The TV Zone

(NBC)

Yes, NBC should announce today that "Law & Order" is back for a 20th, tying "Gunsmoke." Hollywood Reporter has confirmation this morning. It would've been unthinkable to cancel, particularly on the eve of TV history and by virtue of the fact that NBC does own a chunk of the franchise. But ratings are ratings, and they've been spare of late for the old warhorse. "HR" says 16 episodes will be ordered, meaning likely "mid season."

Wow. Take a look, if you can, at tonight's pretty unusual and pretty powerful "SVU." Below is the clip and - superficially at least - what is notable about this episode, entitled "Hell," is the fact that this is the first TV program to have ever been shot at the United Nations.

That's just the window dressing, however. This one's about genocide, and atrocities that happen five thousand miles from here. Here's the logline: "The episode deals with a teenaged African refugee who escapes a lifetime of rape and terror, only to become a victim of violence here in the US. She and her friend – a former child soldier forced to do unspeakable things before his escape – enlist the help of SVU detectives to find and capture 'The Devil' – a brutal army leader who escaped punishment in Africa. "

The bad guy - or the "Devil" - is someone named Elijah, or Joseph Serumaga. He's played with scary - and I do mean scary - conviction by Mike Colter. (Colter? Broadway fans may know the name - he appeared in "A Soldier's Story" a few years back; his big screen credit was the character Big Willie Little in "Million Dollar Baby.")

CNN has a very good piece on-line about this episode, and spoke with John Prendergast, co-chair of the Enough Project - an advocacy group that works to prevent genocide in six African nations. He helped write and craft this episode with show boss Neal Baer, and told the network that "Hell" "...dovetailed quite neatly with fiction, and hopefully more people will understand now what is happening in real life with President Bashir and Sudan...because they saw it on 'Law & Order.' "

The closing thought tonight?

"What's the answer, father?" Stabler asks a priest who had adopted the little girl. "To tell Elijah's story," he replies, "and pray someone listens."

Fair warning: This one's hard to watch, but it's also an unforgettable "SVU."

The clip...

Welcome to Clips Central, TV fanatics.

My wonderful and hugely talented colleague, Corris Little, has just given me a bunch of clips that should fill your next five minutes happily and profitably. Among these beauties - sneak peeks at this week's "Lost" and "Grey's" AND Carol Burnett's guesting role on "L&O;: SVU."

Plus, I believe the last one is "America's Next Top Gangbanger" ...errr, I think I mean, "Model."

Take it away!

The official AP dispatch on Mariska Hargitay's condition just hit the wires:

A collapsed lung. Again.

Here's the full piece, or rather brief:

"The star of NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit" was hospitalized on Wednesday after feeling discomfort from a partially collapsed lung. She is undergoing tests.

Hargitay has been ailing since at least mid-January, when producers announced that she had a partially collapsed lung. Her spokeswoman, Leslie Sloane, said the actress "expects to be feeling better soon" and that production of the show will not be affected.

Hargitay, 45, won an Emmy last year for her role as Detective Olivia Benson on "Law & Order: SVU." She was hospitalized in January for something called pneumothorax, or (a report in E) a partially collapsed lung; show was on hiatus then.

Now, you ask: How could production (in New Jersey, BTW) NOT be affected? Reason: Her scenes have already been shot (I'm reliably told.) But of course, there are a lot of episodes to go...

I met Hargitay some years ago, and she is - or at least struck me at the time - one of the nicest and least pretentious major stars I've ever met; I certainly wish her well at this difficult moment.

(Pix: Bobby Bank/Getty Images)

Check out tonight's terrific "Law & Order" episode, entitled "Strike." It's a little bit of tv history, and the very first time - I believe - that this classic has actually ripped from its OWN headline.

The backstory: Early this winter, "L&O;" superscribe, Rene Balcer, was walking the picket lines outside a major LA studio when he got tapped by someone in an SUV; turns out the guy was a mid-level studio exec who was sick and tired of the noisy strikers getting in his way, and decided to teach one of them a lesson. Wrong guy! Balcer - "feisty" is his middle name - got into a scrap with the jerk; no damage to either.

