Law Order

Law & Order: UK infobox 10/3/10 'Law & Order: UK' Where: BBC America When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday Rating: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14)

EL HUJAYRAT, Egypt - The sheik walked through his courtyard to a room where sins are purged. When a man picks up a gun and fires it, Sheik Mohamed Abul Ismail is summoned to dispense justice, often before the grave is dug. Suspicious, with a temper as unpredictable as a water bug, he is a keeper of peace in a land prone to vendettas and a farming village accustomed to funeral processions trundling through the dust along wheat fields. He greeted an outsider the other day; men at the barbershop next door popped their heads out when they heard the word "journalist," a profession the sheik likens to droughts and crop-eating insects.

I don't understand your favorable article on "Law & Order" (" 'Law & Order' Steps Out of the Shadows," Dec. 7). The show is right-wing drivel and less realistic than HBO's two comedies in the same time slot. "Law & Order" lifts stories out of the New York Times and doctors them up, so that in every criminal case we have the following: No police officers lie. The suspect is always guilty; the wrong person is never arrested for a crime. Crime labs make no mistakes. All prosecutors are ethical.

Terrance Winters of Yazoo City, Miss., voted for Haley Barbour in the past, and while he gives the ex-governor a mixed grade these days, particularly on economic matters, he's always given Barbour points for political shrewdness. Which is why Winters, a 31-year-old cook at a barbecue restaurant, is flummoxed by the mess that Barbour left behind after stepping down from office this week. "I actually don't know what he was thinking," Winters said. That is a question most of Mississippi, and the political world far beyond it, is asking.

Pitted against edgy procedurals, trendy reality shows or ensemble dramas, NBC's "Law & Order" for nearly 20 years has persevered as one of TV's most recognizable and durable brands. And if it lasts a few more seasons, the hybrid cop-and-lawyer series would eclipse "Gunsmoke" as television's longest-running drama.

There's not a whole lot to say about "Law & Order: UK," and I mean that in the best possible way. Relocated and updated by Chris Chibnall ("Torchwood," Life on Mars"), it's classic "Law & Order. " The first season is based on episodes cherry-picked from the original American series and all gussied up with British accents, vernacular (at some point, the all-purpose "brilliant" must make the leap across the pond) and, in the courtroom, all those crazy robes and wigs. Studded with British notables including Bradley Walsh ("Coronation Street")

The death of actor Jerry Orbach will not affect plans for the latest "Law & Order" spinoff, "Law & Order: Trial by Jury," the producers said. Orbach, who played Det. Lennie Briscoe on "Law & Order" for more than a decade, succumbed to prostate cancer Tuesday. He had left the original series last spring and was to reprise his popular role on the latest, fourth edition of the NBC drama franchise, which was scheduled to debut early in 2005. "While Jerry is irreplaceable, 'Law & Order: Trial by Jury' is an ensemble and will continue in production," the producers said in a statement.

Michael Imperioli, who won an Emmy for his work on "The Sopranos," will temporarily join NBC's "Law & Order" to replace Jesse L. Martin while he is off making the film version of the musical "Rent." Imperioli will appear in the final few episodes of the drama this season, playing a detective who is the nephew of the character portrayed by Dennis Farina. Martin, who is in his sixth season as Det. Ed Green, will be back in the fall, executive producer Dick Wolf said.

In a Dec. 17 letter to The Times, L.A. civil rights attorney Jack L. Schwartz complained about the paper's favorable article on "Law & Order" (" 'Law & Order' Steps Out of the Shadows," Dec. 7), a show he, in his professional opinion, labels "unrealistic" and "right-wing drivel." Doubtless there are few things more offensive than right-wing drivel, but one of them surely must be uninformed left-wing drivel--such as the councilor's letter. Among other things, Schwartz states that on the show "no police officers lie."

