TVSquad

I figured they would do this, for nostalgia's sake if nothing else. It seems pretty likely that Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is going to outlast the parent that spawned it (because let's face it, sex sells!). Still, it was nice of NBC to renew Law & Order for a 20th season, allowing Dick Wolf to match Gunsmoke at twenty seasons.

Of course, now he's going to be angling to surpass the series next year. Even more ambitious would be a push to outdo Gunsmoke in episodes. With word coming down that L&O got a 16 episode commitment, it's just falling further and further behind.

This is a bummer. (By the way, isn't there a better expression than that to describe disappointment? "What a shame" is just too British to me.) Anyway, TV Guide's Michael Ausiello reports that Law & Order: SVU has lost Diane Neal. The actress, who's played assistant district attorney Casey Novak on the Dick Wolf show for five years has turned in her resignation. This season will be her last. "Diane spent five years on SVU and was a tremendous addition to the SVU team. She is looking forward to new opportunities and she will be missed," says the NBC source about her departure.

Like I said, I'm not happy about this one. Unlike so many of the faces and forms that come in and out of the L&O universe, Diane Neal stuck out. And I mean that in a good way. She had a presence and a passion, which was not only recognizable amid the many others who seem interchangeable, it was crucial to match fire with Christopher Meloni, Mariska Hargitay and the other SVU cast.

Sam Waterston wants a promotion. For the last 13 years Waterston has played Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy on the long-running (some say too long) NBC drama Law & Order. Now that co-star, and former U.S. Senator, Fred Thompson (who played District Attorney Arthur Branch) is leaving the show to run for president of the United States his job position is now open. And, it seems that Waterston's McCoy wants to move into the slot.

According to an anonymous source close to the show, Waterston is negotiating to have his character step into the D.A. role when Law & Order returns at the beginning of 2008. How McCoy would slip into the position, as well as his replacement, have yet to be determined. When asked to confirm this news L&O creator Dick Wolf as well as Waterston declined to comment.

A lot of people thought that one or both of the NBC shows Law and Order and Law and Order: Criminal Intent would be on the cancellation list when NBC presents its upfront tomorrow, but the network has surprised many fans by renewing both shows.

There is a little twist when it comes to Law and Order: CI though. The show will actually first run the new episodes of the season on USA and then NBC will run repeats.

Law and Order is a straight renewal though. The show will head into its 18th season of shows "ripped from the headlines!" As far as Law and Order: SVU goes, most expect that to be renewed with no problem. We'll have full coverage of the network upfronts all this week, starting with NBC on Monday.

Jonathan posted news recently that J.J. Abrams is in talks with HBO to direct and produce a show through his Bad Robot Productions. That's all well and good, but let's play junior programming executive for a moment. How would you feel about buying a show from Bad Robot, given their history.

Are you making a deal with the brilliant team behind the top 20 hit Lost? And does the fact that we have now switched that qualifier from top 5, to top 10, to top 20 cause any concern? Or are you making a deal with the team that so bungled Alias that by the end of the run it was almost an act of charity for ABC to even air the show? Seriously. May 17th, 2006, Alias is the #5 show in its time slot behind Deal Or No Deal (NBC), Bones (Fox), The Amazing Race (CBS), AND Next Top Model (UPN), only managing to beat out the movie Final Destination 2 (WB).

Dick Wolf, who has brought NBC success with various versions of the Law & Order franchise, has two comedy scripts lined up for NBC. One is a single-camera comedy about a fumbling U.S. Congressman and the staff that try to handle him. The other is a medical sitcom about ER docs and paramedics. I think I've seen both of these shows before, they were called Spin City and Scrubs. Right now, neither show has a title.

I'd be interested to see what Dick Wolf's sense of humor is like. The man's entire resume is made up of crime dramas.

After two seasons, Dennis Farina is leaving his role as Detective Joe Fontana on the long-running NBC hit Law and Order. He's going to pursue other projects and work on his production company.

This is probably a good move for Farina. He's a good actor (he's one of those actors who is good in everything he's in, even if what he's in isn't that good), but Law and Order wasn't the best showcase for him. It's not exactly a show that leaves room for meaty acting or character development. It's all about the crime, the investigation, and the trial, and there's no room for anything else really. Besides, the show has really gone downhill, with all the "ripped from the headlines" cases.

No word yet on who will replace him.

FOX isn't the only network that is jumping the gun in front of the May upfronts to make an announcement about the upcoming fall season. In what comes as no surprise (even though there were rumors that one of its members was on the cancellation bubble) NBC has renewed all three series in the Law & Order franchise: the original, SVU, and Criminal Intent.

All three series have been solid ratings draws this season on a network that is trying to find its way back to the top. SVU is having the best season out of the three with viewership of about 14 million per week. The original Law & Order is second with over 11 million and Criminal Intent, which went with a rotating cast this year and is up against powerhouses The Sopranos and Desperate Housewives, is pulling a bit under 11 million.

Next season will be the 17th for Dick Wolf's original Law & Order, which makes it the longest-running television drama currently running (far ahead of ER's 12 seasons). SVU will mark its eighth season and Criminal Intent will begin its sixth season in the fall. There is no word on whether the current rotating cast of Criminal Intent (Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe as detectives Goren and Eames one week and Chris Noth and Annabella Sciorra as detectives Logan and Barek the next) will continue into next season.

[via Zap2it]

 

 

I thought this week's episode of Conviction was much, much better than last week's episode. I still think that there are too many storylines in each episode, making it hard to care too much for any particular character. But, the multiple storyline thing seems to be the M.O. for this show. So be it.

I feel like a broken record. It seems like just yesterday that I was telling you about a new drama created by Law and Order creator Dick Wolf. That one is called Conviction and it begins after the Olympics. Wolf already has another drama pilot in the works for NBC. This one is called Power, and it's actually a little different from his other four shows currently on NBC. It's not a medical drama or anything. But, he doesn't plan to wrap-up his stories at the end of each hour. This time, he's setting his story with a team of young federal task force agents and U.S. attorneys investigating Hollywood power brokers (hence, the title) on a laundry list of offenses including wiretapping and extortion. Wolf  says the popularity of series like 24 and The Sopranos show that there can be success beyond self-contained episodes. NBC hasn't greenlighted the pilot yet so it's doubtful that we'll see Power in the fall.

Texas Republican Tom Delay is upset over a line from last Wednesday's episode of Law & Order. In the show, one of the detectives investigating the murder of a judge says maybe they should put out an APB for someone in a "Tom Delay t-shirt." The line is a reference to Delay's recent comments regarding judges and their perceived liberal activism.

NBC, to its credit, backed up L&O creator Dick Wolf by saying the show is a fictional drama and viewers know the difference between it and reality. Unfortunately for NBC's ratings, it turns out Delay heard about it from a friend of his wife.