New 'Law & Order' will look a lot like old one

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — "Law & Order" is dead. Long live "Law & Order."

Well, "Law & Order: Los Angeles," that is.

Whatever you may have heard about attempts to move the original show to one cable network or another, it's dead.

"I can confirm that it has moved into the history books," said creator/executive producer Dick Wolf. He's "extremely disappointed that the (original) show didn't come back for a 21st season." But he tried to be philosophical.

"That's business. That's life," Wolf said. "Everything on television is born under a death sentence. They just don't tell you the date of execution.

"We had one of the greatest runs in the history of the business with the mothership."

Ah, but the mothership (as Wolf called the original "Law & Order"), is gone. And now we've got "Law & Order: Los Angeles," which is not so much a new show as a remake of the old one.

(They still haven't filmed an episode. So we're still waiting to see what exactly "LOLA" is.)

The format will be exactly the same. There are a couple of cops (Skeet Ulrich and Corey Stoll) who will investigate the crimes, and district attorneys (Alfred Molina and Terrence Howard will alternate) who will prosecute the cases.

There will be the same on-screen cards between scenes. The same sound effect that has become so familiar over the past two decades.

"You can't do 'Law & Order' without the ch-chings," said executive producer Blake Masters.

Wolf made it clear that he doesn't see "LOLA" as "Law & Order: The Next Generation." It's more the same show in a new setting.

"It's not a generational transfer," he said, pointing out that Ulrich and Stoll are about the same age as Jeremy Sisto and Anthony Anderson on "Law & Order."

"It's a progressive moving-forward of the brand," he said.

And, behind the scenes, the two shows will look much the same.

"We have had an enormous opportunity, out of the disappointment, to bring over many of the people who have been part of 'Law & Order' for lo these many years, including … the bulk of the writing staff," Wolf said.