The Increasingly Left ‘Law and Order’
by Michael MoriartyWell, I think I’ve been fairly calm and forgiving of Law and Order for about fifteen years. Living outside of the U.S. has certainly helped in more ways than one. Out of sight, out of mind. Law and Order has, for years, been just a press of the remote away from non-existence.
However, recent events have Law and Order just begging for my reassessment. I hardly expected my old television series to be the clown act that leads the American viewing audience into an increasingly predictable pile of hard left propaganda.
Why?
Dick Wolf
Dick Wolf is basically a follower of usually high-level talents such as Joe Stern, Robert Nathan and Ed Sherin.
Those men, I believe, are no longer regulars on Law and Order.
The guy who apparently wears the pants in that family is now Rene Balcer.
That’s clearly the hypnotist in whose deep pink trance Dick Wolf is irretrievably drowning.
Given the number of truly talented people that Wolf Productions has fired – versus the number of mediocre puppets and propagandists he’s hired – it should be no wonder that not just the Left but the French Left of a Rene Balcer should be running things.
However, with Le Balcer (pronounced Ball-Say … Say-Whaa?) now the head Ringmaster … and Dick Wolf in some kind of quasi-retirement … or early senility … the show has gone beyond hell. Such a plight is possible if, in the inferno, you cut a deal with the devil. Balcer, as even his own words might convince you of, has worn the Red credentials … minus the horns, of course … for most of his life. Only Lucifer could give him his opinions on terrorism.
Wolf, on the other hand, has, for his entire life, been merely a careerist, chasing the unsurpassable achievements of his mentor, Steven Bochco, and being obviously surpassed by numerously more brilliant TV producers. Such careerism would infer that even his own mother’s not safe if it means the record-breaking survival of a Dick Wolf production. Law and Order will soon outrace Gunsmoke to the category of longest-running television series.
Methuselah was the longest-running star of the Bible … but I hardly think his memory brings either a smile or a tear to anyone’s eye.
Recently Bill O’Reilly took profoundly justifiable umbrage – a good word, Mr. O’Reilly – at Law and Order’s lumping his name in with other talk-show hosts, describing them all as “a cancer spreading ignorance and hate … they have convinced folks that immigrants are the problem, not corporations that fail to pay a living wage or a broken health care system.”
Well!!
O’Reilly called those charges “simply defamatory and outrageous,” and labeled Wolf “a coward” and “a liar.”
Rene Balcer
As for Wolf’s cowardice, he buckled before the profoundly unconstitutional behavior of Attorney General Janet Reno and he and NBC lied about my having quit Law and Order.
Wolf and NBC announced that they fired me because of behavior that seems to have resembled Glenn Beck’s.
If only we had all been working for FOX!!
That I was fired is a lie.
I had quit Universal Television and NBC and the Law and Order series before they could even come up with an excuse for hiring Sam Waterston. An advertisement I placed in both Variety and Hollywood Reporter announced my leaving the United States, which I did within a year.
If anyone can find those ads, I submit them as exhibit A in the proof of … how shall I say … Dick Wolf’s and NBC’s lack of, well, a certain talent for the truth.
It is all laid out in my memoir, The Gift of Stern Angels, now unfortunately out of print. No one was interested then.
By the way, The Gift of Stern Angels is quite a hurly-burly ride through the politics of network television, not to mention my own losing battle with alcohol.
Poor Law and Order has been drifting and now tumbling downhill into the ever-deepening waters of America-bashing. The blatant disgust for America’s hard-earned and hard-won sovereignty as a nation, credentials that certainly demand strict and unashamedly clear immigration laws … the Red Law and Order seems to be spitting on the very nation that defined a decent meaning to the words “law and order”.
As for Dick Wolf’s Empire and its future?
There might very well be numerous episodes on the 9/11 terrorists and their New York Trial.
I can now see the cops, ending the first half of the show, reading the Miranda rights to some grotesquely veiled excuse for Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
When KSM gets to trial?
No doubt, he and his defense lawyers… there’ll be more than one at the defense table … will get their day in court!!!!!
Dick Wolf’s point of view?
He might say, “Our shows on the trial of KSM will make its viewers at least as angry as the pre-trial demonstrations have shown!”
For Dick Wolf, such a stunningly simplistic achievement is all he’s really been looking for his entire life: upsetting his audience.
He sure as hell upset Bill O’Reilly!
Our very own John Nolte has taken a close look at an L & O episode, Memos from the Darkside.
Please read his frank estimate of the Rene Balcer turn on the infamous Torture Memos. In addition, John’s article contains a long clip of Rene Balcer being interviewed by an Australian journalist [see below].
–
After describing his job as Executive Producer much like “herding cats … and anxious types”, Mr. Balcer refers to the war on terrorism as “so-called”, and claims that “cultural misunderstandings” lead to labeling innocent people as “terrorists”.
The “fallout of 9/11” is “pretty big business in America”.
It’s obviously earning Rene Balcer a living as terrorism’s apologist.
