One ‘Law & Order’ Gets a Death Sentence, as Another Joins the Force

One ‘Law & Order’ Gets a Death Sentence, as Another Joins the Force
By BRIAN STELTER and BILL CARTER
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: May 14, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/15/arts/television/15law.html?th&emc=th


The Dodgers. “The Tonight Show.” Now “Law & Order.”

NBC confirmed on Friday that another cherished New York brand was moving to Los Angeles. The network canceled the original “Law & Order” series after keeping it on the air for 20 years. In its place, NBC is ordering a new drama, “Law & Order: Los Angeles,” moving the franchise to a place where there are presumably more murders to investigate.

At least one “Law & Order” spinoff will stay in New York: NBC said on Friday that it had renewed “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” for another season.

The USA cable channel, which shows another spinoff, “Criminal Intent,” has not yet decided to order more episodes.

The original “Law & Order” — often called “the mothership” in the television business — was on the verge of becoming the longest-running drama in prime-time television history, surpassing “Gunsmoke.” But it appears that the “Law & Order” executive producer, Dick Wolf, has settled for a tie. The final episode of the series will be shown on May 24.

In a statement on Friday, Mr. Wolf quoted Henry Ford II: “Never complain. Never explain.”

While NBC tried to portray the move as a continuation of the hit franchise, the “Law & Order” dismissal is a dramatic loss for New York, one that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg even acknowledged in a statement on Friday.

“It began filming in the city at a time when few series did, and it helped pave the way for the more than 150 television shows based here today,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

Actors and producers on the show were told on Thursday that the series had been canceled, but NBC and Mr. Wolf remained in conversations through Thursday evening in an unsuccessful attempt to make a deal for a 21st season.

There were no indications on Friday that another network or cable channel would pick up the show. But NBC is also quietly exploring the possibility that Mr. Wolf would produce some kind of movie or extended retrospective next season to give the series a more fitting send-off, according to people with knowledge of the talks.

Jeff Gaspin, the chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment, said in a statement: “The full measure of the collective contributions made by Dick Wolf and his ‘Law & Order’ franchise over the last two decades to the success of NBC and Universal Media Studios cannot be overstated. The legacy of his original ‘Law & Order’ series will continue to make an impact like no other series before.”

A total of 456 “Law & Order” episodes have been produced since the series had its premiere in 1990. Spotting the cast and crew filming on the city streets is almost a rite of passage for New Yorkers.

Fred Berner, an executive producer of the show, called the cancellation “a devastating blow to the New York City production community.”

Thousands of people are believed to be employed, albeit many indirectly, by the series and its two spinoffs. The series has been especially important to the many Broadway and Off Broadway actors who make appearances as guest stars.

Mr. Berner was standing outside a Broadway theater when he was reached on his cellphone on Thursday evening. “I guarantee you, every name in the playbill will have appeared on ‘Law & Order,’ one of the three shows,” he said.

The streets and courtrooms of New York were stages for series regulars like Sam Waterston, Chris Noth and Jerry Orbach, as well as untold thousands of guest stars, including Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ellen Pompeo and Martin Short.

In a telephone interview Mr. Noth said the series was a “great thing for our city.”

“It created a lot of work for a lot of actors,” he said. “But 20 years is a grand run. The show told a lot of great stories.”

A senior executive involved in the production of the show, speaking on the condition of anonymity so as not to appear publicly critical of the series, said that while its quality had held up, its ratings in recent years had not.

“There’s no bigger ‘Law & Order’ junkie than I am,” the executive said, “but we’ve been in almost every Upper East Side apartment in New York and explored all those stories.”

This season the original “Law & Order” had averaged a 1.8 rating among viewers 18 to 49, hardly a number that would guarantee another season, especially when NBC is aggressively retooling its prime-time schedule. (It will formally announce that schedule on Monday.)

Still, the cancellation came as somewhat of a surprise, given Mr. Wolf’s well-known desire to beat the “Gunsmoke” record.