Summary
"Law & Order" is an American crime and legal drama set in New York. The first half of each episode follows detectives as they investigate a violent crime and the second half moves to the courtroom where defendants are prosecuted by the Manhattan district attorney's office. Of the original cast members, Chris Noth as junior detective Mike Logan and Steven Hill as district attorney Adam Schiff appeared in several seasons, but the show is largely associated with Jerry Orbach, who played senior detective Lennie Briscoe from 1992 until the actor's death in 2004, and Sam Waterston, who played executive assistant district attorney Jack McCoy from 1994 in 343 episodes. Other notable characters include Det Ed Green (Jesse L Martin), Lt Anita Van Buren (S Epatha Merkerson) and DA Arthur Branch (Fred Thompson). Created by Dick Wolf, "Law & Order" premiered in America in 1990 and ran for 20 seasons, clocking up 456 episodes. The success of the show led to spin-off series "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit", "Law & Order: Criminal Intent", "Law & Order: Trial by Jury", "Law & Order: LA" and British series "Law & Order: UK".
