101 Best Written TV Series

Aired: NBC, 1990-2010

The son of an advertising executive, Dick Wolf went into the ad business himself before moving into film and television. He wrote on Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice before, well, creating "the brand." The show's success, certainly, has something to do with the simplicity of it structure (cue our narrator), coupled with its New York sensibility and storylines mirroring recent news-making issues and events. Cast members came and went, spinoffs were spun off, but behind all this was an idea, and a style of execution, that seemed ineffable. As TV changed around it, Law & Order remained what it was a mostly straightforward dramatization of a crime, the detectives investigating that crime, and the people in the D.A.'s office who would ultimately prosecute the accused and try to get something like justice in the end.

Credited Writers

Christopher Ambrose
Kevin Arkadie
Rene Balcer
Alec Baldwin
Alfred Barrios, Jr.
Wendy Battles
Noah Baylin
Ross Berger
David Black
Giles Blunt
Jacob Brackman
Philippe Browning
Siobhan Byrne
Lorenzo Carcaterra
Michael Chernuchin
Gerry Conway
Walter Dallenbach
Janis Diamond
Michael Duggan
Rick Eid
Keith Eisner
Stuart Feldman
Eddie Feldmann
William Finkelstein
William N. Fordes
Joe Gannon
Sibyl Gardner
Alan Gelb
Morgan Gendel
Gina Gionfriddo
Jill Goldsmith
Walon Green
Peter S. Greenberg
Marc Guggenheim
Michael Harbert
Carter Harris
Davey Holmes
Judith Hooper
Sean Jablonski
Lois Johnson
Matt Kiene
Terri Kopp
Chris Levinson
Lynne Litt
Jeremy Littman
Elaine Loeser
Lynn Mamet
Charles C. Mann
Brad Markowitz
Julie Martin
Kathy McCormick
Thomas Francis McElroy
Matthew McGough
Craig McNeer
Nancy Ann Miller
Joe Morgenstern
David Nahmod
Robert Stuart Nathan
Carl Nelson
Sally Nemeth
Suzanne O'Malley
Suzanne Oshry
Eric Overmyer
Doug Palau
Robert Palm
Mark B. Perry
Greg Plageman
Edward Pomerantz
Sonny Postiglione
Hall Powell
Frank Pugliese
Paris Qualles
I.C. Rapoport
Wendell Rawls
Gordon Rayfield
Joe Reinkemeyer
Shiya Ribowsky
Jack Richardson
Jonathan Rintels
Gene Ritchings
Christine Roum
Nick Santora
Harold Schechter
Luke Schelhaas
Barry Schindel
Barry Schkolnick
Stephanie Sengupta
David Shore
David Slack
Tom Smuts
Harvey Solomon
Douglas Stark
Joshua Stern
Gardner Stern
Richard Sweren
Tom Szentgyorgyi
Craig Tepper
Dick Teresi
Scott Tobin
Craig Turk
Krista Vernoff
Joe Viola
Roz Weinman
Dan Wilcox
David Wilcox
David Wild
Shimon Wincelberg
Matt Witten
Dick Wolf
Nicholas Wootton
Rob Wright
Jorge Zamacona
Aaron Zelman
Ed Zuckerman