“Americans of Middle Eastern descent … being held incommunicado and being abused by prison guards”, this, according to Balcer, was happening, under Bush of course, in Guantanamo, Iraq and Brooklyn!
However, according to Balcer, “you get in trouble (with a lot of people) if you attack President Bush by name …”
Hmmm … apparently talk show hosts like Bill O’Reilly are another matter.
Yet Balcer claims he shies away from “ad hominem” attacks.
Really?!
“Our best shows make the audience question what’s going on” … upstairs, right?
He admits to finding another show about the upstairs in Washington D.C., 24, “offensive”.
“24 supports torture!”
And therefore, Mr. Balcer, must Law and Order say that torture doesn’t save any American lives?
However, the most chilling points of view he expresses are his ideas about what makes a terrorist.
“Most people commit crimes … whether it be terrorists … or knocking over the local grocery store … they do it for intensely personal reasons.”
Hmmmm, indeed!!
A mere, ten minute glimpse into CNN’s documentary on the youthful terrorists in Mumbai and their horrifying phone conversations with their “Controllers” … whew … this would reveal no “intensely personal reasons” for mass murder but, indeed, a robotic, brainwashed and monomaniacal mindset instilled by their Jihadist instructors, the same mindset that filled the World War II kamikaze pilots of Japan.
Obviously Mr. Balcer has his own “personal problems” … and he’s “working them out” on Law and Order.
Finally, the Law and Order episode on ACORN?
President Obama’s very own Van Jones and Andy Stern might have written portions of it.
Yet Dick Wolf still wonders why producers like Steven Bochco and Jerry Bruckheimer always received better reviews, bigger ratings and vastly greater respect.
Dick, from the guy you used to describe as “the conscience of the show”, perhaps it’s because Bochco and Bruckheimer have had a conscience in the first place.
Where Law and Order has been treading is unconscionable.
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818 Comments
Law and Order and L&O:SVU were my favorite shows on television for a long time.
My first really conscious recognition of the show taking a left turn was when they gave D'Oniofrio his own series. (ok so I'm slow on the uptake, and quite frankly it takes alot to frost my flakes, you know?) The guy is talented but dirves me nuts.
I wonder how Fred Thompson was able to stay for as long as he did.
Thank you, Mr. Moriarity, for confirmation of what many ardent viewers of L&O have suspected. Wish I had stopped watching with your departure, but at least I did stop watching years ago.
Michael, my husband was always a big fan of L&O, but given the turn of the show over recent years, has given up watching it. Over this past weekend however, there was a L&O marathon which featured an episode with you, Richard Brooks, Chris Noth, and George Dzundza. He was delighted to once again see an episode that reminded him of why he enjoyed the show in the first place, before it devolved into mindless, left-leaning tripe. Thank you for your insight into the evolution of the show and welcome to "Big Hollywood"!
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A good deal of inside baseball from Mr. Moriarity, and it's well appreciated. Balcer is one of the reasons for both the slide left and for the quality of all three shows. Only thing Mr. Moriarity didn't hit on is the upper management of NBC and GE, who do more to shape ideology on the entire NBC brand.
Balcer, Wolf, Imelt and Zucker are all fellow travelers.
Always thought CI played it mostly in the middle politcally. There were a few times that it went blantanly left. But not anywhere as bad as mothership and SVU.
maybe, but I just never really watched CI, so i couldn't really say. D'Onofrio was pretty loony at the time and I didn't really care to watch it. So my Biases kept me from watching.
But I am really disappointed by the whole thing.
Richard Belzer and Ice-T were my favorites on SVU.
Like most people, probably, I have vivid memories of my childhood and then some things are a blur. When I was 12, 13, 14, that age range (yes, I know it was abnormal and probably not a good thing for a kid to watch L&O), I remember watching the new L&O shows almost religiously. Then, in the middle of high school, Ben Stone left and Jack McCoy arrived. At first, I loved the switch and thought the show was even better than the previous seasons. Then, week by week, more often than not, I missed the shows, but always managed to catch the reruns of the old ones on various cable channels. It took me a while before I acknowledged that I liked the old ones more than the new ones and then it never occurred to me until later on in life, when my political system of beliefs became somewhat grounded, that the reason had anything to do with the show's politics. In me, they had a kid who literally grew up on watching Law & Order and they threw away that level of devotion for agenda. I limped along with watching it until around 1997 or 1998, when I graduated High School and went off to college. By that point, I had little use for mindless propaganda, I got enough of that from my new peers, though in engineering school, I didn't catch a lot of that from my professors.
L&O is much like America, a great idea, tremendous initial execution, later hijacked by the left and perverted in their own image and left to limp along until death comes for it or those sharing the beliefs of its founders come to reclaim it.
Good Lord, Mr. Moriarty!
You have a real gift for writing, not to mention unassailable points to make (content). Had you not come to BigHollywood, I would've remained forever clueless to your fine qualities. You would've been just a distant memory of excellence on television, rarely summoned up and, even then, not really understood.
