Dick Wolf Donal O’Donoghue talks to one of
Dick Wolf, one of Hollywood’s most successful TV producers and the creator of the long- running Law & Order franchise, just keeps delivering the goods. What keeps him going? Donal O’Donoghue meets him
Hollywood’s most successful TV producers
“Why should I retire?” asks Dick Wolf, producer, writer, occasional novelist and creator of the globally successful Law & Order and Chicago franchises. “This keeps me young.” We are at the Monte Carlo TV Festival. Wolf, a patron of the festival and also an honorary consul of Monaco, is treated like royalty hereabouts, at least when the real royalty are not in the building. Then again he has the pedigree, the king of the police procedural who cut his teeth as a writer on Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice, continues to make shows ( FBI follows Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago P.D.) and defy the odds in an everchanging TV landscape.
“Life imitates art or art imitates life,” says the man, sitting Buddha-like, his eyes sometimes closed as if contemplating his next franchise or wondering how he can stay one step ahead of whippersnappers like Netflix or Amazon Prime. That was six months ago. Last week industry bible The Hollywood Reporter gave us their ‘complete guide’ to the 2019-2020 TV pilot season across the five US broadcast networks. Top of the heap was Wolf, with two new shows, New York Undercover (a reboot of a 1990s procedural about detectives in NYC’s Fourth precinct) and Law & Order: Hate Crimes, based on the real-life Hate Crimes Task Force within the NYPD.
“A lot of our stories are ripped from the headlines,” he says of his success (although don’t go looking for Donald Trump or Russian spies in FBI). “We like having stories that are based in reality. When the #MeToo movement broke, my attitude was that we have been saying this for years. You look at episodes from season one (of Law & Order) through to season 20 and 95% of them are about crimes against women. When that show first came on TV, cops in whatever city I was in would come up to me and say reporting of rapes is up 30% in recent years because women realised it was OK to talk about this stuff. If you think about Harvey Weinstein, we’ve done that story about ten times on Law & Order.”
He credits the writers (of which he is one) as the key factor in the franchise’s success and that the networks rarely, if ever, give notes. “They’ve never interfered on any of the stories we’ve wanted to do on any of the shows. There is no censorship, there is no rule of do this or do that. The show has been on 20 years so what are they going to do?”
Would he ever consider a deal with Amazon? “Sure, but I would be much happier if somebody came along and bought the entire library of all the Law & Order and Chicago shows. There are several companies that can do that and I hope that one of them does.”
So what keeps him going? Why not just go off and enjoy his vast fortune (it’s estimated Wolf rolls in between $10 million and $15 million each month on the back of his shows)? “That sounds pretty boring,” he says. “Not long ago I had a moment of insight during a 50th school reunion. If you drew a line down the centre of the room and said ‘OK, people who are still working on this side of the line and people who are retired on the other side’ I swear to you there was a five to seven-year visual age difference between the retirees and those still working. So this keeps me young or at least I hope so.” Wolf, who turned 72 in December and split from his third wife earlier this month, has no plans to ease off the gas. On his shows he is the main man, producing, writing and sometimes even doing the music. “And when it comes to casting, I have all the votes. Casting is the most subjective area of television production. One man’s meat is another man’s poison and if it’s not going to be the right choice, I want it to be my wrong choice and not a third party like a showrunner or the network. You’ve got to trust someone’s instinct and I’d rather trust mine than other people’s.”
He admits readily to watching his own shows (“during the daytime it’s my wallpaper”) but he also watches Homeland, loved Dexter and lists Breaking Bad as his favourite show of all time “other than my own.”
Being in the thick of those shows keeps him alive. “Every year, on the first day of photography, I go on the set of each show and my line always is: ‘It’s great to be still here, it’s going to be a great season and I hope that we will be coming back for years to come.’ Then I hold up the microphone to the entire crew and they all chorus with me ‘Don’t f**k it up!”
That’s unlikely, as Wolf is still hungry and sometimes hurting. “The thing that has made me craziest over the years is that Law & Order has the Emmy record for consecutive Best Drama awards and yet no writer or director has ever been nominated. Well how do you think the show got that good to win an award in the first place? Let me tell you, it’s the writing, stupid.” With that the indestructible Dick Wolf smiles but all you see are his teeth.
You’ve got to trust someone’s instinct and I’d rather trust mine than other people’s