“In the Criminal Justice System, The People are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups: The police who investigate crime, and the District Attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.”
For 20 years, television viewers heard those words before every episode of NBC’s hit drama Law & Order. The show debuted in 1990 and set itself apart from other crime shows, following a basic formula of the first half of the show (law) showing a police investigation of a crime (usually murder) while the second half of the show (order) showed the prosecution’s attempt to bring the case to trial.
In May 2010, NBC abruptly ended the show when it had tied for longest-running primetime drama. Its spinoff show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit currently is the longest-running primetime drama, in its 23rd season.
Law & Order, or The Mothership, as it’s known, is returning to television soon. Wolf Entertainment, franchise creator Dick Wolf’s production company, announced a revival of the series, picking up where it left off with a 21st season.
Wolf has said he always felt like he had unfinished business with The Mothership, given how abruptly it ended.
“There are very few things in life that are literally dreams come true,” Wolf said to Variety. “This is mine.”
Writer and showrunner Rick Eid will helm the revived series. Eid has worked on several Wolf projects, including The Mothership, SVU and Law & Order: Trial by Jury.
The Mothership was known for having six cast members during each season, often for years at a time having the same cast members. Most memorable of these would be the late Jerry Orbach, who played wise-cracking Detective Lennie Briscoe from 1992 to 2004. The two longest-running characters on the show are Lieutenant Anita Van Buren (S. Epath Merkerson), who starred from the season four premiere in 1993 to series’ end and Executive Assistant District Attorney (later District Attorney) Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), who was on the show from the season five premiere in 1994 until the show’s cancelation.
As this time, it’s not clear who might return for the sequel series. Although it’s likely Merkerson will reprise her role, given that she has a role on Wolf’s show Chicago Med. Fingers crossed that we get to see Van Buren and McCoy again!
No premiere date has been set for the 21st season, and it’s not known if it will be ready in time for midseason. If it is, the revived Law & Order will likely air alongside SVU and Organized Crime on Thursday evenings, meaning Dick Wolf shows will dominate the NBC primetime lineup two days out of the week
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