But here's the lesson: Never pick a fight with someone who runs a show that borrows heavily, if not exclusively, from real life. Revenge served up tonight. It's about a bunch of striking legal aid workers in NYC; one of them Frank, is particularly obnoxious. "You think we're gonna get a contract singing Kumbaya," he tells one of the strikers (pragmatically.) Cut to the next scene: Frank is quite dead. First clue: Some guy in a black beamer who was sick and tired of the noisy strikers getting in his way...

Added bonus: There's also a Suffolk County storyline.

(Right, Anthony Anderson - Det. Kevin Bernard - on "L&O.;)

So, you're all sitting there wondering how the recently concluded writers strike is gonna be reflected on the TV screen over the next few weeks?

I can think of no better example than the one I am about to relay - ripped from the headlines, so to speak, and roaring (also so to speak) to a TV show near you in the not-too-distant future.

It involves "Law & Order" - TV's greatest headline larcenist - and its gifted veteran show-runner, Rene Balcer.

Here's the story. Early this year, during the dimmest days of the strike, Balcer was walking the picket lines outside the front gates of Fox studio lot when some moron in a shark-skin suit who was behind the wheel of an 8,000 SUV decided to teach Balcer a lesson - he ran into him. Not hard enough to do any damage, but hard enough to inflict the fear of God and SUVs into Balcer. The guy got out of the car, and a good old fashioned brawl ensued. Cameras - unfortunately - were not present, but in my imagination, Balcer decked the guy, strapped him to the roof of his SUV, and then put a large brick on the accelerator... Buh-bye shark-skin suit moron and SUV...

That last part actually didn't happen. I made it up. Sorry. But Balcer is going to exact cold revenge over the hit-and-run incident (another reason why it's never a good idea to pick a fight with someone who runs a major TV production...)

Rene told me last week that "I'm ripping from my own headline" by producing a strike episode that'll feature some "very obnoxious loudmouth picketer" who is killed while walking the picket lines...

The picketer's actually a legal aid who's on strike, and after all these legal aides go on strike, defense attorneys are dragooned into doing their work - so there's some very unhappy people all around, which means "motive."

Says Balcer, "one of the strikers gets run over, coincidentally - it never happens in real life [though.]"

He says he was inspired by David Letterman, who included Balcer in his monologue the night he got hit: "The day the thing happened, he mentioned in his monologue that a writer for 'Law & Order' got hit, and then said - 'you know what? It would be a terrific 'Law & Order.'"

Rene says he knows who the guy was - a lower-level suit - and he assured me: "It wasn't Peter Chernin."

That's it for Jesse: "Law & Order" vet Jesse L. Martin taped his last episode Tuesday, I'm told, which is a reasonably big deal for TV's longest-running drama; I remember vividly meeting him his first week on the set nine years ago. "Vivid" because I can think of few instances where an on-screen character is so starkly different from his off; Martin was funny and a rapid-fire talker full of stories, observations, quips, and what-have-you. And now he's off to (hopefully) bigger and better things - notably the Marvin Gaye biopic ("Sexual Healing.") Meanwhile, Ed Green, errr, Martin's replacement, Anthony Anderson - another funny guy who won't likely be using his comedic chops on this show - has started on "L&O.;"

"He'll be terribly missed," said "L&O;'s" longtime (and particularly able) press rep, Audrey Davis of Martin. "He just got along with everyone." His last show airs April 23 - which is the day "L&O; returns - and yeah, he'll be missed.

As usual, Nikki Finke has the hot little story from the front lines of the writers strike this morning. In a phrase: This thing is getting ugggly. And strrrrrange.

Apparently a psychopath - presumably a Fox executive, but no name released - tried to run down the top producer of "Law & Order" yesterday while he was walking the picket-line outside the Fox lot. The writer is Rene Balcer, "Law & Order" showrunner and pretty big star in that firmament; he is an "L&O;" original and in charge of the show the one year it won a Best Drama Emmy.

Per my recollection, Balcer (a Canadian) is a mild-mannered dude but feisty too: I remember meeting with him years ago, and he was on a tear, ready to take on the whole Dell Computer Corporation (and Michael Dell, to boot) because his laptop was on the fritz.

In any event: Balcer was not hurt, and after he dusted himself off managed to throw some punches at the be-suited creep. The guy then drove into the lot in his black SUV (image of Ari just flashed in my mind!) with license plate number taken and cops called.

