Word: wolfed
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...their hearts, many TV producers probably fancy themselves Andy Warhols: pop artists who make the stuff of mass culture and commerce into art, as Warhol did with the Campbell's soup can. Dick Wolf thinks of himself as the Campbell Soup Co. The man who runs the Law & Order empire--on which, thanks to spin-offs and cable repeats, the sun never sets--had a first career in advertising, writing copy for the likes of Crest toothpaste. So it is without irony that he often compares his cop shows to the red-and-white can. "If you like soup...
This theory not only has made Wolf into a TV tycoon but also has changed TV drama itself. Wolf produces three L&O series for NBC (Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent) plus a reality series (Crime & Punishment), and he says he already knows what the fourth L&O series will be (we're guessing Law & Order: Hearty Beef with Country Vegetables). The original L&O is a cool-headed procedural and law drama; SVU handles emotion-charged sex-crimes cases; CI is a Columboesque whodunit. But the brand promises certain constants: competent mysteries, intelligent...
...Wolf, 56, is able to branch out like this because--in a business in which producers tend to see themselves as the visionaries and see the network brass as the businesspeople--he runs L&O like a CEO. Unlike such micromanagers as The Practice's David E. Kelley or The West Wing's Aaron Sorkin, he delegates heavily to his staff. And because his shows emphasize stories over character development, each actor is replaceable; L&O has run since 1990 without Friends-style salary increases or creative exhaustion. "Other shows eventually descend into a kind of soap opera," says Dragnet...
Today the L&O method is TV's dominant mode of dramamaking. CSI, CSI: Miami, Without a Trace--you can thank Wolf for TV's brand extensions, cop shows with sparingly defined characters and dramas with self-contained, noncontinuing stories. Ironically, Wolf started in TV as a writer for Hill Street Blues, which pioneered TV's previous trend: "story arcs," or plots that stretch out over several episodes or seasons. The approach made creators like Hill Street's Steven Bochco and The X-Files' Chris Carter into auteurs. But business-wise, story arcs are a problem. Much of the money...
...Wolf says this with a kind of amazement: Don't these people realize TV is a business? It would be too simple, though, to paint him as a bean counter who does nothing for the love of it. Dragnet is a venture of both business and nostalgia; Wolf reminisces about being a cop-smitten tot, getting his parents to let him stay up until 9 p.m. to watch the TV series' debut. But then he shifts gears. "From a business standpoint," he says, "it's hard to launch new names. Everybody knows what Dragnet is. It's a pre-emptive...