anti-2nd-amendment shibboleth.
The sniveling, hand-wringing detective with the odd eyeglasses – whose name I do not remember – is to see conspiracy everywhere. Right-wing of course, with maybe just a pinch of anti-Semitism.
2. Arrest a minority, find you have the wrong person, find a white male, preferably a successful Christian one with a wife, 2.3 kids, 1.1 dogs, and a minivan in the carport. He did it.
3. Make sure NO wealthy person is allowed to appear caring, compassionate, or decent.
4. Make sure all middle-aged or old wealthy are “old money”, or pushed paper to make their pile. Do NOT portray them as self-made, dirt-under-their-nails types who ended up providing work for hundreds, or thousands. They will be rude, snotty, bigoted, have their nose in the air, and the servant bringing in the tea or coffee will be an obvious minority treated like furniture.
5. ALL children of the wealthy are to be shown as raquetball-playing, sports car- or SUV-driving snobs lounging at the country club rather than working in the family business.
6. Workaday, ordinary, middle-class white NYers will be shown as bigoted, intolerant, at least partly “racist”,
7. Make sure that smirking detective (Bratt?) with the SS haircut beats the snot out of someone because he cannot control his temper. Left unmentioned: the union or the Giulianni mentality saves his career every time. His female sidekick looks on and then says “I think you were a bit harsh…”
8. Jack McCoy metaphorically waves his finger, nanny-style, under the noses of at least three people while giving some whining morality message.
9. If there are clergymen in the plot, they are oily, dishonest, or they molest children.
(and as much as I distrust most clergy, L&O goes so over the top with this that even my skin crawls).
10. Volunteers at church-operated shelters will have an ulterior motive, a scam going on the side, or both.
11. Southerners are to be depicted as grammar-challenged, poorly educated, somewhat dirty and “not like us”.
12. Have Ice Cube say something profound.
Break for commercial.
Repeat for remainder of segments, then roll credits. You have just produced a Law & Order episode.
the friendly grizzly (d65026) — 5/15/2010 @ 2:29 amI Gave up on them a few years back.
Paul Albers (23002d) — 5/15/2010 @ 2:49 amI got hooked initially by Larry Miller’s performance as the habitual wife killer.
No episode better.
Correction: I meant Ice-T.
the friendly grizzly (d65026) — 5/15/2010 @ 3:22 amI thought the show was very good for the first 4-5 years. After that the McCoy character became overbearing and the liberal message became incessant. I stopped watching. I enjoyed the Mike (Chris Noth) character. Lenny was good also but as one observer here has stated that character also become too predictably preachy and liberal.
fgmorley (324ca0) — 5/15/2010 @ 3:30 amI tried to like the show.. really. And I loved Fred and Jerry, as well as d’onofrio on the show. But Sam Waterston, how insufferable. I couldn’t watch the show.
zeze2008 (e41c55) — 5/15/2010 @ 5:01 amI hate to be a wet blanket, too, but the story was more annoying than entertaining for me also. My wife liked it a lot, though, especially Chris Noth and Jill Hennessey.
nk (db4a41) — 5/15/2010 @ 5:17 amThe show was unbelievably bad. Every villain was an upper class white man or woman who was a millionaire living in a multimillion dollar town house. Lenny Brisco (Jerry Orbach) was a walking cliche – a gumshoe who was divorced, had a drinking problem and whose kid hated him. He hung on way beyond retirement age and who had the brilliant idea that S. Epatha Merkesen could come across as a Police Lieutenant? Michael Moriarty as the Executive DA and Richard Brooks as the ADA were the best. The worst ADA was Serena (Elisabeth Rohm) who had the same facial expression and spoke in that annoying monotone..
Travis (125569) — 5/15/2010 @ 5:32 amYes, L & O in all its incarnations was excessively liberal. It was still fun to watch. I approached it like I did West Wing which was also a guilty pleasure.
I really really wish West Wing would have had a few more seasons written by a conservative writer with a Republican administration in office.
gahrie (9d1bb3) — 5/15/2010 @ 6:14 amLaw and order in the “City of Angels?” Give me a break. Parker Center, or whatever they call it now, degenerated into a politically correct nightmare that can’t control it’s gangs putting law enforcement at the street level in danger.
They should call it “Sanctuary City – Home of the Devil Wind!” Remember, the Devil was a fallen angel.
Good program that tip-toed around the reasons for the failed city it is.
vet66 (4e0dda) — 5/15/2010 @ 6:15 amI think the left tilt grew after the first few years. I used to watch it, which is very rare for me because I don’t watch TV, but Jerry Orbach was the main attraction. In recent years, the leftward tilt became a topple and I gave up. My daughter loves it but she is oblivious to the politics.
