Law & Order: Discussion Thread

LOS ANGELES - Jesse L. Martin is putting down his "Law & Order" detective's shield, and Anthony Anderson is in negotiations to pick it up.

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Martin, who has been with the NBC drama since fall 1999, will film an episode to air this spring explaining the departure of his character, New York police Detective Ed Green, a person familiar with the show said Wednesday.

Anderson is concluding negotiations to join the cast as a new partner for Detective Cyrus Lupo, played by Jeremy Sisto, said the person, who wasn't authorized to announce the change and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Martin is set to play Marvin Gaye in "Sexual Healing," a movie biography of the ill-fated singer, with James Gandolfini ("The Sopranos") costarring. Filming on the project from Gandolfini's production company is to begin this spring, according to trade paper reports.

Anderson recently starred in the Fox TV series "K-Ville." His other credits include FX's "The Shield" and the films "The Departed" and "Transformers."

Martin once took a break from "Law & Order" to star in the 2005 film version of "Rent," the Broadway version of which he appeared in.

S. Epatha Merkeson is leaving.

http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2010/04/01/s-epatha-merkerson-departs-law-order/

I really liked Dann Florek in the role but Epatha was good right off the bat and just got better and better as time passed. I haven't watched L&O in a long time but I hope she feels good about her work in the role and I wish her a great career after this.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/05/nbc-to-cancel-law-order/

EXCLUSIVE: This one is a shocker. Veteran crime drama Law & Order will not get its shot at history after all. I hear that after long deliberations, NBC has decided to cancel the long-running procedural, which will end its run at 20 seasons, tied with Gunsmoke. This is very surprising as NBC brass had indicated lately that they would bring L&O for a record-breaking 21st season. But with strong development, especially on the drama side, and soft ratings for L&O, NBC apparently opted not to keep the aging series, which spawned several successful spinoffs. The latest, Law & Order: Los Angeles, will launch next season. L&O's renewal by NBC was also contingent on securing a sizable commitment from the series' cable home TNT whose off-network deal for the show was up at the end of this season.

Yikes! Why not just bring it back for one more season to break the record. There's no point of just tying it.

As much as I loathe this show and everything it did to television, at least they could've brought it back for 10 episodes or so, a shortened season.

Hopefully they'll go cancelling one by one of these spin-offs.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/05/nbc-to-cancel-law-order/

Here's the latest news on this fast-moving story. A deal was in place if NBC picked up the Law & Order flagship for a 21st season consisting of 16 episodes. But insiders say Dick Wolf is now accusing the network of "reneging" on that deal: "He's so fucking angry, you have no idea." As recently as the start of this week, even NBCU chief Jeff Zucker was privately telling people that L&O would get one more season. That's certainly what Wolf and his longtime reps (UTA and Ziffren Brittenham legal eagle Cliff Gilbert) were led to believe from NBC suits Marc Graboff and Jeff Gaspin. That is, until last night.

According to the arrangement already in place, NBC/Universal Media Studios was supposed to go to TNT and negotiate a new deal (the old one was up) whereby the cable channel would finance some original episodes of Law & Order in order to continue getting runs of the show. "And, for whatever reason, NBC was unwilling to engage in a serious way with TNT. They didn't do it. At the last minute, they said, 'we'll pick the show up and this is how we're going to do it'. Which was ludicrous." That's when NBC threw its agreement with Wolf out the window and demanded Wolf "finance the pickup of Law & Order out of all the money he's made. And he said, 'Go fuck yourself'," according to an insider. Another source explained the situation more politely: "Graboff broke off the negotiations last night when they fell apart based on Team Dick's unwillingness to make certain deal concessions deemed unreasonable."

But that's not all. Immediately, Team Dick contacted Gaspin. And that email exchange revealed that Gaspin didn't realize the show has been cancelled. But, this morning, NBC began calling reps for the show's stars and telling them, "We want to let you know before you read this on Nikki Finke."

Hopefully they'll go cancelling one by one of these spin-offs.

SVU's not going to be cancelled. And LO:LA looks like it's good to go.

I guess LO: LA is not good to go since there's no script or cast. LOL

Anyway, here's Josef Adalian's update:

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/05/law_order_canceled_dick_wolf.html

Thank god they canceled this mess. I'm sick of them keeping these shows on the air, resting them on their laurels. Hopefully the Simpsons' unfunny and embarrassing asses are next.

I hope Linus Roache will get something good; I've always remembered him fondly from his work in Priest (and he's the son of soap royalty!)

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i12fe2557a938259770431d48b61e090a

http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/05/official-nbc-cancels-law-order-.html

About time, NBC is in no position to waste money on a show that wore out its welcome years ago and is obviously a financial burden at this point.

After 20 seasons, I think the show deserved a real finale, a proper sendoff. I'm really surprised NBC and Dick Wolf couldn't come to some agreement to beat Gunsmoke's record. The show has made SO MUCH money for NBC for 2 decades.

And I never watched one full episode of the show before.

NBC probably should have given it a half season pickup, but I think they're more interested in cutting costs at this point, and face it, nobody watches this show anymore.

Perhaps, they should have worked out a deal with TNT to finance and and air first-run episodes of the show for its last season. There's only so much you can do when you air a finale for a procedural drama anyway, especially with a show like this with a constantly revolving door of actors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/15/arts/television/15law.html