[Dirtbag59]

I love the early episodes of Law and Order with Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks) and Ben Stone (Michael Morrity) as the District Attorney's. Then you had Chris North and even Paul Sorvino of Goodfellas fame playing a detective for a season. Also back then they had Cragen as captin.

They'd always try to make deals for manslaughter with the criminals. Like "Man One, but he does the max." Then the criminal would say no and they'd go back to the District Attorneys office where Adam Schiff would always talk about the worst case scenario in a monotone voice "you'll never get a jury to buy it."

After that they brought in "Jack McCoy", the most made for TV name I've ever seen, and after that it stays decent but for me nothing compares to those early episodes. They also had Jill Hennessey and Jason Sehorns wife as future assistant D.A's.

Still it was a 20 year run so it's not surprising to see the initial one fizzle out. Besides SVU is easily the most popular version of the franchise, I think thanks to the continuity of the Core Cast (Ice T, Munch, Cragen, Olivia, Stabler).