The "Law & Order" franchise is in a bit of disorder. As NBC prepares to announce its fall schedule to advertisers next week, the future of "" and one of its spinoffs, ","," is at a crossroads. Though NBC has already announced the return this fall of shows such as "Heroes" and "Southland," "Law & Order," which is just a few seasons short of becoming the longest-running drama in television history, has not officially been picked up.

Outpatient surgery centers in California that perform Lap-Band operations and other procedures will face new scrutiny under a law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. The legislation requires private accrediting firms to inspect outpatient centers at least once every three years and allows for surprise inspections to ensure the centers meet safety standards for such things as cleanliness and proper use of medication. It also requires accrediting firms to demand improvements or revoke certification if a surgery center does not meet the standards.

Officer Sharif Ganasi was working the 4 p.m.-to-midnight shift, cruising the trash-strewn streets of Benghazi, alert for drunks and carjackers. His new black police uniform was too tight and too hot. He was drenched with sweat, his bulky body crammed into the tiny driver's seat of a white Hyundai compact. His hand-held radio kept cutting out. "We could use better equipment," he said as he guided car 23 through evening traffic in the de facto capital of Libya's rebels. Ganasi doesn't carry a gun or a badge.

"We were writing a story for Chris Meloni's character's mother, and she was going to be bipolar. Immediately we thought Ellen Burstyn. " So began Neal Baer's wooing of the Oscar-winning Burstyn to the set of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. " "We had lunch with her," he continues, "and it was kind of a date. It's a big deal to have them trust you. We told her about the part, and I said, 'You'll be on a beach and flip out,' and she said, 'Down and dirty?' and I said, 'As down and dirty as you like.'" "I'd never had anybody say they wanted to write a script for me," Burstyn recalls.

It has been a hallmark of the series "Law & Order" that its format — which lasted two decades in its original flavor and lives on in the current first season of NBC's "Law & Order: Los Angeles," or "LOLA" — has mattered as much as the characters who inhabit it. But of the many actors who have passed through this system over the years, perhaps none has departed quite as remarkably as did Skeet Ulrich, formerly the top-billed star of the L.A. franchise,...

After a year and a half absence, Vincent D'Onofrio, 51, returns to "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" as the brilliant but troubled detective Robert Goren for the show's 10th season, which debuts May 1 on the USA Network. I like your character, Det. Goren, but he seems to get a mixed reaction. I think some people don't get him. It's always been like that. I think that's OK. It's not for everybody, especially the way I play him is not to everybody's taste. People, I think, unless they allow themselves to take the leap of faith, they don't like the intelligence, the ridiculous amount of knowledge he has. It doesn't make it easy in a 40-minute show to solve a crime [persuasively]

A retired Mexican army officer widely credited with restoring law and order as the top police official in Tijuana was named Thursday to a similar post in Ciudad Juarez, the country's most violent city. Julian Leyzaola, who was a lieutenant colonel, was appointed public safety secretary by Ciudad Juarez Mayor Hector Murguia, who was elected last July. He takes over security in a city where fighting between drug cartels has sent killings skyrocketing, with more than 6,400 people slain since late 2006.

Beyonce is following in Barbra Streisand's footsteps with "A Star is Born"... and Clint Eastwood is in charge. ( Los Angeles Times ) Kanye West is coming to Coachella, and a lot of people are saying, "No thanks. " ( Los Angeles Times ) The executive at NBC responsible for giving us "The Cape," "The Event" and "Law & Order: Los Angeles" is stepping down. Is it safe to watch NBC again? ( Los Angeles Times ) Don't like the way your movie career is going? Make a Sundance movie and everything will (hopefully)

The wonderful Kathy Bates, lately seen around NBC in a recurring role on "The Office," settles into an office of her own Monday as the star of "Harry's Law," a legal dramedy from David E. Kelley. Once thought a man who could do no wrong — before he ushered "Snoops," "The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire" and "The Wedding Bells" into the world — Kelley returns here to his happy place, the familiar fruitful ground of "Ally McBeal" and "Boston Legal," mixing whimsical characters and situations with topical judicial thought-experiments.