I feel lucky that I found BigHollywood. I'm damned glad you found it, as well. This, to me, is the very meaning of serendipity. Thank you,, kind sir.
L&O is much like America, a great idea, tremendous initial execution, later hijacked by the left and perverted in their own image and left to limp along until death comes for it or those sharing the beliefs of its founders come to reclaim it.
Just worth seeing again. Well said!
I did and I stopped watching when an episdoe aired that involved D'Onofrio going on a rant against a former Army doctor (surprise she was the villian!) about her methods used to interrogate terrorists at Gitmo of course the very questinable methods his character regularly used to trick suspects into confessing on a weekly basis was quickly glossed over because the Army doctor was being mean to people who want to murders us. That was it I turned it off and never watched again.
The Dinosaur Media can't fight the flood of real information, and are mystified that their former sheeple viewers who used to accept as "the News" everything the execrable Walter Cronkite uttered, no longer watch their bilge.
Solution? Infotainment mirrored in their other programs. It's not enough that folks won't watch The Today Show for their fresh supply of pabulum, so the execs use it as filler in everything else. Because their sole reason for being is political.
Kinda like "enriched bread". You know, where they take whole wheat and remove everything nutritional about it, bleach it, and put vitamins back in it, bake it up and hand it to you and tell you you're "enriched."
I have to admit, when my brother and I were much younger, we used to amuse each other by doing "Sam Waterston" impressions at the dinner table. Improving his sputtering outrage in various contrived situations was a source of great amusement to us.
What I love about living here in on L.A.'s west side is how often I get to encounter these Leftist Hollywood types (okay, some of them are friends) and shatter the mirrored fun house in their heads.
Just last night I listened as a sound editor of some of t.v.'s most successful shows tried to debate the desirability of bringing terrorists to New York for trial. Other than being a friend and a really nice guy, he's living in a fever swamp of liberal wishful thinking.
He claimed that the Muslim public in the Middle East would be very impressed with our equal treatment of Islamist terrorists under our laws.
I simply pointed out that genocidal fat boy Khalid Sheik Muhammed was not read his Miranda rights when he was, er, *arrested* overseas. And he was waterboarded, too- both clear violations of criminal procedure and that by the rule of "equal treatment", KSM should be set free on technicalities. That would surely *impress* the Muslim public (not to mention the voters of a Dark Blue state like New York who would abandon Obama and guarantee a GOP victory in '12).
Then my opinionated liberal pal promptly changed the subject. LOL! Next victim!
Rene Balcer looks like Kevin Neeland. Michael, I have always laughed at the leftists who tried to pretend the Bush Administration silenced anybody. They did no such thing. And yet, Tim Robbins, Natalie Maines and others would have us believe we were living in an Orwellian nightmare. The left never seems to realize that freedom to say something goes along with the public's right to dismiss it as dribble.
I appreciate your detailed insites on the demise of this show.
Yet Dick Wolf still wonders why producers like Steven Bochco and Jerry Bruckheimer always received better reviews, bigger ratings and vastly greater respect.
Dick Wolf should get a clue about these two guys. Bruckheinmer, for the most part, leaves politics out of the shows he produces, and Bochco is one hell of a writer, going all the way back to the first regular episode of Columbo, "Murder by the Book."
As for Balcer, he is a hack, no doubt about it. I loved watching L&O:CI for the first few seasons, but I got tired of all the attacks on President Bush. I had a fairly substantial L&O DVD collection by that time, but I sold them because I was so irritated by the non-stop self-righteous view from the left of Balcer and "friends."
Gone are the days when actors were talented enough to keep their personal political biases out of the characters they portrayed. I doubt Burt Lancaster had any use for Elmer Gantry, however, he played him straight. Just imagine a d'Onofrio doing that role today — he'd have been so ham handed over the top, frothing at the mouth that you'd have to know in the first frame that Elmer was really a bad guy.
The memorable villains are those who have some redeeming quality. Think Billy Zane in "Dead Calm". Wouldn't you have let him on the boat? He seemed so sweet, so sincere. Only as the movie went on when the onion layers began to peel back did you witness the monster beneath the handsome exterior.
Ho'wood writers today cannot keep from laying on their politics with a trowel and it becomes boring and one dimensional. The combination of a badly written CI with d'Onofrio hamming it up makes a cringe producing hour of TV. Most of us don't bother as the ratings show.
Haven't watched L&O for years now. I'll take my entertainment without the left wing views, thank you.. Lack of creativity and no heart make for a toxic brew of entertainment anyway.
Same here. I almost blew a gasket watching that episode. After it was over, I looked over at my wife, who was also watching the episode, and said, "That's it; I'm done."
I haven't watched it since. As I recall, soon afterward the ratings plummeted and they foisted the show off on the USA Network.
"Michael, my husband was always a big fan of L&O, but given the turn of the show over recent years, has given up watching it"
So have a lot of people if the ratings are any indications. But the Red Hollywood Coalition is so entrenched, it does no good and won't until we boycott the advertisers. THEN the Lefty propaganda ends. Not until.
