Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 4, 1992 TAG: 9202040301
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DEBORAH HASTINGS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
TV'S `LAW & ORDER' BECOMES REQUIRED VIEWING ON CAMPUS
The barristers of "L.A. Law" get more viewers and more sex, but the streetwise legals on "Law & Order" get more respect in the morning.In law schools, high schools and real-life court rooms, "Law & Order" has become required viewing and a hot topic of judicial review.
"It's the most realistic and accurate portrayal of legal principles and courtroom scenes," said Professor Norman Garland of Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles. "They rarely do anything that's a mistake."
Garland has distilled an hour-long episode of the critically acclaimed drama, which airs tonight at 9 on WSLS-Channel 10, into a 15-minute video that he uses in his constitutional criminal procedures class.
"You can stand there and talk all day," Garland says of today's MTV generation, "but you put a video on, and boom, everyone's watching."
Well, not everyone.
Though loved by critics, 2-year-old "Law & Order" is not universally adored by American viewers. In the most recent Nielsen rankings, it finished in 42nd place - 16 slots below its chief courtroom adversary, "L.A. Law."
Both shows are NBC legal dramas, but comparisons stop there.
"L.A. Law" is a slick, laid-back look at high-priced attorneys inundated by a mind-boggling bounty of sex, violence and precedent-setting cases.
"Law & Order" is a gritty, fast-paced view of local cops and prosecutors wading through New York crime using the brains they were born with and real-life case law.
New York appellate judges, law students and instructors such as Garland say the series' most compelling aspect is its use of real legal theory and recent court rulings.
In class, Garland uses an episode dealing with coerced confessions. So does David Woods, a criminal justice professor at Kentucky Wesleyan College.
The installment highlights last year's controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision in Arizona vs. Fulminante.
In a 5-to-4 ruling last July, the increasingly conservative high court decided that using a coerced confession against a defendant, though always unlawful, can sometimes be deemed harmless error.
Other episodes using actual case law included an installment involving the homeless and a recent ruling that stated homeless people who have decorated public places as their personal abodes are entitled to the same protection from unreasonable searches and seizures as rent-paying tenants.
Another episode introduced last year's high court ruling that said law officers could ask riders of public transportation to submit to random drug searches.
"Somebody on that show is doing their homework," said Garland.
The people doing their homework include technical advisor Bill Fordes, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney.
"I haven't done this much legal research since I was in the D.A.'s office," Fordes said. "We always wanted to avoid the letters and phone calls from irate attorneys saying `How can you show that? That would never happen.' "
But there are many things on "Law & Order" that never happen in real life. Namely, entire cases that get investigated and solved in 50 minutes and court proceedings that are never numbingly dull or fraught with ineptitude.
And despite praise from legal eagles, the jury is still out on "Law & Order's" popularity with mainstream American audiences.
Recently, NBC swapped the show's time period as part of a realignment of its Tuesday schedule. Instead of airing at 10 p.m., the series now is broadcast at 9 p.m., exactly the same time as ABC's top-rated sitcom "Roseanne."
"We would rather be on at 10," said Michael Duggan, the show's supervising producer.
Still, NBC entertainment president Warren Littlefield says he remains committed to the unusual series, whose first half depicts the investigation and arrest of a criminal suspect and second half trails the case through the prosecutors office and the New York court system.
Because of the series' low ratings and the fact it so often is overshadowed by the flash of "L.A. Law," the makers of "Law & Order" are hungry for a little hype of their own.
"The critics like us," Duggan said, "and we get good reviews. But we could really use more attention."
"Law & Order" airs tonight at 9 on WSLS-Channel 10.