Shared Reality: "Deadline" and "Law And Order (ALL of them)"

Deadline and Law And Order (ALL of them)

Conviction (2006)
Deadline (2000-2001)
Law And Order (1990-    )
Law And Order: Criminal Intent (2001-    )
Law And Order: Special Victims Unit (1999-    )
Law And Order: Trial By Jury (2005)
Law And Order: UK (2009-    )
Law And Order: Kangaroo Court With Jack Hannah (To be determined)
Type: Shared Reality
Group 2

Wow. And here I thought this page was destined to be an "almost" deal I would never actually get to write. I thought this was the crossover that never was. Guess not.

Okay, here's the deal. Dick Wolf created a little show called Law And Order. Little Engine That Could really. At the start about two people watched it. But it somehow kept surviving on the NBC schedule until quite a number of people started watching it and telling their friends, "Hey, you know what? This show doesn't suck!" Enough people watched to keep it clicking along. Then the repeats hit cable. More people started finding it their and then tuning into NBC for the new episodes and, boom, the show started blowing the ratings door off the place. Dick Wolf had a license to print money (Actually this was a false belief on his part which ended the minute the Feds burst in and shut down his little "tens" and "twenties" operation. Joking!).

Anyway, Law And Order did become huge! So huge NBC said to Dick Wolf, "Why don't you churn out a couple more of them bad boys for us?" And he said, "The Feds took my printing press. Turns out that license to print money was just a gag gift." And they said, "No, no. More Law And Order shows." And Wolf said, "Oh! That I can do. They didn't take my cam corder." Finally NBC finished up by saying, "Did we dial the right number?"

So the next thing you know you have Law And Orders popping up all over the place: Special Victims Unit, Criminal Intent...

All the Law And Order shows were procedural cop shows. All about the self contained "case of the week", very little about the personal lives of the characters. After a time, maybe just to mix things up and try something different, Wolf created a non-cop procedural show called Deadline.

Instead of focusing on cops investigating a crime and lawyers prosecuting it, Deadline focused on newspaper reporters out investigating stories. Hey, reporters investigate crimes too and it gave a new slant to things. Oliver Platt starred as reporter Wallace Benton. Right there the differences between Deadline and Law And Order start. The cops and lawyer on Law And Order? Pretty serious. Pretty deadpan. Wallace Benton? Hello? The guy is a star reporter with an ego and just a smidge of heart. No deadpan here. This guy was all about swagger, attitude and getting in and out of trouble.

The show had an amazing cast too. In addition to Oliver Platt (normally a movie actor) you got Lili Taylor (Say Anything, Rudy, High Fidelity), Bebe Neuwirth (Cheers, the Broadway stage), Tom Conti (Another Broadway bigshot)...

So a lighter touch and an impressive cast. That's gotta be a hit in the making... right? Well I guess not. After a single season - actually about half a season - NBC chucked it . They might have given Law And Order a bunch of time to pick up viewers but not Deadline. On and gone in 13 episodes.

Now at the time there was some talk about Deadline actually taking place in the same world as Law And Order. That maybe some crossovers might happen. Within the 13 filmed episodes though that never happened. And not like I was gonna count it because there was maybe sorta supposed to have been a crossover eventually.

But I was sloppy. I missed something very important. Deadline was set at the fictional newspaper The New York Ledger. I had failed to notice that on Law And Order, when they needed to show a newspaper headline, their fakey newspaper of choice was in fact The New York Ledger. Yep, one fakey newspaper between two shows... I mean three shows... well wait... four... actually with Trail By Jury it would be five...er, NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!! One newspaper between all these shows means one shared world.

A couple of interesting points also in regards to Bebe Neuwirth. She I think is the balancing force in the Law And Order universe to Richard Belzer. Belzer plays Detective Munch on Special Victims Unit having previously played him on Homicide: Life On The Streets. He also has guest starred as Munch on so many shows he holds the record for most appearances as the same character on multiple shows. he also is one of TVs just flat out longest lived characters. Bebe Neuwirth, I'm sad to say, holds the distinction of playing multiple characters on multiple shows in the Law And Order universe almost none of which had a very long life. She also starred in Trail By Jury which NBC also sacked after 13 episodes. hey, don't blame me. I watched it. Anyway, more characters in fewer episodes. Hey a record's a record. And, actually, since Cheers is part of the same universe, that helps her out a lot. For one thing that makes yet another character she's played in that world AND it brings her show lifespan average up a lot. Counting a one shot character she did on Special Victims Unit she has played 4 different folks in the same continuity.

Most recently, the sets for the canceled Law And Order: Trial By Jury have been recycled and put to use on Conviction, the first Law And Order show NOT to use the Law And Order name. Still, it has to count as part of the Law And Order "all".

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