I enjoyed reading your post. It's difficult to follow liberals' thinking – perhaps because there isn't a lot of thinking going on. Is your friend in total denial? He has to be fairly intelligent to function in his career. Does he not know what SKM did to Daniel Pearl? How does he justify that? Is he not aware of 9-11? How does he explain killing 3K people in one day? A temper tantrum? Is he anti-Semitic? Does he blame Israel? (I had dinner with an Iraqi physician one evening just after the Iraq invasion. This man's father had been tortured and killed by Saddam and his mother forbidden to cry lest she be arrested, too. He escaped to America. Who did he blame for what happened to his father? Saddam? Nope. The Jews! I could barely keep from starting a food fight.) How do these people justify their ignorance? What would your friend have said had Atta directed one of the planes at the studio where he is sound editor? Do they not remember the nineties when we had BC as president and the USA was attacked every 18 months (WTC 1, Khobar Towers, African Embassies, the Cole) without any retaliation? Does your friend not understand we can do only one of two things to satisfy them: Die or convert to their psychosexual cult of a religion.
Another great read Michael! Well, I’m glad I missed the show entirely, from what I’ve read the first few seasons, were respectable …oh well!
Ah… one of my favorites: "Columbo".
I tried watching L & O the other night. I cut it off when one cop started to lecture the other ( seeming uninformed ) cop about how unions work to protect him using a coke can as a visual aid. I get turned off real quick when a show tries to "educate" me by shoe horning some lecture into the middle of the plot. SVU was notoious for that. All it ever did was grind the flow to a halt and bore me with awkward dialouge.
Damn! That was flat-out good — I don't know how else to say it.
Awesome commentary, Joe S. Thanks for sharing it!
I think it's great that L&O is wallowing in their misinformed view of how the world really works. It shows, (especially in SVU) that the naive and torturous liberal ideals of detectives don't factor in to real life crime and offenses. Due to the last couple of episodes, I've taken ALL "Law & Oder" off of my DVR's to do list. Goodbye Mr. Wolf, you and the rest of you bloated hippie dinosaurs are stuck in the amber of your own victimization.
I just regret that none of the over-fed, overpaid Hollywood leftist b*st*rds ever left the country, as they were so fond of threatening to do. Susan? You still here? I thought you'd run off, Ms. Sarandon. Thanks ever so much for not leaving. (Yeah, right, lady. To hell with you AND the horse you rode in on.)
Very good comment, Tennessee_Jed.
L&O is on NBC. NBC is left of Mao. I will have none of it. Enough said.
Fred Thompson has to be their token republican (I'm not sure how conservative he really is, though). When the criticism starts, they can always point to Fred and say that they have a big name republican working for them, so how can they be leftward biased? Although, they have to be paying him bucketloads for him to stay with that execrable show.
I certainly take great comfort in the fact that this "historic" season of L&O (and whatever leftist garbage is peddled in it) is being watched by … practically no one. That's a much better state of affairs than if this explicit loony left POV came during the years when the show actually drew an audience.
Nice to see you again Mr. Moriarty.
THe show has truly jumped the shark, and I have watched it for all but its first season. I'm weaning myself off of it now. So very sad.
"He claimed that the Muslim public in the Middle East would be very impressed with our equal treatment of Islamist terrorists under our laws."
I caught a rerun of "The Unit" the other day (man, I miss that show!) where Tiffy told off a liberal lawyer, "It's the height of arrogance to assume that our enemies will stop trying to kill us if they only realized just how highly we regarded ourselves." Of course, she later slept with the guy – no one's perfect!
So let me see if I have this right, the dirt bag who commits the murder in the begining of the show really works for A. a Tobacco company, B. a big Drug company, C. a right wing Elmer Ganty demagogue, D. a pro life front group or E. the NRA.
Gee I hadn't noticed
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The only people that silenced the likes of Natalie Maines is the people… Especially those in her hometown (that STILL doesn't play anything the Dixie Chicks come out with…. in fact, I don't live in her hometown anymore, but I still live in the State and I still don't hear their music unless it's on CMT or in Oklahoma)
I noticed that the main actors in L & O the last couple of years have been just wooden and annoying. Maybe they don't like where the show is going either (blatantly obvious and crap) and so just put on passable acting efforts only.
I agree… then we wouldn't be stuck with Alec Baldwin that threatened to move to Canada… next time we should just ask "Is that a threat or a promise?"
I thought when he left the show it was permenant. Did he rejoin?
Law and Order is still on TV?
Around 2005 a friend was called into Law and Order:SVU casting to audition for the part of a teenage crack-addicted prostitute from Harlem and was told to her face that her skin color was not dark enough to play the role.
They liked her work so they sent her over to audition for the part of an affluent 35 year old mother of two child whose husband is implicated in the death of a gay man; my friend is a beautiful, crafted actress and landed the part.
