All this week I’ll be looking at “oldTV.” That’s not television that’s old, but television that old people watch. This kind of television is generally marked by the following: lack of relevance, void of loud music, reaffirms the world has gone to hell and Sam Waterston.
Law and Order began airing on NBC back in 1990. It’s such an old show, you may have been too young when it debuted but are now old enough to watch it. Created by Dick Wolf, this completely inoffensive whodunit, that splits the show between police work and the court room, is every old person’s wet dream. Not too much police work (too much police work is confusing) and not too much courtroom drama (too much courtroom drama is confusing). No complicated character developments (who cares about what the characters do on their own time anyway) and no story archs (that way you can miss an episode and not be lost). Also, Jill Hennessy, Carey Lowell, Angie Harmon, Elizabeth Rohm and Alana de la Garza are the perfect eye candy for old dudes: pretty, young (but not too young that all fantasies are immediately deemed implausible) and fairly chaste looking.
The show spawned two successful spin-offs: Law and Order: Special Victims Unit in 1999 (that show is for old people with strong stomachs or perverse appetites) and Law and Order: Criminal Intent in 2001 (that show is for intellectual old people or old people who like to complain that Vincent D'Onofrio whispers too much).
Despite being part of the TV diet for old folks, the Law and Order franchise is incredibly well done. My personal favorite is Law and Order: Criminal Intent (I’m a huge Goren fan) but I’ve watch a lot of the Law and Order: SVU’s too (although that show can be a little intense. During an era of television where scripted shows flock towards CGI effects, sex and violence, Law and Order proves that great story telling still sells.
