The “secret sauce” of Law and Order

Law and Disorder - WSJ.com
Mr. Wolf and the Universal executives had better luck at NBC, which premiered “Law and Order” in the fall of 1990. Before it aired, Mr. Wolf made one change. Compared to everything else on television, “Law and Order” moved at a lightning pace, with no scene lasting more than two pages. This was giving test viewers whiplash. Mr. Wolf added a “chung chung” chime and inserted a location card between scenes to let viewers take a breath.

Otherwise, the show has remained almost exactly as Mr. Wolf envisioned. A former advertising copywriter, he sees “Law and Order” as a brand. He tells his writers that the series should be like Campbell’s Soup: many different flavors, all of which are of consistent quality and predictable taste. “Episodic television is the triumph of the familiar,” he is known to say. One way Mr. Wolf maintains this consistency is by making most of the victims wealthy white people, which he believes viewers are more interested in watching. He limits the number of shows containing minority victims, including blacks and Muslims, to four or five episodes a season out of 22 to 24.

This isn’t particularly surprising. People like a certain amount of predictability, especially when they’re just relaxing watching TV.