She landed the part though at the time she was only 23. NBC casting thought my friend-who is black- did not have have dark enough skin to play a teenage crack- addicted Harlem prostitute yet was just light enough to play an affluent 35 year old mother of two whose husband is secretly carrying on gay affairs.
If not for NBC overt racism then no doubt NBC homophobia would more prominent than they are willing to let out of their deceptively nasty closet.
PS: Mr. Moriarty, when you were on the show I once did background work for a day and sat right behind you during the final courtroom scene; I enjoyed watching you work. Patient, professional, serious while kind and easy-going.
Thank you for this article. Like many, I gave up on the L&Os a while back. So glad I did. I own 'Bang the Drum Slowly' which is one of my very favorite movies. Anyone who has not seen this, find it, you'll be glad you did.
Thanks Mr. Moriarty – Most L&O seasoned watchers know where the storyline is going five minutes after the (now interminable) credits. If it s a plot "ripped from the headlines" then you know that it will be slanted toward a leftist agenda and will give Sam Waterson (or Linus Roache) the chance for grandiloquent speechifying roundly condemning the evils of (All Together Now!) conservatives, right-wing talk shows, pharmaceutical corporations, the military, HMO's, gun manufacturers, Christians, anyone who doesn't buy into the gay agenda, nuclear families, clergymen, the War on Terror, businessmen and anyone with a faintly Southern accent. Also, as a lawyer, I would love to know how I can get away with trampling all over the rules of trial procedures the way these schmucks do. (I know, I know – It's a TV show.) Believe me, you ae well out of it.
Mr. Moriarity-
I miss you on this show–to the extent that I don't watch it at all. The wife had it on last week and I got so angry at the insinuation that the Tea Partiers were all far-right nut jobs that I went to bed earlier than normal and curled up with a good David Weber novel.
I've thought for years now that one reason Hollywood folks seem to be predominantly leftist is that they spend so much time in what amounts to a "fact-free zone" where "pretending" something is so instead of living in reality.
I can't believe how much traction Dick Wolf has gotten from his show, which is essentially a rip-off of Arrest And Trial from the 1960's starring Ben Gazzara and Chuck Connors.
Unfortunately the few copies of "A Gift of Stern Angels" on the market are highly priced used copies – what is the possibility that a publisher would re-issue it with perhaps a new foreword by Moriarty? Maybe some additional chapters?
I stopped watching when Jerry Orbach died and when Jesse L Martin quit. L&O:SVU has been too graphic for my tastes for a few years as well. I do like Criminal Intent, but who knows when or where that is ever on. I agree with this assesment of the show it's gone so far down hill, and it's really too bad. It was a great show to begin with.
Prosecuting a "fictional" interrogator episode: I noticed in the beginning of this particular episode, they made it more than obvious with the intro paragraph stating that the characters and themes were strictly fictional, yet it didn't stop them from employing fictional character names such as "Vice President Dick Cheney" or "President George W. Bush". Oh, and Sam there is medication for your condition -look into it, please.
did you get rid of your TV, or just flip the channel…you do realize its all crap right. you may think it not affecting you, but it is.
Law & Order doesn't have the monopoly on teleplay-as-bully-pulpit forum, but Dick Wolf was peculiar in his demand for dialogue control. I don't know if Balcer practices the same iron-fisted methods Wolf did, but clearly, as with many network offerings, viewers are spoonfed the beliefs of he who presides. I got out of the business some years ago, but during set visits to various competitors of L & O, Wolf was often derided as one who could kill an actor's creativity with a mere phone call ("No, Stone may NOT turn his head and cough – if I had wanted that, I'd have written it!").
Welcome back, Mr. Moriarity, to what I'll dare call the real, and unvarnished, "People Speak". I ordered a copy of The Stern Angel through Amazon this morning from a book collector in California. I look forward to where it will take me.
hahaha freaks crying over TV shows..get rid of the TEE VEE it is unimportant and you will feel cleaner for having done it…and then I wont have to keep telling everyone to "toss the tube".
OK deep breath…goooood, relax…aanndddd toss!
Wake up america, these new "conservatives" are nothing but shills…FACT!
L&O was a great show when Mr. Moriarty was there and for a few years afterward. Both sides, whether the issue was ideological or not, got the very best case the writers could fashion. The cases were complex and the resolutions were often stunning. Aside from Mr. Moriarty and Steven Hill, the best thing about it was that there was absolutely no reference to the characters' private lives. The focus was entirely upon complicated and important legal issues
The biggest mystery of the current show is how does it keep going?
I don't think mr moriarty is going to be answering your post. so ill respond, not for him mind you, i dont know the man..but because you seem like you need some validation….
GET A LIFE!
turn off the tv, pick up a book, and neber idolize any tv "actor" past, present, or future. its all crap…
ok there anger man
Law and Order is just the latest. Many more have jumped on the proselytzing for the "left" bandwagon. Open Case is another, maybe more subtle but definitely obvious. I watched the Hallmark channel last night. Some good old fashioned good feelings and protagonists living normal lives, trying to do the right thing. Very refreshing.
