Friday, May 14, 2010

Law & Order, 1990-2010

Earlier today, it was announced that NBC has canceled the original Law & Order after a 20-year run. The final original episode of L&O will air on Monday, May 24th. Because L&O had survived numerous cast and time slot changes over the years, the announcement that it was getting the ax caught me off guard. It was like the 60 Minutes of TV dramas, I just expected it to be there.

A lot has happened in the world of pop culture during L&O's long run. Think about it, when L&O premiered on Sept. 13 1990:

  • Miley Cyrus (aka "Hannah Montana"... or is it the other way around?) wasn't even born
  • Will Smith was 2 years away from making his motion picture debut
  • The general public still believed that Milli Vanilli could actually sing!
Although the original L&O is set to drop its final "chung chung" on us very soon, NBC announced it has renewed Law & Order: SVU for a 12th season and will also be launching a new drama in the "Law & Order" franchise called "LOLA" ("Law & Order: Los Angeles") this coming fall.

Do you have any favorite episodes, guest stars, detective/attorney partnerships from the original Law & Order?

5 comments:

Hugh Jee From Jersey said...

Sad to see "The Original Recipe" go permanently into rerun heaven.

My favorite cop duo was Jerry Orbach and Jesse L. Martin as Detectives Brisco and Green. Lenny always had those classic wise cracks and one liners, and Ed was just way cool.

As for he lawyers, my favorite team was Sam Waterston and Angie Harmon....I can't remember a darn thing Angie's Abbie Carmichael ever said, but damn!!!... she was stunning!

The guest stars....Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli (who guested and filled in for Jesse when he was filming RENT), Julia Roberts (when she and Benjamin Bratt were an item)...that show kept a lot of New York and Broadway based actors employed for 20 years.

Not only was it a great show for many years, but was a central part of the New York City entertainment industry.

pjazzypar said...

I hear you Hugh Jee, My favorite combination was Jerry Orbach and anybody :-) I had heard that there was a chance that it would not be renewed and that S. Epatha Merkerson (the longest running cast member) would not be returning. To say that I am saddened is an understatement. The original was my favorite of the franchise. I liked the way the characters changed, just like in real life. I never miss an episode of the show and I will definitely miss it, but at least they have an unrivaled vault of reruns :-)

pjazzypar said...

As a side note, they do not need a Law & Order: Los Angeles, when they have the TNT show "Southland", which covers L. A. crime quite nicely!

pjazzypar said...

I need to gather my thoughts and write one post :-) I noticed when S. Epatha removed her wig, the show got cancelled...lol!

Malcolm said...

Hugh: Although I didn't watch L&O often, one of the best parts was Lenny's wisecracks. I hope that NBC or some network gives L&O the chance to properly wrap things up via a 2 hour movie or something.

Pjazzy: Jerry Orbach had the gift of playing well off anyone they paired him with on the show. Like you said, "Southland" has the West Coast thing covered so L&O: Los Angeles seems rather pointless to me.

I'll bet that some people really think that S. Epatha's wig removal caused the show to be canceled. :-)

 
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