Law Order-related stories
Posted Jul 16th 2009 3:26PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free
Pulling in anemic ratings week after week, despite a lot of promotion for the series, it's no real surprise that
NBC is pulling The Listener off the air. They're leaving it on the air for two more episodes, but come July 30, it's another
Law & Order repeat slot.
I made it through exactly one episode of
The Listener and then decided that I just couldn't bring myself to care. Despite a dramatic car crash and a missing child, I still found the first episode kind of boring. And Craig Olejnik just isn't very engaging in the lead.
I'm usually pretty patient with a new show, and it's pretty rare that I actively dislike a show right from the beginning. On paper,
The Listener should have been the kind of show I do like; I'm a sucker for the supernatural. Maybe NBC was hoping it could be their new
Medium, though it looks more like they were just hoping for something to prop up a few hours through the summer.
Posted Jul 11th 2009 12:03PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Programming, OpEd
Even in the summertime, it took only one week of ratings less than half of
America's Got Talent on Tuesday night to get
The Great American Road Trip relocated to Monday, starting immediately.
I finally got around to watching it, and after one week, I think I've had enough. Maybe I've been spoiled by the beautiful panoramic views we get of the environs on shows like
The Amazing Race and
Survivor over on CBS. I thought for sure that this nostalgic trip down Historic Route 66 would offer up some beautiful shots of our own amazing country.
In the first episode, they were going to be coming through my neck of the woods, and we Midwesterners love seeing our cities on the television. Only when the families came into St. Louis, we didn't get a nice shot of the city skyline from the Illinois side, or anything. One shot of the top corner of it and they were on the Arch grounds rolling giant plastic balls through rickety mini-arches. With a budget of about a hundred bucks for the challenges, this show looks like something that NBC had a bunch of interns throw together.
Continue reading The Great American Road Trip disappoints, punted to Mondays
Posted Jun 30th 2009 3:25PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Law and Order, Reality-Free
Well, that's a relief. After months of speculation that NBC would be bringing
Law & Order: SVU back for the 11th season without the two stars that have anchored the show, there's good news.
Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni have re-signed with
SVU. They pair agreed to stick with NBC's top-rated Neilsen drama for two more seasons.
Good news is probably an understatement. It's really great news because with
SVU moving to Wednesday, 9 p.m., the show really didn't need to shake up the cast at this point in time. Stability mattered and NBC found a way to bring the two stars into the fold, offering them both the flexibility they sought.
Continue reading Meloni & Hargitay sign on for more Law & Order: SVU
Posted Jun 3rd 2009 12:30PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Law and Order, Casting, Reality-Free
"You always made me feel safe, John."
Perfect. Beautiful. That line was delivered by Carol Kane to Richard Belzer on last night's season finale of
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. A bit of history. Kane played Gwen Munch, the conspiracy-minded ex-wife of Belzer's Detective John Munch. The last time the two of them played those roles was more than a decade ago, not even on the same show.
When last Detective Munch fans saw the pairing, it was in 1997 on
Homicide: Life on the Street. And they picked one hell of an episode to bring her back. Fans of Belzer know he was having fun with the black helicopter crowd before he brought that particular obsession to his character, and last night's episode was tailor-made for him, even if he wasn't really in the forefront of the plot.
Continue reading Carol Kane and Richard Belzer - Together again on Law & Order: SVU
Posted May 19th 2009 6:08PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Law and Order, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
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.
Continue reading Law & Order matches Gunsmoke's longevity record, sort of
Posted Mar 26th 2009 10:05AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, CSI, Reality-Free
When
William Petersen left
CSI, he left a very, very cushy job. He was making a cool $600,000 per episode, more than
Kiefer Sutherland was getting for
24, but not quite as much as
Charlie Sheen was taking home for
Two and a Half Men ($825,000 per show).
Well,
CSI decided not to skimp when they cast Laurence Fishburne to assume the star spot on the crime drama.
Fishburne is earning more than $14 million for this season of
CSI. (So much for a recession!)
Continue reading Fishburne is the $14 million man
Posted Feb 20th 2009 3:05PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: TV Squad Lists, Casting, Reality-Free
It's hard to see beloved characters leave your favorite shows. You have created a bond with them, perhaps even projected their values onto yourself in an effort to raise the self esteem you had before, say, you fell down the
Law & Order rabbit hole and started to believe the shows were actual news and not just "ripped from the headlines." But change is inevitable, and sometimes, it works out. Here are a few that worked (at least for me).
1. Current cast of Law & Order: I know, I know, who could replace Lenny Briscoe? No one, really. But the current pairing of Anthony Anderson and Jeremy Sisto as NYPD partners is the best the series has produced. They changed the feel of the show. Perhaps because we're still getting to know them, they are less predictable then previous tandems, and both evoke a certain hard-nosed quality that seems a bit more gritty and real. Plus, Anderson has chops as a stand-up comic, and could easily fill the wisecracker role, if need be.
Continue reading Seven of TV's best replacements
Posted Apr 19th 2008 9:26AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Law and Order, Reality-Free
There's been another transfer out of the squad at NBC. Detective Chester Lake has turned in his badge. Actor
Adam Beach is leaving Law and Order: SVU. He'll be on the show till the end of this season -- his one and only with
Law and Order: SVU.
Adam Beach, who was also excellent in the Clint Eastwood feature
Flags of Our Fathers as the troubled serviceman Ira Hayes, uncomfortable with the acclaim he received as one of the men who rose the flag at Iwo Jima, received a number of award nominations for his role on the HBO mini-series
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. It was on that project that he worked with producer Dick Wolf.
"From the first day I met him on the set of
Bury My Heart, I was knocked out by his commitment, dedication and total immersion in the film's most crucial role," said Wolf.
Continue reading Adam Beach checks out of Law & Order: SVU
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