I am SO glad that Fred Thompson is OFF Law & Order!

[Elspeth]

Last night's episode was the first one I've seen in a long time where I could really cheer a bit for the series. McCoy has now become interim DA and his office was prosecuting a auxiliary cop who fired a weapon he wasn't supposed to be carrying into a crowd of protesters. After the first ADA given the case protects the cop by not asking relevant questions, the two other ADAs (Rubirosa and Cutter) get the case.

But it is McCoy who is put on trial by the cop's defense attorney who accuses him of having a "liberal agenda" and going after cops. McCoy defends himself successfully against the charge, saying that he goes after people who break the law, no matter who they are. McCoy's practical idealism is on display for the first time in years and at the end of the show, Cutter, who is clearly impressed by his boss, hands McCoy a Bobby Kennedy campaign pin that he bought on Ebay.

You know that this storyline would have been impossibly if Grandpa Fred were oppressing the set. Thompson made a lousy candidate but THANK GOD for the presidential primaries!

[Jim__]

1. I agree Thompson made a lousy candidate.

I thought he made a pretty bad actor too.

[Elspeth]

2. I don't know what possessed him to run, but I'm glad he left TV

Maybe he'll go into talk radio now

[Javaman]

25. Hi I'm fred thompson, I play an actor on tv. LOL nt

[southlandshari]

3. Wait a minute...

Are you saying that if Fred Thompson had been a part of the cast at the time this episode was shot, any references to liberalism would have been forbidden?

:wow:

[Elspeth]

5. Thompson wore his politics on his sleeve as DA Arthur Branch

And McCoy was not really able to be McCoy for a long time.

[Ilsa]

7. Yeah, he mucked up the show with reich-wing attitude of his character. nt

[southlandshari]

9. So tv and movies would be better off with only liberal characters?

[Elspeth]

11. That's a big jump to a false conclusion, shari

You had to be watching the show for many years to understand that it was typically pretty thoughtful. In the early days, L & O was kind of a morality play, with murder investigations as a pretext. What was really being hashed out were social issues, political issues, moral dilemmas. No argument was shut down and conservative characters were always a part of the landscape, and sometimes very appealing. If McCoy was unabashedly liberal in his beliefs, he also upheld the law to a fault, regardless of politics.

When Thompson came on the show, he was quite pendantic and overtly political, and his lines often smacked of political rhetoric. He simply wasn't believable in the position of DA and seemed never to have any challenges to his belief system, like every other character did on the show. He was simply the resident neocon and never developed any depth. His leaving has made the stories more interesting and has put everything back in play.

[southlandshari]

14. I did watch the show for many years

I still do.

I liked it before Fred Thompson was a part of it.

I liked it while Fred Thompson was a part of it.

I continue to like it without Fred Thompson being a part of it once again.

I'll bow out of your thread now. I didn't mean to upset you or anyone else. I honestly didn't find Thompson's presence a significant problem with the show, but it isn't worth fighting about to me.

Carry on!

:hi:

[Elspeth]

17. No argument, so I get a declaration and a smiley

Ok. that tells me how much effort to put into you.

[southlandshari]

21. Then we actually do agree on something

Because I have also determined how much effort to put into you.

Hence the declaration and the smiley.

[Dhalgren]

12. Well, except for the villains...

:hi:

[southlandshari]

15. Whew!

I thought we were going to get rid of them altogether!

:P

[Elspeth]

19. You have an agenda, hon.

But thanks for bumping the thread

[southlandshari]

22. I have no agenda

My views differ from yours on that.

Nothing more, nothing less.

[lame54]

24. They'd be better off w/o Thompson

[lildreamer316]

8. If you've seen the program with him on it, you wouldn't even need to ask that question.

His bias was so very, very obvious that it sometimes made me change the channel, even though I was totally engrossed in the story. I even think that he might have showed an anti-gay bias when one of the ADAs was fired...the blonde woman who did not allude to her sexual orientation until her very last scene on the series, the one where she was fired in his office..."is this because I am a lesbian?" she asks. He gives some kind of denial-that-is-really-not-one kind of answer,although I could have interpreted it wrong.

His bias was allowed, used, and sickening. I, too, am so glad it is gone.

[southlandshari]

10. I have seen every episode

And am aware that the character he played was quite conservative, just as he is in real life.

Never occured to me that the show would be better (or worse) without him. His character and his character's views were just part of the story in any given episode.

:shrug:

[Elspeth]

13. I've watched the show since the very beginning

And Thompson was the worst thing that show ever had. He was a damper on the story lines. L & O stories are usually layered--it's not just CSI, which relies on gadgets and special effects (and gratuitous violence) to survive. L & O had murders as a pretext for discussing social issues. All sides were represented, and sometimes there could be a lean to one side or the other (defense attorneys were often foils for the DAs office). In the end, there was breathing room. Thompson took that away by being so flat, so pedantic, spouting conservative rhetoric even when a more thoughtful response was required. He was awful, and I am glad he is out of there.

[ananda]

4. Yeah..

I've been watching L&O this year, and it IS much better.

[Elspeth]

6. Almost the show I loved before Fred Thompson.

The guy playing Cutter is doing a great job of being the maverick too.

[walldude]

16. I really didn't mind Fred Thompson on L&O

He may have worn his politics on his sleeve but the show was still basically liberal and had good episodes. I actually don't like McCoy being the D.A. My favorite parts of the show were when he would corner someone on the witness stand. The wife and I have been watching more SVU than the original, although SVU is much more depressing...

[Thothmes]

34. I wonder

how much of that was Fred Thompson vs the writers and producers of the show. Some on this forum seem to think Thompson ran the show. He was paid a salary to play a character on a TV show. In the real world, are big city DAs apolitical. I don't think so. The run for the office just like any other politician. Having a DA on L & O that coldly political is not out of the ordinary as far as I can see.

[Jokerman]

18. Politics aside, the man can't act.

Fred Thompson is just Fred Thompson no matter what role he has conned his way into.

I gave up on L&O and all the franchises when that hack came on board.

[Elspeth]

20. It might be worth it to watch it again

It was an interesting watch last night

[Thothmes]

35. As near as I can tell

two thirds of the folks I see on TV cannot act. What else is new.

[madinmaryland]

23. You mean Fred Thompson was a candidate for President?

:wow:

On what television show?

:shrug:

[Elspeth]

26. Law and Order

He was DA Arthur Branch

[madinmaryland]

28. He ran for president on that show?

:rofl:

[AlCzervik]

27. i missed the last 5 minutes, who ordered the greenlight? Please and thank you.

and as a 17 year viewer of law and order i whole heartily agree.

[Rob H.]

30. The green light was given by a full-fledged police officer

but it was meant for the other non-auxiliary police on the scene because they had non-lethal riot control weapons (tear gas and beanbag guns). The auxiliary police weren't supposed to have any weapons of any kind, and Cutter got the defendant to admit on the stand that the reason he brought his gun and used it was to "teach those protesters a lesson" and he was convicted of second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder, iirc.

[AlCzervik]

31. cool, thanks, i always fall asleep---sucks to get old!

[Rob H.]

29. I'm really liking the updated cast this season

One of my favorite Jack lines from last night's show was, "Now I know why Adam Schiff was so grumpy!"

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. Yes it was a great episode

One of the best.

[Elspeth]

33. I thought so too

:)