The original cast
September 13, 1990: Law & Order premieres on NBC, created by Dick Wolf. The original series runs for 20 seasons.
The opening narration, delivered by Steve Zirnkilton, a former member of the Maine House of Representatives, explains: "In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police who investigate crime, and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."
The 1st half-hour then shows detectives in the New York Police Department as they work on cracking a case, and the 2nd half-hour shows how the Manhattan District Attorney's office tries to prosecute it – and "the good guys" didn't always win.
The music for Law & Order was composed by veteran composer Mike Post, and was deliberately designed to be minimal to match the abbreviated style of the series. Post wrote the theme song using electric piano, guitar, and clarinet.
In addition, scene changes were accompanied by a tone generated by Post. He refers to the tone as "The Clang." Entertainment Weekly critic Ken Tucker called it the "ominous chung CHUNG." Dann Florek, one of the actors on the show, called it the "doink doink." Another, Richard Belzer, called it "the Dick Wolf Cash Register Sound," because Wolf has made so much money off of it.
Each show is an ensemble affair. Among the many stars of the original series have been George Dzundza, Chris Noth, Michael Moriarty, Paul Sorvino, Jerry Orbach, S. Epatha Merkerson, Jill Hennssy, Sam Watersoton, Benjamin Bratt, Carey Lowell, Angie Harmon, Jesse L. Martin, Fred Dalton Thompson, Dennise Farina, Linus Roache, Anthony Anderson, Camryn Manheim, Tony Goldwyn and Maura Tierney.
Going into the 2022-23 TV season, the franchise has now had 8 shows, with occasional crossovers, totaling 1,172 episodes -- with Steve Zirnkilton proving the opening narration for each, making him, in all likelihood, the "actor" with the most show appearances in the history of television on planet Earth.
That would be Mariska Hargitay, daugther of actress Jayne Mansfield and professional bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay. She has now played Olivia Benson, currently with the rank of Captain, for 24 seasons on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, breaking the record shared by James Arness of Gunsmoke and Kelsey Grammer of Cheers and Frasier for the most seasons, and most consecutive seasons, playing the same character on U.S. primetime television.
SVU, which focuses on sex crimes, has also featured Christopher Maloney, Richard Belzer, Dann Florek, Michelle Hurd, BD Wong, and, turning his previous image on its head, rapper Ice-T.
Belzer played Detective John Munch, a character who also appeared on the TV shows Homicide: Life On the Street, The X-Files, and the X-Files spinoff The Lone Gunmen -- despite the L&O shows and Homicide appearing on NBC, and the X-Franchise appearing on Fox. This suggests that all of these shows exist in the same "fictional universe." I'm not going to get into the whole "Tommy Westphall Universe" idea, because there are serious flaws in it.
On the other hand, Dick Wolf also created NBC's linked One Chicago franchise, which has included 4 shows; and CBS' FBI franchise, which has included 3 shows. And a character from the former appeared on the latter, showing that both of those shows exist in the same universe. Whether they also exist in the L&O universe is uncertain.
*
September 13, 1990 was a Thursday. There was a college football game played that night: The University of Houston, ranked Number 18, beat Texas Tech, 51-35 at Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.
And these games were played in Major League Baseball:
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox, 9-6 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Ordinarily, as a Yankee Fan who grew up on the New York side of New Jersey, I start this list with the New York Yankees, then the New York Mets, and then work my way North to South down the Eastern Seaboard, and then work my way West. So why am I mentioning the Chicago teams first?
Because I was at these games. As a baseball history buff, I wanted to see a game at Comiskey before it closed that month. And this was the last day on which both Chicago teams were going to be at home on the same day before the new White Sox stadium opened.
In the Cubs game, Rick Sutcliffe started against Bruce Ruffin, and neither got through the 5th inning. Dale Murphy, former 2-time National League Most Valuable Player for the Atlanta Braves, was now with the Phillies, and hit a home run over the left-field stands, onto Waveland Avenue.
I figured that the Wrigley tradition of the fan who caught the opposition's home run throwing the ball back onto the field was not going to happen. I was wrong. The fan who retrieved the ball on Waveland threw it back into the bleachers, and one of the "Bleacher Bums" threw it back onto the field. In baseball terms, the Waveland retriever hit the cutoff man.
Mark Grace went 4-for-4 with 2 RBIs. But the winning run scored on a groundout, Jerome Walton to 3rd base, where a forceout happened, but the runner who was on 3rd base, Joe Girardi, scored, and since Walton made it to 1st base, the run counted.
One thing I really wanted to see was a White Sox playing hitting a home run, so Comiskey's "exploding scoreboard" would light up and shoot off its fireworks. That home run came, not from Carlton Fisk, a veteran catcher who ended up with 376 home runs; not Frank Thomas, a rookie 1st baseman who ended up with 521; not Sammy Sosa, a 2nd-year right fielder who would later use steroid to hit 609; nor Robin Ventura, a young 3rd baseman who went on to hit 294; but Iván Calderón, a left fielder not known for his power, who finished with 104.
Alex Fernandez was the starter and winner for the South Siders, defeating Boston starter Tom Bolton. Ellis Burks and Mike Greenwell hit home runs for the Red Sox.
The Cubs and the Phillies were way out of the NL Eastern Division race. In contrast, the White Sox were hanging on in the American League Western Division, while the Red Sox were leading, and would win, the AL Eastern Division. So this was a rare occasion when the White Sox had a better attendance than the Cubs: On a Thursday afternoon, the Cubs got 15,495 fans; on a Thursday night, the White Sox got 27,648.
And yet, I noticed something. There was a saxophone player outside Wrigley. He was doing pretty well with the coins and bills through into his case. He was outside Comiskey, too, but, despite having nearly double the crowd, he was making about half as much money.
* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Mike Witt outpitched Walt Terrell. Kevin Maas hit a home run, playing 1st base for the injured Don Mattingly.
* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-3 at Shea Stadium. Dwight Gooden outpitched Doug Drabek. Darryl Strawberry and Daryl Boston hit home runs for the Mets. Barry Bonds went 4-for-4 with 2 RBIs.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Montreal Expos, 6-4 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-3 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto. Cal Ripken went 1-for-5.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 7-5 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.
* The California Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 7-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Ken Griffey Sr. did not play for the Mariners, but Ken Griffey Jr. did, going 0-for-3. The next night, against the Angels, the Griffeys, the 1st father & son to be major league teammates, hit back-to-back home runs.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Paul Sorrento won the game with a home run in the top of the 10th inning. Rickey Henderson appeared only as a pinch-runner, and did not get to bat.
* And the following teams were not scheduled: The Cleveland Indians, the Kansas City Royals, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Texas Rangers, the Atlanta Braves, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San Diego Padres and the San Francisco Giants. So many, because Thursday is often a travel day in baseball.
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