Probe deep into world of 'Law & Order'

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Books Editor

"Law & Order: Crime Scenes" by Dick Wolf, the NBC TV series' creator and executive producer, includes photographs by Jessica Burstein. List price: $30.

Even those who have watched "Law & Order" a gazillion times likely cannot identify the factors that go into making this the longest-running drama currently on television. This book is interesting because it unveils the underpinnings of our enjoyment.

Early in the history of "Law & Order," creator and executive producer Dick Wolf suggested that the series be aired only in gritty black and white. NBC programming head Brandon Tartikoff nixed that. Writes Wolf in his introduction: "Here, finally, is the way 'Law & Order' was meant to be seen. In black and white."

In 1993, Wolf asked Jessica Burstein, the show's official photographer, to begin making a still record of the crime scenes and victims featured in shows with the idea of a book like this in mind. The shots she took appear to belong in a news photographer's scrapbook, but with a difference: We see an actress playing a murder victim, lying on a coroner's table with ligature marks around her neck — and a disconcerting after-shot in which her eyes are wide open and she's smiling at the camera.

These photographs, along with cast shots and reproductions of memorabilia such as scripts, illustrate this history of the crime drama that became an unprecedented spinoff-spawning money machine. Wolf tells the surprising story of why the show got its trademark bifurcated story line: first half-hour, crime and investigation; second half-hour, perps and prosecutors. (This was the first TV court drama to feature prosecutors, previously stigmatized as heartless, lock-'em-up types.)

Wolf identifies the elements that characterize the "Law & Order" franchise: filmed in 16mm, frequent use of hand-held cameras, sharp pacing, story lines based on real crimes, a camera that sees only what the police and prosecutors see, a focus on good writing and — at the very heart of the idea — a preoccupation with procedural matters rather than characters.

Regular viewers have come to know the personalities over the years. We know that detective Lennie Brisco (Jerry Orbach) will say something amusing, or stunningly insensitive, at some point in the show; that Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson) will bark sternly but support her investigators; and that Jack McCoy (Sam Waterson) will wrestle with some moral dilemma but in the end prosecute or settle as seems best to him.

But we never see the characters at home, never hear much about their personal lives. And we don't need to know these people in order to enjoy an episode of "Law & Order," because it's not about them.

That's purposeful, Wolf explains, and for sound business reasons: He wanted a series that didn't have to run like a series, with a consecutive story line, because stand-alone stories are more marketable in syndication. Recycling is where the real money is in TV.

Of course, by now most of us have seen all the episodes from the early years several times and can date them by who is playing the DA. And we get positively dizzy with delight when we turn on cable and realize it's an episode we HAVEN'T seen.

The book goes deep inside the "Law & Order" world by means of a chapter called "Anatomy of a Crime Scene," which follows the action of a single segment, "Oxymoron," to illustrate how the show went together, how key members of the production team contribute and even how the script was changed by the show's police technical consultant.

A segment of crime scene photos follows, after Wolf explains why he has focused the official book about "Law & Order" on this grisly aspect of the show. The reason is that the crime scene illustrates the way in which the show is governed by carefully thought-through guidelines. Although every show begins with a brief "teaser" in which the crime scene is shown, the scene is never "a celebration of violence," Wolf writes. Blood is kept to a minimum. Gunshots have only been fired a few times in the show's 300-segment history. The crime is never shown in progress.

Rather, the teaser, which rolls before the opening credits, is the place where the process of setting things right, and carrying out justice, begins. As Wolf writes, "first half, murder mystery; second half, moral mystery."

"Law & Order: Crime Scene" makes clear two reasons why this series continues to be interesting, even in re-runs, after so many years: Thought went into the original concept, and writing is king on this set.