All this is not funny. I repeat. This is NOT FUNNY (imagine - Fox big shots running down writers! What's this world coming to?) But I just can't help myself. Remember that classic scene in "The Sopranos" when Christopher went into the classroom while J.T.Dolan - Tim Daly - was teaching a class of aspiring writers? Chris beat up the poor guy, and Dolan later castigated the class: "A roomful of writers and not ONE of you came to my defense??!!" Point being, most writers - Hemingway and Norman Mailer excepted - are not handy with their fists.

A couple of questions: Who mowed down Rene? Couldn't be Bill O'Reilly - he's too busy wrestling the Obama Slamma. Couldn't be Rupert Murdoch - got his own driver (and wouldn't be caught dead in an SUV anyway; he's a Rolls kind of guy.)

And: Might Balcer write the whole affair into an episode of "Law & Order" when (or if) the strike ever ends? Let's help him: "In tonight's ripped-from-the-headlines 'L&O;,' a writer is killed by an irate Fox employee, believed to be a famous talk show host at its news network..."

Why don't I get paid for this stuff?

Smile, Jeremy! Plenty of reason to.

You don't last seventeen years - eighteen, actually, now that I'm thinking of it - in the viper den of network primetime TV without a smidgen of luck, and "Law & Order" just might be the luckiest bastard of them all.

It's back tonight with a two hour premiere (actually two separate episodes) and forget whether it's good (sure, of course, always is) or "relevant" (after years of ripped-from-the-headline "relevance," it feels a little over-relevant sometimes). "L&O;" is lucky. Lucky. LUCKY! Fabulously ridiculously lucky. A Writers strike sinks an industry and what does "L&O;" do before the bow slips beneath the waves? Manages to can almost a season worth of fresh episodes. NBC wasn't sure the leaky old scow (can't get away from these maritime metaphors for some reason - sorry) still has the ooomph to prop up a whole season, so "L&O;" got a midseason berth and a "limited" eighteen episode order instead. (Other mid-season entries are in good shape too, like "Medium," which starts next Monday, to name one.)

Last spring, some were wondering whether "L&O;" would survive to another year. Now, "L&O;" just might just SAVE NBC's whole season.

Tonight is something old, something new. New characters or a couple anyway, enter alongside the old, some of whom have a new gloss. The aforementioned relevance: "L&O;" (in the first hour, "Called Home") remains in thrall to Big Ideas even if those are never fully or adequately explored in the context of 44 minutes of program time (which is then structurally split between the two broad themes of any "L&O;" - investigation and justice.) We have stuff like euthanasia, freedom of the press, and the limited ability of the courts to adjudicate issues like these. Meanwhile, Jack McCoy moves into Arthur Branch's office, and a new executive ADA, Michael Cutter moves into Jack's old office. Cutter is Linus Roache, Brit actor who looks - depending on camera angle - like either Steven Weber or Jon Stewart. He's a sharper dresser than McCoy - who always seems to wear the same suit - and a sharper talker too; but there's a certain talk-show glibness to the dude. He doesn't have the gravitas of Jack, at least in the first hour (give him time.) Jack? He looks (or acts) like he was born to be DA; no one (you'll hardly be surprised to learn) is sitting around pining for the good old days with Art.

Also: Jeremy Sisto, a fine actor who's still looking for something (let's call it "stardom" who plays the yin to Jesse L. Martin's yang. Sisto's Detective Cyrus Lupo is a grim, stolid type - good reason for that, because his brother has died and he returns from overseas to (ultimately) join Ed Green (Martin) in the investigation.

And you'll also quickly recognize two particularly brilliant character actors in the first hour - Michael McKean, who plays a sodden TV anchor-host named Nolan; and...the pretty much always great Brad Dourif (Wormtongue, "Lord of the Rings," among a million other less-than-savory roles) who's a Dr. David Lingard here.

Bottom line: Watch! Of course! What else is there to watch?! This is also "Law & Order" - an enduring class unto itself (lucky too, as I think I mentioned) and a wonderful iconic American television show, and - by the looks of things - perhaps the last dramatic show left standing...or floating.

The splendid Dourif - from "Deadwood" days.