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I've Only Ever Lived in a World Where the “Law and Order” Franchise Was on TV, and I Don’t Know What Life Would Be Like Without It

Man watching tv
You mean to tell me the legal profession existed before 1990?

I was born in the late '90s, seven whole years after that blue “Law” and that red “Order” graced TV screens in every household. If households were even a thing before Law & Order.

Yes, September 13, 1990 was the date Law & Order first aired, right after good ole Richard “Dick” Wolf made a list of every possible heinous crime that could possibly happen in the greater New York area. This was very likely the date the world actually began. I am also pretty sure it was the first use of the ampersand. No one should attempt to use this symbol again. You cannot do it justice. Just write out “and.”  

Before Law & Order, was there law? Was there order? Did New York even exist? There is no way to know. Dick Wolf even invented the concept of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Yes, criminal lawyers were once just a figment of his imagination. Now they exist. This is a fact.

I have no idea what the world was like without that legendary “dun, dun.”  Did people even know that the sound “dun, dun” could be made? What a sad existence, to live life without a “dun, dun.” There is no confirmation that to-go cups of coffee or Chinese takeout were part of daily life before Law & Order made it so.  I have asked several people about this.

Of course, the world was forever altered once again when Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premiered, and that’s all anyone really cares about. The Criminal Intent cast is nothing compared to the dedicated detectives who investigate vicious felonies and are members of an elite squad called the Special Victims Unit.  How would I have known to grow my hair out from a shaggy pixie cut if Mariska Hargitay hadn’t successfully done it first?

It’s Dick Wolf’s world, and we’re all just living it in via this American police procedural and legal drama television series that we watch at the gym when there is nothing else good on TV.

© 2018
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