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Throughout the course of television history, there haven’t been many shows that have retained in their final seasons the same high level of quality that they attained when they were at their peak. This doesn’t mean the shows are bad. It is extremely difficult to achieve the same level of greatness year after year. This is true for even some of the best television shows. One of the best examples of this fact is Seinfeld. An excellent show, it dropped in quality during its last season. Thankfully, the producers recognized this fact and ended the show before the decline became too severe. Recent examples of once-great shows that didn’t know when to say "when" include Roseanne and Murphy Brown. It is rare to encounter a long-running show that is as good as it was when it debuted. Law & Order is one of those shows. In fact, in my opinion, the show has gotten even better as the years have gone by.

Law & Order debuted in 1990 on NBC. Created by Dick Wolf, the series depicted crime on the mean streets of New York City (where it is filmed on location). However, from the outset, Law & Order was not a typical crime show. In fact, the title said as much. The first half of the show is in the mold of a cop show, depicting the "law" side. Detectives from the New York Police Department investigate a crime and apprehend a suspect. The second half of the show, the "order," is like a lawyer show. Lawyers from the district attorney’s office put on trial the suspect that the detectives have apprehended in the first half. The detectives seldom interact with the lawyers, and vice versa. Though the premise of the show was not entirely unique (the 1963-64 drama Arrest and Trial followed the same format), it was unusual, and it set Law & Order apart from the pack. However, if the show were not well done, the novelty of the concept would wear off quickly, and Law & Order may have been as short-lived as its 1960s counterpart. Thankfully, though, it has since become clear that Law & Order is anything but a novelty.

The crime that opens each episode of Law & Order is often brutal, is almost always a murder, and sometimes even bears a striking similarity to a recent real-life crime. The personal lives of the detectives are rarely delved into. In fact, they are hardly ever seen except when they are on the job. Wolf (who is also the executive producer) focuses the attention on the crime, and the suspect in the crime, which is where it belongs. While investigating the crime, it often gets a little gritty for the detectives. There are wrong turns taken and leads that are blown, and not everyone is eager to cooperate with the police. Eventually, the detectives get their man, or who they think is their man. It is never simple. This isn’t Dragnet; things aren’t as cut-and-dry and black-and-white as one might like. In fact, when the "order" aspect of Law & Order takes over in the second half of the show, this proves even more to be true. The lawyers for the district attorney’s office fight for what they believe is a just cause, but it is not always easy. There are often enough twists and turns in the course of each trial to make old Ben Matlock’s head spin. Also, breaking even more with the tradition of courtroom drama shows, the lawyers don’t always win their cases. In fact, sometimes when they do win their cases, they don’t always feel like winners. There can be a lot of corruption in the world, and sometimes justice doesn’t feel just. Again, like the "law" aspect, the "order" aspect of Law & Order presents a grayer, harsher, and probably more realistic courtroom drama than, say, Perry Mason.

However, the gritty, no-holds-barred approach that is taken with the show’s subject matter is not the only reason Law & Order is still going strong after nine years. The cast has a lot to do with it. There have been more changes in the regular cast of Law & Order than there have been in any prime-time drama of recent memory (and, yes, that includes Chicago Hope). When the show premiered in 1990, the "law" was represented by Detective Mike Logan (played by Chris Noth) and Sergeant Max Greevey (George Dzundza). Their captain was Donald Cragen (Dann Florek). The "order" was represented by Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty) and Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks). Their boss was District Attorney Adam Schiff (Steven Hill). After one season, Greevey was killed off, and Paul Sorvino joined the cast as Sergeant Paul Cerreta, Logan’s new partner. After the second season, Cerreta was reassigned, and Logan gained another new partner in Detective Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach). At the close of the third season, the cast was shuffled around again. NBC, responding to complaints about Law & Order’s all-male cast, fired Richard Brooks and Dann Florek. Their characters were subsequently dropped from the show. At the start of the fourth season, Logan and Briscoe had a new boss in Lieutenant Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson), and Stone had a new partner in Assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennesy).

At the close of the fourth season, Stone left the district attorney’s office, and Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) took his place. At the end of the fifth season, Logan got demoted for punching a politician, and Detective Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) took his place as Briscoe’s new partner. At the close of the sixth season, Kincaid was killed, and Carey Lowell as Assistant District Attorney Jamie Ross. Then, after the seventh season, nothing happened. The cast of Law & Order actually remained stable for more than one season. This was not to last, though. At the end of the eighth season, Ross left the district attorney’s office, and Assistant District Attorney Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon) took her place. Finally, at the close of the ninth season, Curtis quit the police department, and as this current season, Law & Order’s tenth, began, Briscoe found himself with yet another new partner, Detective Eddie Jordan (Jesse L. Martin).

All of these cast changes have actually proven to be a good thing. It has helped to keep the show fresh. Yes, some of the cast changes may have been questionable (many people were upset when Chris Noth got fired from the show), but Law & Order was never about the characters anyway. It was about the plots of the episodes. The constant flow of new characters seems to keep the writers on their toes, and as long as the writers stay excited, the show will stay exciting. It doesn’t seem like Law & Order has been on ten years, and when a show doesn’t seem as old as it actually is, that is a good thing indeed. What is also interesting is that, for a show in the middle of its tenth year on the air, Law & Order is doing wonderfully in the ratings, consistently ranking within the Nielsen Top 20. Also, at the end of the 1997-98 season, after eight years on the air, Law & Order finally won an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. The show is enjoying great critical and commercial success. If any of you haven’t seen Law & Order yet, now is the time. The new episodes of the show air Wednesday nights on WNBC-Channel 4 here on campus. If you want to check out some of the aforementioned previous cast members, cable channel A&E (located at channel 17 here on campus) shows repeats from past seasons three times a day: 1 PM, 7 PM, and 11 PM. Whether you go with one of the old casts or you go with the current cast, you really can’t go wrong with Law & Order.