Mike K (82f374) — 5/15/2010 @ 7:57 amYup–left tilt became a left topple and the show was unwatchable. McCoy was too often a sanctimonious prick. Michael Moriarty was a bit of a tortured Catholic–just like Pemberton in Homicide. But the early shows had their moments, and we’ll be seeing reruns until we all step into the grave.
Mike Myers (3c9845) — 5/15/2010 @ 8:09 amMy daughter loves it but she is oblivious to the politics.
I wonder if people like her are similar to those who continue to watch another show that really jumped the shark eons ago, and which, btw, also is on the same network as “Law and Order”? Namely, “Saturday Night Live.” But instead of being oblivious to a program’s noticeably leftist politics being oblivious to a program’s often really bad, unfunny scripts and skits.
Apparently there are enough people like that, including major celebs and bands — and folks willing to be a part of the show’s studio audience — to keep sustaining such an otherwise tired, haggard show.
Mark (411533) — 5/15/2010 @ 8:15 amIt toppled over like Hank Johnson’s Guam, the ”ripped from the headlines’ became a joke, as it was always through a fun house mirror, specially since this Renee person became producer, they tried to rationalize Zarquawi, there was one time, when the acknowledged they had gone to far, with their
ian cormac (c19bdd) — 5/15/2010 @ 8:17 amPinochet episode, where the DA was removed and replaced with Fred Thompson
Should’ve been a comedy show…
GeneralMalaise (fc86d7) — 5/15/2010 @ 8:22 amSNL goes through phases…..You have great casts and great runs like the original crew, mediocre casts with mediocre runs like the current crew and truly awful casts serving up dreck like the Michael Anthony Hall crew.
gahrie (9d1bb3) — 5/15/2010 @ 8:49 amMy daughter, who is 20, has, like many of her colleagues, learned to ignore the leftist rants that pass for college instruction. The U of Arizona was awful this way but maybe the only way to escape it is to major in science. I don’t think many of the lefties took science or math. In the meantime, a bunch of her pals, about 20, had a pre-party at my house last night, then went to the Angeles game. I made some visual checks for blood alcohol levels and sent them on their way. Nice kids. More than half are 21.
I don’t think politics occupies more than 1 minute per day in their minds. U of A had big screen TVs all over the campus before the 2008 election with Obama propaganda but I’ll bet the undergrads ignored 90% of them.
Her final exam in freshman composition was to write an essay on a white male who had raped or abused a woman or minority. That was one of two choices and the other, although I don’t remember the subject, was similar.
She asked me to help so she wrote her essay about William Kennedy Smith. I wondered if her instructor, a Trotskyite, had any sense of irony but, luckily, she didn’t and Annie got a 90.
Mike K (82f374) — 5/15/2010 @ 8:49 amBest episode was “Double Blind”. No other episode took you farther, from the initial murder to the final disposition of the case than this one did. Of course it was 13 years ago, when the show was relevant, well written and gripping.
East Coast Chris (ded5f2) — 5/15/2010 @ 8:59 amBest Madam:
Patricia Clarkson
as Laura Winthrop
By Hooker, by Crook (1990)
The Drill SGT (ec3313) — 5/15/2010 @ 9:06 amhands down, the best was Michael Moriarty. Favorite episode – Columbian drug cartel murder in Manhattan by assassins who were constantly one step ahead of the police. (“Prince of Darkness” aired 1992)
Episode ending scene: DA Schiff tells Ben Stone that grandmother caring for the victim’s young daughter “fell” to her death from apartment window. Stone immediately asks Schiff about having the police get the daughter from school for protection. Schiff: “They checked, it’s ok – her aunt picked her up.” Stone, looking stunned: “She doesn’t have an aunt.” roll credits – the episode ended on that.
Early episodes didn’t pander – sometimes the villian would not be convicted. Even my Crim Procedure prof at UCLA law recommended the show (in 1991) saying that while most shows were B.S. – this one reminded him of when he was a public defender in Mass. – high praise. The last few years were more about an intellectually dishonest masturbatory fantasy about charging Bush Administration personnel for moral offenses. (strange for a “law” show to ignore “legal” arguments when moral preaching is to be had – leftist moral preaching, so it is ok.)
Californio (427899) — 5/15/2010 @ 9:18 amon the prior post about writing an essay about a man who had raped or abused a woman or minority: Why not write – “Comrade professor – I elected to write about your Dad. I salute him for fornicating with your mother, as a commited feminist – either pre or post feminist enlightenment – her consent was either a false construct or a lie. however this unhappy invalid physical union produced the unintended benefit of you, comrade professor, to help enlighten and lead her young charges to the light of “correct” thinking. We must constantly march ONWARD to a future when all procreation will be firmly in the hands of State controlled cloning/hatching facilities. Onward!”