My father was in a tank battalion in Korea. As a volunteer he did it because he thought it was the right thing to do. What other country in the world has citizenry with that kind of character. However, were he to be portrayed on T.V. on I have no doubt he'd end up looking like some rabid dog of a soldier who killed puppies as a child…
has anyone noticed how when L & O does the whole re-enact thing…they always do a racial rewrite so that if the real story had a black perp and a white vic. then the "enhanced for television" story roles are racially reversed.
You know why the do that…cause they know white people wont never complain bout that stuff whereas blacks (can i say that, maybe i should say African-American) never stop complaining ever. They are like a certain tribe of peeps who run HOLLYWOOD that way.
enjoy your tv shows…i hear there are some really good reality programs coming soon…should be yummy.
Growltiger, it goes like this- the Lefties in Hollywood I know are also typically fetishists of one type or another (sex, money, therapy, Me-First New Age spirituality, and ESPECIALLY . . COCAINE).
You can't argue with a fetish- the Hollywood liberal didn't arrive at his/her conclusion by logic, so logic has no place in the discussion (BTW- Islamic Terrorists are also fetishizers) You can only thing you can do is lampoon and satirize their irrational belief system. Admittedly, conservatives are way behind the Left Media in this department- but we're catching up!
Thank you HumanPersonJr (psst . .where do I send the money order?)
no its Danger Dan, the M is silent. And you forgot the initial D.
t'sokay though i know your just having fun with me?
You have to wonder what guys like that do once they get rid of their TVs (as if they really do). I would imagine that their navels don't get much more interesting over time. Oh, of course – they get on the internet and try to bother others.
Mike I am a big fan of your work, thou I never bothered watching Law and Order, I watched one or two times and said to myself this is nothing but updated Perry Mason. Sorry to Say Perry Mason was and is way better. Sorry that you left the country for what ever reason you left. For some odd reason they don't do good TV or movies for that matter anymore. Gee's Holocaust was a very good story about a very painful part of European History. It was so well done, and there were others like Shogun and Winds of War. When its all said and done, the industry seems to just want to do the least amount for as much as they can get. Good Stories and Acting Be dammed. I wonder why NCIS is number #1 and The Unit has such a following? Oh no America Bashing every two seconds, never mind.
Mr. Moriarty – you are as eloquent a writer as you are an actor. Thank for you for the insight you have given me as to the reasons why and the persons responsible for betraying a set of values which made not just a television show great but a nation as well. Mr. Balcer and Mr. Wolf should be ashamed of themselves. (What a mess of pottage Mr. Wolf sold his integrity for.)
Again, Mr. Moriarty, thank you so much.
MIcheal, I was going to write a comment on the open thread, but, happily your post appeared and pretty much says it all. I write during the wee hours and TNT is finally running your episodes. The substance, style, writing and quality is light years above the asinine drivel and tainted social commentary that L&O now employs. There was a balance – clear arguments on both sides of an issue. Now, Sam Waterston prances around like a spastic emu, suffering from a fatal dose of BDS, and didn't Ice T rail against cops in the 80's and now he plays one? Weird! Your work speaks for itself.
Mr. Moriarity, thanks for the insight. It's interesting to know about the inner workings of a show like L & O from someone who has' been there and done that', when it operated on a higher level.
Who is Rene Balcer, and how on earth did he get so powerful so that he and Wolf could turn something worth watching into a large component of what is now 'Must Flee TV' (thanks, Laura Ingraham).
I basically watched just one tv show from '87 to 2000(Star Trek)while working on the road mostly.I "tossed" my set for good in 2000.Once in a while,I may watch a History special on the pc tuner,I intend to watch the Who perform(and record it) during the Super Bowl.That's about it.I've never watched L&O.
Excellent idea, Jane!
Perhaps someone will have read it!!
God Bless,
Michael
Thank you, kind sir!
As I've said, THE GIFT OF STERN ANGELS is a bumpy but nakedly honest ride!!
Let me know what you think of it.
God Bless,
Michael
Thank you Mr. Moriarty for the inside info. The – prematurely launched with a job and a high school level opinion – crowd like Wolf and Balcer work only for their other underdeveloped friends and to have their pictures made at awards shows and to, of course, make more money than they could ever sniff on the outside and real world. Weenies in their childhood and weenies still – they are lost in the feeling that they actually have importance. And that is exactly what their leftist heroes in politics suffer from.
When Hollywood vomits left wing bilge but no one watches has anything actually happened?
People, this is why all the L&O programs are sliding downhill. They forget that republicans buy sneakers too!
In this day and age, who watches NBC? Law and Order shows are like old I Love Lucy reruns and are everywhere. It isn't very hard to pass them up though. We don't see I Love Lucy reruns anymore, of course. L&O – these too shall pass unnoticed!
Mr. Moriarity as a huge (former) fan of the L&O group I have one thing to say to you, "HERE HERE sir!!"
