"Law & Order" has been airing for 30 years, and in that time, the franchise has also created six spin-off series.

"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" has been running for 22 seasons, making it the most successful of the offshoots.

On the other hand,

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

"Law & Order" premiered in 1990 and ran for 20 seasons, spawning six spin-offs (and counting) as it became one of the most successful franchises in television history.

The original series used a split-approach to each episode, dividing its time between "two separate but equally important groups: The police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders." The long-running show was famous for using "ripped-from-the-headlines" events as inspiration for its episodes. Stories were often rooted in real-life cases but always had their own twist.

The success of a "Law & Order"-branded two-hour made-for-TV movie in 1998 led series creator Dick Wolf to believe a spin-off series would work. Wolf told TV Guide there was a lot of pressure to come up with an idea that was different enough from the original series and he banked on people's "insatiable interest" in sex when he created "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." With another winner on his hands expanding the franchise just made sense.

"Then the third one was sort of obvious. Gee, we have two that work; why don't we have a third?" Wolf said.

As the franchise continues to grow with the forthcoming series "Law & Order: Hate Crimes," we ranked all the spin-offs so far: