After 11 years, how does a hit crime drama come up with new plots? It doesn't hurt to check police logs, a source that NBC's Law & Order sometimes mines for its fictional dramas. In the upcoming season, watch for plots inspired by the shooting of Robert Blake's wife, the arrest of Sean Combs, the Chandra Levy disappearance and the murders that took place in an apartment above the Carnegie Deli in May. A story that parallels former U.S. senator Bob Kerrey's revelation about his service in Vietnam becomes the jumping-off point for a fictional murder, executive producer Barry Schindel says.
In the episode with ties to the murder of Blake's wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, a woman is shot outside an Irish pub while waiting for her husband, a washed-up singer (Gary Busey) who claims he went back inside to place a bet. And an episode inspired by the arrest of Combs, who was acquitted of charges stemming from a nightclub fight, looks at a shooting that occurred after someone throws money in the face of a rap star, who is accompanied by his actress girlfriend.
Dick Wolf, the creator and executive producer of Law & Order and its two younger siblings, including the new Law & Order: Criminal Intent, says the Carnegie Deli-related story includes a mistaken cross-racial identification that leads to a very politically incorrect situation. |