This confirms what I had long suspected. In recent years, the plots have become annoyingly formulaic, i.e. the murderer is inevitably: the rich guy, the Christian minister or the decorated veteran. I can't think of a single plot where a union organizer (no curruption there!) or an environmental activist is implicated. This was subtle though. Starting last season it has become blatantly partisan. L&O clearly needs more balance in it's writers.
Either Rene Balcer and Wolf are lovers or Balcer had a family member in the military in WWII. That's the only reason I can fathom the ridiculous Communist leaning writing. Squirrels, all of them. Law and Order's obituaries will be similar to the NYTimes.
Thank you, Mr. Moriarty! The season that featured Moriarty, Chris Noth, Jerry Orbach, and Jill Hennessy (I believe it was season 4) was one of the absolute best. I'm always happy when I catch one of those episodes rerun on cable!
The quality of the show has really fallen in recent years. I don't even bother watching new episodes. The blatant lefty spin of their "ripped from the headlines" episodes has become too much to stomach.
It really is a shame. It used to be one of the best dramas on television.
Would LOVE to see a new updated edition with more chapters covering the years since the original was released.
And more!
Who can we suggest this to?
Thank you, Mr. Moriarty….thought for a while it was all in my head! Stopped watching L & O first, now SVU….too bad because I really liked the show….but the direct offense shown our military did it for me…
I never have watched Law and Order. I never will watch Law and Order.
I used to watch L&O until Sam Waterston came on board. It turned in to a "we always win because we're right" kind of mentality and got really boring really quickly. That and the righteous indignation that Waterston brings to the character that replaced you Mr. Moriarty just plain sucked.
One of the things I did like about L&O back in the day was the fact that you weren't always victorious. It seemed a little more realistic. Not everything comes out bread and roses in life.
Now, I don't watch a thing on NBC or ABC. Not worth my time. There's much more interesting, non-political programming on cable networks.
Since when is a network ENTERTAINMENT show like "Law & Order" supposed to be a documentary or politically-balanced newscast….you know, like "fair; balanced" (cough; gag; snort) Fox News?
The producers and writers are free to air their leanings as they wish, and the viewers are free to keep renewing it for new seasons, or let it get cancelled. You know, like Fox News ("We report; you decide").
Sounds like Michael Moriarty — have you ever seen this odd duck in an interview? — is still bitter he can't get hired to work in America anymore, and blames Dick Wolf and Rene Balcer.
What is interesting to me is that I see little or no comments from the conservatives that they think we need more laws, regulation, and/or legislation to prevent these kind of left wing ravings, unlike the liberals who try and destroy the constitution"s guarantees in an attempt to muffle any opposition to that is written, or broadcast. And I am talking a giant difference in the way it is handled. If this show was slamming left wing news advocates, the liberals in congress would be threatening legislation to halt it. I am proud that conservatives knock the show but do not suggest it be taken off the air or regulated, because we do not agree with their format. Could it be that the right understands and honors our constitution?
I am all astonishment that show is still even on. I didn't know until O'Reilly mentioned it. I cannot imagine that it has many viewers. I won't ever watch it. The only shows I watch are on FOX affilliated networks. Hollywood is not our friend. They are the ultimate propaganda machine. Boycott Hollywood!!!!!
As an admitted drunkard, Michael Moriarties memories and views should be viewed through the same kind of haze that all good alcoholics know. Anyone who fails to see the poisonous nature of the talking heads on Pox News is clearly suffering from wet brain and/or has lost any semblance of objectivity.
Law and Order and its various permutations are also anti-Christian and anti-Semitic, routinely ridiculing devout Christians and Jews. It has also engaged in Palin bashing. I am sick of this show. Time to take it off the air.
[...] leads the American viewing audience into an increasingly predictable pile of hard left propaganda. Big Hollywood Blog Archive The Increasingly Left ‘Law and Order’ And Hard left propaganda it is…… Thoughts? [...]
It is interesting to watch Law and Order episodes from before and after 9/11. Before 9/11, Jack McCoy could use all kinds of shenanigans to get mobsters, with no crisis of conscience. When it comes to dealing with terrorists, however, he is filled with angst over using the same tactics.
It is also interesting the liberals have this innate urge to increase the power of the federal government, but on "Law and Order" it is the local authorities who know what is going on, and the Feds that are clueless.
The other real gripe I have with the once-great series is that they portray Christians as these stereoptypical dupes.
Is that show still on?
I will NO LONGER watch Law and Order, or ANY other liberal tv program on the lame stream media. For them to "buy" in on the lefts push for socialism, is sickening.
One good way to make a statement is to send TDAMERITRADE an email concerning their reputation being diminished by using Sam Waterston as their spokesman. Go to http://www.tdameritrade.com/emailpromotions.html and send the comment. If they get 100,000 emails, things may get interesting for Mr. Waterston.
thanks for the pics. Now the scum traitor pigs can be sure of NON-Safety south of the hudson river!
I have been a fan of L&O for years. I first got hooked watching TNT reruns from my apartment after moving out of my parents' house. I became a L&O addict overnight, sometimes watching as many as four or five episodes in a single evening. Eventually, I branched out into the spin-off series but it was always the "mother ship" that called me home.
