Speaking of “Law & Order” spinoffs: I love Ed Bark, the DMN’s TV columnist. He’s really quite good at what he does.
(Even if he, being mortal, can never top the divine Lisa de Moraes, the WaPo’s TV critic and one of the greatest writers of modern times. Here’s the top of her most recent column, fr’instance:
LOS ANGELES, July 23 — Childhood fantasy smashed today: Danny Bonaduce is now better looking than David Cassidy.
The two stars of “The Partridge Family” showed up at Summer TV Press Tour 2004 here on Friday to promote VH1’s “In Search of the Partridge Family” reality series.
Bonaduce looked ripped and relaxed in a tight black T-shirt and jeans. Cassidy was eating-disorder thin, wore a baseball cap that screamed “thinning hair” and has lost all trace of lips; he looked like Cookie Monster with a face wax. Everyone felt old.
Seriously, Lisa de Moraes is the bomb. She’s the most fun columnist in America.)
Anyway, back to Ed. I enjoyed his his piece in yesterday’s paper on the warring spinoffs of “Law & Order” and “CSI.” I particularly enjoyed this paragraph:
“We haven’t had real competition. This is real competition,” says Law & Order creator Dick Wolf, whose show will be entering its 15th season of prime-time combat. Its two descendants, Law & Order: SUV and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, also are ratings hits.
I presume that’s supposed to be Law & Order: SVU, as in “Special Victims Unit.” Then again, an SUV-themed edition of L&O could be just what the networks are missing. Jill Hennessy gathering evidence from a cup holder? Chris Noth going over misleading fuel efficiency data? Michael Moriarty summing it all up for the jury: “It may have begun as a Ford Expedition, but it quickly became a death expedition”? I’m telling you: ratings gold.