Californio (427899) — 5/15/2010 @ 9:24 amI enjoyed L&O for many years, until their left slant was not compatible with my right slant. And Jerry O. was good in his part until they made him the poster child for the left.
Mike K … good idea for that essay. Perhaps she only got a 90 because the victim was a white woman, not a “minority”. I condemn myself for saying that.
PatAZ (9d1bb3) — 5/15/2010 @ 9:29 amfriendly grizzly, you are so right!
However, in the beginning, it was great. Moriarty, Steven Hill as the Philosopher King…wow. Dzundza and Noth can’t be beat. Noth is great eye candy, with great depth too as the son of a messed up Irish alcoholic.
Dzundza: “I’m just an altar boy with a gun” and then he’s killed.
Patricia (160852) — 5/15/2010 @ 9:35 amJerry Orbach was BFF of Crazy Joe Gallo.
’nuff said.
GeneralMalaise (fc86d7) — 5/15/2010 @ 9:36 amI think that’s what happened, Moriarty although he went to Dartmouth, was always humble and his character and had a blue collar sensibility, Dzundza’s characters passing followed by Moriartyleaving, were the two transitions, Waterson, who I first saw years ago, in a rationalization for Oppenheimer, was always the lefty willing to cut ‘the right people’ some slack,
ian cormac (c19bdd) — 5/15/2010 @ 9:50 am“Law and Order Al-Lay” starring Big Tony V, former mayor and now top hot prosecutor in the gang unit, hunting down MinuteMen and other gangs guilty of violating leftist dogma. His ADAs are all former wives/mistresses/baby mamas; his cops all SEIU thugs.
First episode, they put Arizona on trial for 1070. Sure, it’s not Al-Lay, but sometimes you gotta take a stand!
Patricia (160852) — 5/15/2010 @ 10:18 amOne word epitomizes L&A: “withdrawn.” Nuff said. Show was over when Moriarity left.
mike (d7efe4) — 5/15/2010 @ 11:14 amRe: post #27… I’d like to see a treatment of that delivered by 10AM Monday morning, Patricia. I’ll have my people call your people… we’ll do lunch and discuss.
– Kirby Jagoff
GeneralMalaise (fc86d7) — 5/15/2010 @ 11:54 amI agree wholeheartedly with the above comments regarding the initial cast, along with the sharp, insightful and often witty writing. The Moriarity character was the best, IMHO – he honestly tried to be fair to all of the defendants, and often examined his own biases and prejudices during the trials. Much nuance, little polemical cant. Couldn’t stand the Watterston character, he was overbearing, preachy and just plain annoying to watch, along with that facial tic of the arched eyebrow and lunging at the witness stand.
Dmac (21311c) — 5/15/2010 @ 12:41 pmThe only thing I could ever stomach watching Waterston in – other than “Rancho Deluxe” – was that SNL bit for Old Glory insurance.
GeneralMalaise (fc86d7) — 5/15/2010 @ 12:50 pmKudos to Dick Wolf and his production team for managing to keep a television drama and its spinoffs on the air for two decades.
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 5/15/2010 @ 1:32 pmDidn’t care for the Liberal drivel of that show.
NBC should’ve stuck with the real-life Law & Order show filmed about real crimes in San Diego County. THAT was a great show.
Crime and Punishment
thebronze (bd9173) — 5/15/2010 @ 2:55 pmAngie Harmon was the major reason I watched the show. That sultry, whiskey voice was incredible.
jimboster (fe0b27) — 5/15/2010 @ 2:55 pmThe show definitely did have a leftist tilt, but it was honest enough to portray the Sam Waterson character as an amoral man who believed the ends justified any means.
The lefty drivel and stereotypes made the show painful. Even when it didn’t come to the fore, I’d sit there waiting for it; the television equivalent of the Chinese water torture.
Orthodoc (a3d089) — 5/15/2010 @ 5:41 pmRene Balcer (Executive Producer) was the one who drove the show to the Left. Angie Harmon was the only ADA who actually sounded like a ‘law & order’ person – the rest sounded like a bunch of Legal Aid or ACLU types.
Travis (125569) — 5/15/2010 @ 6:45 pmstopped watching nbc too much of nbc programming is lefty liberal propaganda got fed up with heir shallow left wing aclu socialist agenda woven into every episode bleah
drone (aedf6d) — 5/15/2010 @ 9:42 pmThe only ADA that I liked was Angie Harmon’s character.
aunursa (2680ce) — 5/16/2010 @ 7:49 am