After record 20 seasons, “Law and Order” was finally canceled by NBC. The last episode will be aired on May 24.

But Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU) and Law and Order: Los Angeles will continue for another season.

It is an interesting cancelation because with one more season, the show could have surpassed Gunsmoke to be the longest lasting TV series.

Law & Order is practically an American monument. One of the cast members, Fred Thompson, ran for President. Two other cast members – the late Jerry Orbach and Sam Waterston – have become national treasures. It’s a rite of passage for actors in New York to appear on the show or its spinoffs. To me, real-world scandals only felt really real when they appeared as a plotline on Law & Order.Source: popwatch.ew.com

About Law and Order (from here)



Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf, that airs on NBC. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and is currently in its twentieth season, which began airing on September 25, 2009. Law & Order is currently the longest running crime drama on American prime time television and is tied for longest running drama of all time with Gunsmoke.

Set and filmed in New York City, the series follows a two part approach: in the first half hour, the investigation of a crime and apprehension of a suspect by New York City police detectives is shown, followed by the prosecution of the offenders by the Manhattan District Attorney‘s office in the second half. Plots are often based on real cases that have recently made headlines. The show has been noted for its revolving cast over the years. It currently stars Jeremy Sisto as Detective Cyrus Lupo, Anthony Anderson as Detective Kevin Bernard, Linus Roache as Executive Assistant District Attorney Michael Cutter, and Alana de la Garza as Assistant District Attorney Connie Rubirosa.

The success of the series has led to the creation of additional shows within the Law & Order franchise, a television film, several video games, and international adaptations of the series. It has won and been nominated for numerous awards over the years, including a number of Emmys.

History and development

In 1988, Dick Wolf developed a concept for a new television series that would depict a relatively optimistic picture of the American justice system. He initially toyed with the idea of calling it Night & Day but then hit upon the title Law & Order. For the first half of each episode, the show would follow two detectives and their commanding officer as they investigate a violent crime. The second half of the show would center around the District Attorney’s Office and the courts as three prosecutors attempt to convict the criminal. Through this, Law & Order would be able to investigate some of the larger issues of the day by focusing on stories that were based on real cases making headlines.

Wolf took the idea to then-president of Universal Television Kerry McCluggage, who pointed out the similarity to a 1963 series titled Arrest and Trial that lasted one season. The two watched the pilot of that series, in which a police officer, played by Ben Gazzara, arrested a man for armed robbery in the first half, and the defense attorney, played by Chuck Connors gets the perpetrator off as the wrong guy. Wolf discovered this was the formula of the show every week, and decided that, while his detectives would occasionally be fallible as Gazzara’s was, he wanted a fresh approach to the genre that would go from police procedural to prosecution with a greater degree of realism. In addition, the prosecution would be the hero instead of the defense, a reversal of the usual formula in lawyer dramas.

Initially, the show was ordered by Fox for thirteen episodes with no pilot based on the concept alone. The decision was reversed by then-network head Barry Diller, who loved the idea but did not believe it was a Fox show. Wolf then went to CBS, which ordered a pilot, “Everbody’s Favorite Bagman”, written by Wolf, which centered around corrupt city officials involved with the mob. The network liked the pilot but did not order it because there were no breakout stars in the show. In the summer of 1989, NBC’s top executives, Brandon Tartikoff and Warren Littlefield, screened the pilot and liked it, but were concerned the intensity of the series could not be repeated on a week by week basis. However, there was enough faith from executives that the series was innovative and could appeal to a wide audience that the series was ordered by NBC for a full season in 1990.

Could we have taken more of Law and Order? For me – yes, but I am a bigger fan of SVU than the current Law and Order.

What about you?