Law & Order

Law & Order is a sophisticated pyramid scheme in which creator Dick Wolf gets NBC to pay him ever-increasing amounts of money for essentially making the same show over and over and over. The New York-based series and its various spinoffs currently comprise 40% of NBC's primetime schedule (second only to Dateline NBC), and represent approximately 80% of the programming on the TNT cable network.
==Historical Background==
﻿The original series began its run in the Babylonian era, shortly after the chiseling of the Code of Hammurabbi, and ran non-stop... until, at last, it stopped. Jerry Orbach has appeared on the show as some variation of his beloved character, Saint Lennie of Briscoe, in at least five of his various incarnations on this planet. William Shakespeare is reputed to have written for the show under a pen name in the Elizabethan era, and indeed, Constable Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing is the same character portrayed by Christopher Marlow for five seasons while the series played at the Globe Theater in London. Throughout Law & Order's entire run, approximately one-fifth of the entire population of Earth was featured in the regular or recurring cast.
Scholars have discovered images of Det. Rey Curtis in the Bayeux Tapestry, and a rare Rembrandt portrait of A.D.A. Claire Kincaid recently fetched $1.2 million at auction.
==Spinoff Series==
﻿The venerable original series was joined by several spinoffs, primarly as a means to get John Munch screen time on additional television shows:
*Law & Order: SVU
*Law & Order: SUV
*Law & Order: Criminal Intent
*Law & Order: Fame
*Law & Order: Trial By Jury
*Law & Order: Los Angeles
*Law & Order: Las Vegas
*Conviction
*Dragnet
*Unsolved Mysteries
*Law & Order: Harbor Patrol
*Law & Order: 8th Avenue Between 52nd and 53rd Street
*Law & Order: Miami
*CSI: New York