Law and Order: LA (NBC) -- Series Thread
 

From Deadline

I don't watch any of the L&Os, but if NBC were interested in a cop show set in Los Angeles, why not pick up SouthLAn....oh...yeah, I forgot...

Also found at the above link, both the original Law & Order and SVU are lining up for their 21st and 12th seasons, respectively.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

I stopped watching all the L&O about a year ago.

The cable reruns were getting too familiar, so I thought that if I waited a few years, I could see something new. ;)

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

I wonder if they are going to have a shtick, or if they are just trying to refresh the original series. Given the original's mediocre ratings I don't see the demand for another spin off. Maybe it's just NBC's need for primetime programming.

I watched the last US spinoff, Trial By Jury and only stuck it out through the first 3 because it was Orbach's finale performance. I think casting was a big problem for that show because the female lead (Frasier's ex-wife) just didn't do it for me.

I've also watched most of the UK spinoff. That's interesting because they cannibalized scripts from the early seasons of the original. It was also interesting because while it maintained some of the tropes of the original it definitely had a different style. It was more melodramatic in tone and the characters were more personally invested and passionate about the cases. For instance, on more than one occasion the episode would end with the McCoy character in a cemetery or park consoling the victim's family after the verdict.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

We have a winner.

The more news like this that comes out, the better I feel about "Chuck" coming back for another season. They aren't in a position to dump anything.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

Depending on who they cast as the leads, I may try this. I've never been a huge Law and Order fan, I've watched it on and off, but I did watch the entire run of Trial by Jury mainly for Orbach and thought it was good. I was actually shocked that got cancelled since it was pulling decent numbers. But, I agree that Bebe Neuwirth and Amy Carlson were very weak lead actors.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

I'm still a L&O fan but they need to stop with the spin offs and focus on maintaining quality on the 3 they have
hell, they don't even give lip service to the court portion anymore on CI and SVU has very little of it

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

i think the original L&O has gotten much better the past few years. certainly not the heyday it once had, but it's got back to good stories.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

Yeah, the original is back to being my favorite, it was really hurting after Orbach left but the nearly complete cast changover has made it really good again.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

Dick Wolf basically did this already....it was called L.A. Dragnet with Ed O'Neill. It was actually pretty good - Ed O'Neill made a great Joe Friday.

The original was very good last year. This year it's been kind of meh.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

I haven't seen a spin-off yet that I liked, but the original is a great concept, and I'm glad it is still growing strong. I just hope the DVDs start coming out faster. It will be interesting to see if the new one is the original in a new setting (cool), or another new theme (no thanks).

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

With 21 seasons, L&O passes Gunsmoke as the longest running drama. It's only behind 60 Minutes and The Simpsons.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

SVU is my favorite, so I'm hoping the new one is more like that.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

I still watch the original on TNT reruns. Never really watched the others. Probably won't watch LOLA, unless they cast someone I really like.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

Unless they cast someone interesting, I'm not sure how different this is from the mothership. The original is the best of the 3 on tv anyway. SVU has become unwatchable and CI is boring without Vincent D'Nofrio.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

It's almost too bad they are doing it in LA, just becasue so many shows have been done there, a Law and Order set in the south or midwest might be more interestin (or at least different). I enjoyed Brotherhood, I would assume since they brought Masters on it is to give some kind of new twist to the formula.

Glad to see the original loosk good for another year, I think the cast they have now is one of the better ones they have had.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

I dunno I might give this a try but the only Law & Order series I was watching recently was Criminal Intent and even the quality of that was going down. Now that Goren and Eames are off I really don't have as much interest in it. The original and SVU I got tired of a long time ago.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

I have to echo something a lot like this. Justified gives us a taste of law enforcement in a different setting, but something like L&O Birmingham or L&O Austin would have been far more interesting to me. Give us a smaller city setting, shoot it in that city (make sure it's in a state with the proper subsidies), and try to fuse the L&O formula with something distinct and different from what we have seen out of it so far.

ETA: Though it's a bigger city, L&O: Detroit would be fascinating.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

Awesome...a L&O at 10pm every night. Way to go NBC!

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

I'm for it. Better than Leno for sure.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

Awesome! I love L&O!

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

Before CSI: New York got green lighted, they were actually seriously considering CSI: New Orleans as the 3rd spinoff, but scrapped it because it would have been too expensive to shoot on location there and you can't fake New Orleans in Los Angeles.

I would love to see a law enforcement show in a smaller city other than LA, Washington DC, New York or Chicago, which 95% of all procedurals are based out of.

If they cast a good lead actor/actress for L&O: LA, then maybe I would consider watching it, but I have to agree that LA is such an overused city in television shows.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

Not that it was a procedural, exactly, but this reminds me about the short-lived Line of Fire. Richmond before it got cleaned up was really a perfect not seen before but plenty interesting setting for a law enforcement show.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

The only problem with using a smaller city is plausibility. Suspending disbelief on CSI Vegas is borderline at this point giving us 2-3 murders a week for 9 years. Granted L&O typically sticks to one case, I'd still have a problem with those numbers on a show set in a small city.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

Birmingham, Alabama apparently has (or fairly recently had) around 90 murders a year.

With that said, I think an expansion into something other than murder would be one of the things that would need to happen. In a place like that, a serial robber or burglar would be a big case. A larger drug distributor would be a big case. Does Birmingham have dedicated homicide detectives? My guess is probably not, but it's hard to say.

Re: Law and Order: Los Angeles gets 13-episode order from NBC
 

It does not always have to be murders, they could do other crimes as well to mix it up a bit.