The term Law & Order franchise is commonly used to describe a number of related American television programs created by Dick Wolf and originally broadcast on NBC, all of which deal with some aspect of the New York City criminal justice system.
So far, more than 1,000 episodes have been produced in the English language part of the franchise.
List of shows
- Law & Order: The first half hour of the show focuses on the police investigation; the second half takes place at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and focuses on the prosecution involving the criminal(s).
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: The show's focus is on detectives who investigate sexually-based crimes.
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent: This show focuses on high-profile cases investigated by the Major Case Squad, with special focus on the actions of the criminals pursued.
- Law & Order: Trial by Jury: This show mostly followed the jury's side of a case, and was the first Law & Order series that was canceled due to low ratings.
- Conviction: This show features Alexandra Cabot.
- Paris Enquêtes Criminelles: This show is the French version of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Russian version): This show is the Russian version of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Russian version): This show is the Russian version of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
- Law & Order: UK: This show is the United Kingdom's version of the original series.
- Homicide: Life on the Street: This show is considered to be a sister show to Law & Order.
- New York Undercover: This show was co-created by Kevin Arkadie and Dick Wolf, and was implicitly a part of the same universe as the franchise, as psychologist characters from Law & Order appeared in the series.
- Deadline: This show was created by Dick Wolf and shown on NBC in the 2000-2001 season. It featured reporters and editors from the New York Ledger, a daily newspaper seen in many episodes of Law & Order.
- Law & Order: LA: This show replaced the original Law & Order and is set in Los Angeles, California. Following the format of the original series, the first half hour of the show focuses on the police investigation; the second half takes place at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and focuses on the prosecution involving the criminal(s). The show was canceled on May 13, 2011 after one season.
- Law & Order True Crime: In April 2016, Wolf and NBC announced they were working on True Crime, a scripted anthology series that will follow one significant true-to-life case per season. Season one, titled Law & Order True Crime will focus on the Menendez brothers murders, and will star Edie Falco as Leslie Abramson and Gus Halper as Erik Menendez.
- Law & Order: Hate Crimes: On September 4, 2018, Wolf and NBC announced they were working on Hate Crimes, a scripted police procedural television series that will follow where crimes motivated by discrimination are vigorously investigated by an elite, specially trained team of investigators. Going behind the headlines and viral videos, these diverse, dedicated and passionate detectives will stop at nothing to bring these criminals to justice.
- Untitled Law & Order: Special Victims Unit/Elliot Stabler spin-off: On March 31, 2020, NBC announced that it had ordered a 13-episode series in which Christopher Meloni will reprise his role as Elliot Stabler. The series will center around an organized crime task force headed by Stabler.
Shared people and resources in a common fictional setting are the connecting links between the shows, for example Hudson University and the New York Ledger tabloid newspaper. Many supporting characters, such as district attorneys, psychologists and medical examiners are also shared among the shows. Occasionally, crossovers of main characters and/or shared story lines between two of the shows will occur. A few major characters have also left the cast of one show within the franchise only to eventually join another.
Crossover Shows
The franchise also crossed over on several occasions with other independently conceived shows, some of which were co-created by Dick Wolf.
- New York Undercover: Had two different episodes where the original L&O supporting characters made appearances.
- Homicide: Life on the Street: Has crossovers with the later '90s era seasons of the original
- In Plain Sight: Another USA Network show which crossed over with Criminal Intent.
- Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Justice: These three series are part of a Chicago-themed quadrilogy by Wolf's production company for NBC, which has had crossover episodes with the long-running SVU show and have characters from the original L&O.
