NEW YORK -- You could say that Dick Wolf is at the top of the world.
His world, anyway. The 56-year-old television producer is standing in a conference room 22 stories above Lexington Avenue, looking through a wall of windows toward the Chrysler Building and the magic of Manhattan at dusk. In his double-breasted, blue Brioni blazer, charcoal-gray slacks, silk tie and French cuffs, Wolf exudes the polished confidence of a highly successful CEO.
It's no wonder. His Hollywood production company, Wolf Films, now has five series airing on two networks, NBC and ABC. In addition to Law & Order, there's Law & Order: Criminal Intent; Law & Order: SVU; Dragnet; and Crime & Punishment.
All, as the narrator says in the beginning of Law & Order, tell the stories of "the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute offenders." All are guaranteed at least another season, except Dragnet, whose fate will be revealed later this month when ABC completes its fall schedule.
Each Law & Order series will finish the season among the 20 highest-rated shows on network television, with the original Law & Order firmly in the Top 10. Even better (in the eyes of advertisers), all three attract the coveted 18- to 49-year-old and upscale audiences. Known in the television industry as "the mother ship" for its longevity and ability to spawn successful spin-offs, the original Law & Order will air its 300th episode this month, as it completes its 13th season on NBC.
Such high ratings for quality drama in a season initially dominated by reality series like Joe Millionaire, then disrupted by coverage of the war in Iraq, should be enough to qualify Wolf for top of the television world status. (Business Week magazine last month called him nothing less than "King of Television.")
But the numbers only begin to explain what puts Wolf in a league by himself these days, above other big-name Hollywood producers like David E. Kelley, Steven Bochco, or even David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos. With his original Law & Order series, Wolf hit upon a way to meet network demands for profit while creating compelling and intelligent television drama. Against a backdrop of reality shows that seem daily to become dumb and dumber or comedies that rarely deviate from prescribed plots, he produces a steady stream of shows that are unafraid to tackle contemporary social issues, controversial or not. And, in the process, his work has become nearly ubiquitous.
Between the three Law & Order series that air on NBC and the Law & Order reruns that air on various cable channels, a viewer could watch 26 hours weekly of Law & Order. And, according to Nielsen estimates, more than 90 million Americans spend at least one hour each week watching some version of the franchise.
For many, that time is one of the most important and intense hours of the week. Last year, in an article headlined A Law and Order Addict Tells All, film critic and author Molly Haskell labeled such fans: "the not-so-secret addicts of Law and Order." She proudly counted herself among them.
Wolf, it seems, is not just at the door; after 13 seasons, with these numbers, his work surely has become ingrained in our national consciousness. Yet, relatively little is known about the man behind the shows -- or the team behind the man.
The producer himself insists that it is the writers and producers hired by Wolf Films who ultimately elevate Law & Order from mere diversion to an intelligent pop culture phenomenon. "The most important thing for you to understand -- and for me -- it's realpolitik: the team does this," Wolf says, sitting down at a long table in his publicist's conference room. "I am just the front man. Try to understand that. It's the only way to understand the success of Law & Order."
But to fathom the incredible success of Law & Order, as well as what its popularity says about American life, you have to start with Wolf. The man and the sensibility of the series -- from its steeped-in-Manhattan feel to its savvy take on social class -- connect in several ways.
First of all, as the only child of parents who worked in the publicity department at NBC in New York, Wolf literally is a child of television.
"They both worked at 30 Rock (Rockefeller Center). I like to say I'm the longest surviving NBC employee," Wolf says.
Then, motioning beyond the conference room windows, toward the glittery, black Manhattan night, he adds: "I grew up four blocks east of where we're sitting -- in Tudor Village. It's a neighborhood directly across from the U.N. ... a little neighborhood unto itself with parks. It's lovely."
If a childhood spent in Manhattan explains the love and intimate knowledge of the neighborhoods and nuances of New York that suffuse Law & Order, then the reading habits of young Dick Wolf may shed light on how much the series owes to British detective and murder-mystery genres.