In recent weeks, I have been appalled at what has happened to the show. It used to be the best thing on television. I used to tune in every week, or every afternoon, and see hard-hitting cases about genuine issues, in which both sides were presented fairly. I loved it when the ball came down on the conservative side of the fence — the eyebrow-raising challenge to homosexual marriage from five or so years ago, episodes about stem cell research, terrorism, profiling… it was awesome and I couldn't wait to discuss it in-depth with my friends. And it stayed fair for a long time… it seems to me that the show started to take a massive downward spiral when Sam Waterston was "de-promoted" to the position of the District Attorney. Great move for Jack McCoy, bad one for the fans — in came new characters without as interesting of histories as their predecessors (be honest, can anyone follow Jerry Orbach's Lennie?), who seem to switch sides in any given debate. One season, Connie is more of a conservative, this time around she's a pro-abortion liberal. Lupo is dis-interesting, and I don't even know his partner's name. That's how forgettable it has become.
Two things have crippled this franchise.
1. Changing the formula. It used to be a half hour of police investigation, followed by a half hour of courtroom debate and political wrangling. But I can name on one hand the number of times Michael Cutter has actually given a closing argument — for me, that was the high point of all the canon episodes, when McCoy stood up and delivered an honest, hard-hitting closing argument that often had me saying "amen." It's become less about law and more about the criminals now — or rather, the criminal's political agendas.
2. Too much conservative-bashing. I expect it from SVU because it's always been the liberal-leaning offshoot, but doing us the disservice of calling all tea party participants radicals with guns is going a bit far. Simply because we don't want Obama's crappy health care plan does not make us fringe lunatics. Bashing Rush, O'Reilly, and Glenn irked me enough to delete SVU from my DVR and I may be adding L&O to that delete button too. I hate to do it, because it is their 20th season. Part of me is nostalgic enough to want to stick it out to the end, but if they continue to insult me week after week, I'm going to bail. Since it's no longer a part-legal drama, my interest is waning.
It's a shame that such a once-great show has been overcome with liberal-driven talking points and underhanded slams at anyone who doesn't agree with the Great One. Oh, well. At least I'll have the earlier seasons to collect and enjoy, and I'll just pretend the show ended with Lennie's departure.
On a minor note, I did like the pro-life, pro-choice episode they ran not long ago. That was a fine episode by all standards and it did come down on the side of life. For that, I give the crumbing NBC kudos. Maybe if they appealed to their conservative audiences more often, their ratings wouldn't be in the toilet.
Mr. Moriarty, for some reason I had always pegged you as a left-leaning zealot. I think it had something to do with what I THOUGHT I knew of your politics. I apologize for my mental mischaracterization of you. I'm so glad to see your article here and to have read it. I agree with you 100%. I stopped watching L&O (all of them) some years ago when I got tired of the little Bush jabs and the innuendos and the left-wing slant.
Pity. It WAS truly a great show and I'm glad you stand up for what it used to be. Thank you.
I've always enjoyed your work and hope that you have continued success and happiness.
I miss the old Law and Order!! I happened to catch an episode with Mr. Moriarty a few weeks ago and, wow, I forgot how much I used to like that show!!
Law and Order and SVU were my wifes favorite shows, whe won't even consider watching them anymore.
They have moved past subtle righ into ultra-overt attacks against mainstream America. Good luck with this failing franchise.
"L&O is much like America, a great idea, tremendous initial execution, later hijacked by the left and perverted in their own image and left to limp along until death comes for it or those sharing the beliefs of its founders come to reclaim it."
Absolutely Brilliant statement ~ wish I had thought of it
– thumbs up!!!
I can't stand the self righteous Waterston who has only one facial expression: smug.
I think they were planting the seeds long before they turned hard left… I enjoyed the storylines and the acting, but became increasingly frustrated by the endless stream of morally ambiguous scenarios on there.
Every priest was a pedophile or had some skeleton in their closet. Pregnant women risked death or terrible tragedy unless they got abortions. Murderers are tragic characters with seemingly good reasons for killing.
Sure these things occur in life from time to time, but I just got the feeling that I was being conditioned to believe that there is no right and wrong anymore.
Or…F. That insidious Tea Party gang.
Mr. Moriarty,
I was too young to appreciate L&O when you were on it, but I remember my parents always watched it. Now that I'm older, those initial seasons are some of the best. The parents actively avoid L&O now, for much the same reasons as are in your post and already stated in the comments. Even mom says it's annoyingly preachy now, and she leans center-left.
Also, am I the only one who finds it ironic that Danger Dan keeps telling us to get a life for discussing a T.V. show, but he seems to spend all his life telling us to get a life for spending a few minutes reading an article, reading a few comments, and commenting about what we liked or not about a T.V. program?
Rene Balcer is a man? Who knew?
I really don't have anything more to add to what others have been saying Mr. Moriarty except, "YOU RULE!"
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