Now you can get the first season of this hit drama on DVD! With its renewal through 2005, you'll probably be getting the "15th Year" on DVD soon. By then Law & Order will be the longest-running police show and second longest-running drama in the history of television.

With season one you get the first appearance of Lorraine Toussaint as the infamous Shambala Green (Subterranean Homeboy Blues), both the CBS original pilot with Roy Thinnes (Everybody's Favorite Bagman) and the NBC pilot with Steven Hill (Prescription for Death), moving episodes (Indifference), and mainly the beginnings of a show that would become one of the most popular dramas of the 1990's.

The original cast features George Dzundza as Sergeant Max Greevey, the amicable but strong lead detective, Chris Noth as Detective Mike Logan, Greevey's liberal and young partner, Dann Florek as Captain Don Cragen, the no-nonsense but humorous boss, Michael Moriarty as Executive A.D.A. Ben Stone, whose dispassionate prosecution has become a trademark, Richard Brooks as A.D.A. Paul Robinette, the passionate black Assistant under Stone, and Steven Hill as D.A. Adam Schiff. Only one phrase can describe Schiff: "You have no case. Make a deal."

For me, this item is at the top of the wish list. If you like L&O, there's no passing this up!

From season 3 or 4 on, the Law and Order formula came into full flower. Every 'donk-donk' signifies a quick advance in the plot as a year-long investigation and trial gets compressed in an hour, except for those delicious times when it reverses in a wild plot twist. Three spinoffs prove this works regardless of who is in the role. Season 1 isn't quite like that. For instance, it often meanders slowly, spending 4 or 5 minutes at the beginning actually witnessing the crime, having the cast walk down the street talking to each other rather than going from one interview to the next. (This actually gives some great background - you finally see the full precinct room and DAs office!) The slower pace even reflects in the way the guest stars seemly act - an L&O trademark is to have an interviewee continuing to do their job while the cops grill them. Not so here. No quick hot dog lunch for meetings between the Captain and the detectives. Logan even complains when someone doesn't give them their full attention!

While not having the formula down means that action slows down, it allows for better acting and better plot development. The 'ripped from the headlines' aspect remains as large as it ever was, with the Mayflower Madam, Tawana Brawley claiming rape, the Lisa Steinberg child abuse case, and city council corruption along with several cop corruption cases. The difference is that because the actors aren't forced to move through hoops they actually get to perform. Robinette gives a soul searing performance in the the Brawley case (Half-Light) and the corruption case (Bagman) as he examines his race versus his job - and race and class in general get explored a lot more than in later years (in episodes like Homeboy Blues and Poison Ivy.) Logan acts like a rookie as he screams at people who don't help him, and nearly comes to blows with Greevey over their views on abortion and morality in Life Choice and Kiss the Girls. Stone shows actual rage in Indifference, and Schiff is a motivated caring boss and not just his normal fun cantankerous let's-cut-our-losses self. Finally, the caliber of the guest stars before they became big (Cynthia Nixon, William Macy, Epatha Merkerson!) helps as the give and take is unrestrained. This is a fair tradeoff for a slower show.

My only objection to the DVD set is the transfer is somewhat mediocre, especially for the first few episodes where you get flecking. I can't believe the original tapes weren't in better shape. Also, the features side borders on the unacceptable. Dick Wolf does talk about the original development of the show, for about 10 minutes. Other than that, nothing - except for an unbelievable ad about the Law and Order game! I can't believe there aren't outtakes or they couldn't get someone from the cast to walk through the episodes ala the Simpsons DVD sets. Definitely worth marking down a star for that.

Still, a great beginning to a great show.

Other original story episodes includes "Poison Ivy" (where Logan and Greevey investigate the death of an Ivy League college student who was a drug dealer and who may have had a gun planted on his dead body by the police officer who shot him), "Indifference" (Logan and Greevey investigate the death of a upper class child and discovers that the child was regularly raped by her father and beaten by her drug using mother), "Prisoner of Love" (which has Stone prosecuting a city commissioner and a weathly socialite/part-time dominatrix over the death of the commissioner's gay lover, who died during kinky sex), " The Torrents of Greed Parts 1 and 2" (which has ADA Stone obsessively attempting to bring down a mob boss after the mob boss is aquitted of murder), "Mushrooms" (Stone must decide whether or not to take a plea bargin from a teenager who killed a baby and paralyzed another teen when the shooter offers to testify that a powerfull mob boss ordered the killing), "The Secret Sharers" (Stone faces a hot shot Texas attorney who's client murdered a drug dealer who raped his fiance), "The Serpent's Tooth" (in which two innocent brothers are wrongfully accused and arrested for the Menendez Brothers-esque murder of their parents while Stone believes that the ultra-violent Russian Mob may be the real culprits), "Troubles" (which has Stone going after a famous Irish terrorist who arranges for the principal witnesses against him murdered before they can implicate him in court), and "The Blue Wall" (the season finale, which has Logan and Greevey investigating a conspiracy inside the police department that resulted in evidence against corporate executives on trial disappearing and discovering that a friend of theirs, Captain Donald Cragen may have been involved in the conspiracy).